04 xc70, does the dual climate just suck or is it broken?

Thehoove · Post by **Thehoove** » 11 Feb 2021, 19:52

I picked up a 2004 xc70 for my wife last fall. She's loves the car. I tolerate it, since I have to work on it lol. But so far I hate the dual climate control. Anytime she changes her temp on the passenger side, the driver's side temp changes. She loves to get in and set hers all the way to hot. When the passenger side is full hot, the driver's side is either full hot, or ice cold on the lowest setting. No in between. I'm used to my 2004 suburban, where I have pretty good complete control of both sides completely separate.
I read about trying to use vida to recalibrate the doors, but haven't had time to get out there and try it. Is this normal operation of the dual climate, or should I dig into it?

Post by **SuperHerman** » 12 Feb 2021, 00:06

I have never had a single vehicle that had an effective dual climate control - that includes 6 Volvos, 3 Audis, 4 BMWs and a Range Rover.

Maybe with a large vehicle like a Suburban, where the separation is there, it works.

Based on my experience - it is normal.

Thehoove · Post by **Thehoove** » 12 Feb 2021, 07:57

My thing is. The passenger side knob changes the temp of the air coming out of the driver's vent. I understand that the air will always mix once it hits the cabin. Like, if her dash vent is pointing slightly at me, I will feel her side. Chevys and ford's I've had apart have 2 separate blend doors controlled by 2 motors, with 2 paths of air flow. So one side has minimal effect of the actual air temp coming out the other side. I assumed the volvo should be similar.

Post by **abscate** » 12 Feb 2021, 08:11

Thehoove wrote: ↑12 Feb 2021, 07:57 My thing is. The passenger side knob changes the temp of the air coming out of the driver's vent. I understand that the air will always mix once it hits the cabin. Like, if her dash vent is pointing slightly at me, I will feel her side. Chevys and ford's I've had apart have 2 separate blend doors controlled by 2 motors, with 2 paths of air flow. So one side has minimal effect of the actual air temp coming out the other side. I assumed the volvo should be similar.

Why don’t you just switch sides ?

Fire up VIDA and look at the motor positions in the ECC module, I bet they are fubarred

Thehoove · Post by **Thehoove** » 12 Feb 2021, 08:34

abscate wrote: ↑12 Feb 2021, 08:11

Why don’t you just switch sides ?

Fire up VIDA and look at the motor positions in the ECC module, I bet they are fubarred

Thanks, I will mess.with vida when it stops storming a bit.

Post by **oragex** » 12 Feb 2021, 08:39

The climate unit has a single cabin temp sensor located behind the small grid. Look closely for debris covering it, and if needed use a vacuum cleaner to remove - don't touch the sensor. The sensor may also go bad causing the unit to act erratically. As for normal operation, I believe the driver's side takes the input from the sensor, then the passenger side is extrapolating from the driver's side knob position. Also, try switching the recirculating button to off (no lights), if it has air quality sensor, it may get a little dizzy because this sensor no longer works by now www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zis5WN_if60

Thehoove · Post by **Thehoove** » 12 Feb 2021, 08:57

oragex wrote: ↑12 Feb 2021, 08:39 The climate unit has a single cabin temp sensor located behind the small grid. Look closely for debris covering it, and if needed use a vacuum cleaner to remove - don't touch the sensor. The sensor may also go bad causing the unit to act erratically. As for normal operation, I believe the driver's side takes the input from the sensor, then the passenger side is extrapolating from the driver's side knob position. Also, try switching the recirculating button to off (no lights), if it has air quality sensor, it may get a little dizzy because this sensor no longer works by now www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zis5WN_if60

First thing I did was clean vacuum out the dust from the sensor . It's winter here, do we always keep the recirculate off. What's interesting is it acts like the driver's side knob is pulling off the passenger side knob position, not the other way around. If I set the driver's at say 72, and hers is at 72, if she turns hers up, the air temp coming from the driver's side goes up as well. If she turns hers all the way up, I have full hot in all positions except the lowest cold, then I have ice cold air. No in between.

Thehoove · Post by **Thehoove** » 12 Feb 2021, 10:32

I hooked up vida and calibrated the climate control. It seems to be better. We are going to town in a bit so I will know more. While monitoring the motor positions, I could kind of tell how the system is working. From what I can tell, because it only uses one temp sensor, it spears that if the passenger sets a temp significantly higher than the cabin temp, it increases the temp of both sides, my guess is to maybe get the temp up faster. The system seems to work ok if you set both sides at a comfortable temp then adjust from there. My wife, on the other hand, is one of those that if she too cold, she cranks it all the way hot. When she gets to hot, then she finds a middle point.

Post by **Blacklab467** » 12 Feb 2021, 15:47

All wives are like that! I've tried teach the concept of the thermostat unsuccessfully. Mine likes to get into a minus 20 car and start it up and turn the heat and fan full blast expecting heat to come out immediately.

Post by **- Pete -** » 12 Feb 2021, 19:30

Thehoove wrote: ↑12 Feb 2021, 10:32 ...seems to work ok if you set both sides at a comfortable temp then adjust from there. My wife, on the other hand, is one of those that if she too cold, she cranks it all the way hot. When she gets to hot, then she finds a middle point.

Blacklab467 wrote: ↑12 Feb 2021, 15:47 All wives are like that! I've tried teach the concept of the thermostat unsuccessfully. Mine likes to get into a minus 20 car and start it up and turn the heat and fan full blast expecting heat to come out immediately.

I have some crocheting sticks & yarn I’d like to bring to the S & B. My favorite is as follows: after years of coaching, educating about thermostats & feverishly toiling unendingly in the pursuit of NOT having to jump a car when it’s -30F you continue to lovingly go out to start the P2 for your spouse only to find when you turn the key to position 2 the fan screams to life. All the little green fan speed LED’s blaring, headlights left turned to full on, every possible accessory left turned on & a car that if you’re lucky, barely turns over. My favorite! Ah ah ah, don’t even think of touching that hood release though! This cold and the ball end of the cable or the plastic handle itself will snap off, leaving you in a greater heap of doo doo than before.

So my approach lately has been to liken the vehicles HVAC thermostat to the thermostat in the house. You would never go up to the thermostat and manually adjust the fan speed, would you? I mean how silly would that be to crank the fan speed to high when the burners aren’t even ignited? Or a wood stove that has a blower, same concept. Much easier to simply set the temp at the “target” you want it to achieve, ya? It’ll get there, it IS intelligent enough! And as a bonus, less buttons to push!

However, if you do choose to manually adjust the fan speed you need to know that the next time you turn the key to ON it will be wherever you set it last! So, the rule at our house is if you alter the fan speed, you must either hit “Auto” or manually turn the fan speed to OFF/Orange prior to shutdown. “Yeah, but why?” It doesn’t matter, if you can’t understand what I’ve been trying to say all these years you just need to adhere to the rule. If not, you can jump the car yourself