Robertcave

I was always under the impression that the Recirc mode could not be permanent due to the Lack of oxygen in the car,
Just think 5 Passengers in car on long Journey some one will fall asleep and it could be the Driver.

I am sure its a safety feature my 450h goes to recirc if the Smog sensor detects a Heavy polluting truck or similar but the reverts back to auto when the air is clear.
I firmly believe Recirc on a long journey is bad for you.
So i would suspect that after a while if you are in recirc mode the car will bring it back to fresh to save your life.

bladest

I guess smog sensor is messing my settings, can i disable this smog sensor?
i see some settings sensitivity may be because my car is very smelley smells really terrible thats why it decided to switch the air all the time?


my car is having driver monitoring feature , adaptive cruise etcs.... so it monitors my parameters all the time....
sensor or ac switch to more polluted air from outside all the time...
currently my smog sensor sensitivity is set to maximum should i set it to mininum or?
​​​​​​​

Robertcave

Well the default for the smog sensor is half way
if you have it full on put it to bottom see how it goes

Gerf

You don't have winter where you live, unless you consider 50f winter.

bladest

Here is winter its 0 degrees or minus -5 or -10 so its really fogging windows some time.

Gerf

CottageChz

Wow, here I am learning something from a bladest post!

Cleaning my smog sensor today since it never seems to switch my car to recirc like my old GS did when there were exhaust fumes. Fingers crossed that it makes a difference!

firelikeiy

Where is this smog sensor? Is this really a thing?

bladest

Can you post pictures
i dont know how this smog sensor looks like, and i dont know how to clean it ?

CottageChz

I’ll snap a pic when I go to reinstall the piece. It’s very easy to access, just requires removing a single piece of the plastic engine bay cover over the radiator. If you pop the hood and are looking at the car from in front of it, it is attached on the front side of the radiator, top left corner.

There’s a fabric filter inside it. Mine was a little dirty so I rinsed it in water and now I’m waiting for it to dry. The housing was also dirty so I will clean that before reinstalling. I also lightly blew off the round sensor itself with compressed air.

edit: The part itself appears to cost $100-150 depending on where you buy it. If the cleaning doesn’t improve the smog sensing/auto recirc feature then I may try ordering a new sensor. I already have the sensitivity set as high as possible.

Part number 88898-50031

bladest

Hi i am not sure how easy is to clean it,

i personally only want to be able to choose between inside and outside air i dont need smart gimmick stuff,
and i want no one to change my choises,like computer,ecu,sensors etcs..
like my 40 years old classical car.
when i press inside air it stays like that forever.

CottageChz

All you have to do to clean it is:

1) pop off the plastic engine bay cover, no tools required.

2) detach sensor from frame using 10mm socket

3) detach wire harness, no tools required

4) separate the sensor housing by undoing 3 clips, flat head screwdriver is helpful

5) rinse filter. Or just knock the dust out of it. Or some other method, your call. The filter is a small 1 inch square piece of fabric filter material. Kind of like a synthetic blanket filling. Clean it however you want, use your common sense here.


bladest please don’t ask any more questions about this unless you go try the above steps yourself. Otherwise you are just wasting everyone’s time. It is really so simple, a 16 year old can do it.

If you aren’t comfortable with the simple steps above then take the car to your mechanic and stop asking us questions about it.

I will post pics of exactly where the sensor is so there literally shouldn’t be anything else you need to know after I post those.

Gerf

Here is smog sensor....

CottageChz

@Gerf already got a pic of the sensor location. Here’s a few pics of the sensor assembled and disassembled. Very simple part. The filter just sits right in there and is easily removed/replaced.

bladest

Thanks i will provide all of this to my village mechanic since i got no rench to remove it , i will also provide picture how my climate control is setted up but i can blame probably faulty or dirty sensor for this.