ukrkoz

I am in 2019 RX350L loaner since Saturday.
It's in chilly 30s here and I found a strange thing.
Outside of my left leg is FREEZING while the inside and the rest is nice and warm.
I finally figured it's coming from the door. Door is freezing cold.
I had to literally scoot myself towards the seat middle and crank heat full blast onto the floor to get leg more comfortable.
Is this normal? There is air vent going into the door, isn't it supposed to blow warm air inside of it?
Cabin constantly feels like as if there is a cold air flow somewhere. I had AC shut down just the case.

PeeVee

We get temperature down to 0F during winter and never had any problem. There must be a leak somewhere.

ukrkoz

I could not feel any cold air flow by hand. ENTIRE DOOR is freezing cold. That unfortunately kicks into the leg side.

PeeVee

It may be lacking of insulation?

I always lean my left leg and arm on the door and I never felt cold.

ukrkoz

Maybe. I don't believe doors have thermal insulation. Soundproofing - yes. I have none of this issue in my NX. My suspiscion goes more towards air vent no providing air flow into the door. If you look at the door/door jamb, you will see there are mating air ducts and then air vent at the door trim top. Door should have normal air supply into it for that vent to work. Not sure if it's supposed to warm door same time. We had 99 Rx, have 11 RX, have 15 NX - never felt anything like this.
Btw, vehicle has 8000 miles on ticker.. not my headache, I am returning it today anyway.

PeeVee

I don't think that air goes inside the door though, just redirected to the vent to unfog/defrost the side window.

I did not open an RX door to see how it's made inside but I did on an old Corolla and it had a layer of felt that can both insulate sound and cold. And at some places it had foam insulation in some joints for different pieces of the door.
If a Corolla had that, I can imagine that an RX has way more insulation than that.

ukrkoz

That's alright. No my car, not my headache. Glad I am returning it, I really do not like it. That freezing side was just part of overall meh with it.
Thank you for your time, PeeVee. I am not sure myself, if that air duct pumps warm air inside the door. Grasping to straw...

JSracer

negative on pumping air in the door, it is a path to the top vents for the side window.
minnesota here, -20 or -30F just a few weeks ago, no issues with the door being cold. climate always set to auto, about 69 degrees. (always auto, sflow auto, auto recirc mode, Defrost here and there is snowing.)

ukrkoz

Yeah, I'm back to my NX and, it was cold side for a moment, till it reached operating temp, then it's nice and warm. Even the door. I touched panel several times.

IrishJoe

Actually, I've noticed the same thing on my 2017 RX 450h. The driver door seems to lack sufficient insulation and gets very cold. This causes my left leg to get chilled. My dealer said that everything is in spec, so I have resorted to opening the top vent and directing warm air downward to compensate.

ukrkoz

No kidding... And say you buy car summer time and takes till winter to notice this and dealer says - no mas, all in spec... Great...
But then I have stupid question. How come my NX door is WARM then? I run system on Auto all the time, so whatever Denso algorithm decides to direct air to. But it's clearly warm, feels like heated.

ukrkoz

I figured why it's warm in my NX and was NOT in RX.
I reached far under the dash on the far left corner and, apparently, there is a vent blowing warm air onto the door - and leg outside.
Clearly, it was not working in RX I drove.

IrishJoe

The RX has less heat inflows on the driver side floor than on the passenger side. This probably contributes to the problem.

ukrkoz

Well, 2011 RX350 does not have that issue. We own one. Besides, I don't really care why they saved pennies making shorter vents. I simply find it being pretty crappy for a luxury flagship.

IrishJoe

Agree! I'm happy with my RX 2017 RX overall, but surprised by how cold it gets on the driver's side. I never had that problem with much cheaper vehicles.