Climate Control Heater Issue

[jayrod1980]

I want to keep an eye on this. I have a 2016 too and I have issues with the car blowing cold air at me. My biggest problem is that if I make a slow u turn or drive the car in reverse, heat somewhere from the engine must blow over a sensor because after that it will blow cold air nonstop until I turn the car off for awhile and restart it. Also, regardless, I feel like I have to set temp on the climate control higher than I should to get hot air to come out.

Not happy but glad I'm not the only one experiencing this on a 2016. I'd like to find the problem though... I don't want to let the dealer near my car until a fix has been found.

About the vehicle grounds... Where are they at? I'd like to clean mine and use some dielectric grease on them too. Anything that can help.

 

[jayrod1980]

Does anyone know WHERE this temp sensor is? I'd really like to see if there's a heat source that's soaking mine

 

[mentokk]

Looks like it is just in front of the touchscreen.

 

[jayrod1980]

Thank you for the picture, but I can't help but think there's another sensor that affects this as well. I know there's a sunlight/radiant heat sensor, but it wouldn't explain the cold blast you get if back up the car or when you let the car sit idle and restart. I feel like I have a sensor under the hood somewhere that's getting hot. My race intercooler doesn't leave as much plastic inside the bumper area so I'm wondering if some engine bay heat is getting where it's not supposed to. All I know is that my car always thinks it's hotter than it is in the cabin.

 

[siberiankiss]

Ok, I have an update albeit not a good one. I spent the past 2 weeks trying to figure out what the hell is going on with my car. The Ford customer service rep couldn't even figure out what was going on. She had assumed my dealership had ordered a part, and it should have been installed long ago but found out on 1/15 that they didn't know how to proceed. I then received a phone call yesterday afternoon from my service advisor telling me that Ford Engineers do not have a fix for the problem, so I need to pick the car up ASAP. At this point, Ford is refusing to pay for a loaner anymore. I'm now stuck driving a car with no heat. The documents below are the full conversations had between my dealer and Ford Engineers. My favorite part is when they realize they didn't know what to do on 1/6, but don't bother to tell me until 1/15.

 

[mentokk]

Yeah, they replaced my climate control module a few days ago with no result. The service advisor said that Ford has no idea what is wrong with these cars and has no ETA on a fix.

 

[MagneticFiesta]

Wow...that's encouraging. I guess I'll just suck it up until a fix appears. No sense in taking it in to get torn about for no reason. Thanks for all the info. Please let us know when/if this finally gets resolved. Good luck!

 

[jayrod1980]

So if I start my car up cold everything goes well... Until I stop and gas the car up and it's sitting there with that warm engine. When I turn the car back on the cold air starts blowing. If I do a slow 3 point turn after the car has been running for a half hour I get the same thing. When looking up parts on Tasca there seems to be a sensor somewhere in the bumper area that is a temp sensor. Somehow heat has to be getting to that area and causing a false reading.

The evidence that it might be more than that is that you can have the air off for an hour or two hours after getting the cold air blow condition and it will do the same thing when you turn the air back on. The only way I've been able to have it work normal is to turn the car off and let it cool off. Once it's been off for an hour or two it works fine again until I reproduce those situations again and it starts overZ

 

[mentokk]

So if I start my car up cold everything goes well... Until I stop and gas the car up and it's sitting there with that warm engine. When I turn the car back on the cold air starts blowing. If I do a slow 3 point turn after the car has been running for a half hour I get the same thing. When looking up parts on Tasca there seems to be a sensor somewhere in the bumper area that is a temp sensor. Somehow heat has to be getting to that area and causing a false reading.

The evidence that it might be more than that is that you can have the air off for an hour or two hours after getting the cold air blow condition and it will do the same thing when you turn the air back on. The only way I've been able to have it work normal is to turn the car off and let it cool off. Once it's been off for an hour or two it works fine again until I reproduce those situations again and it starts overZ

Haven't had anything quite like that happen. Mine just doesn't work most of the time. It will fail while driving on the interstate at a constant speed.

 

[FORZDA 2]

Go to your local dealer service department and ask for the wiring diagram manual sheet(s) that show where all the chassis grounds are. Then locate them, remove the terminals and scrub them with a wire brush and then scrub all the paint from around the bolt hole until a 1" diameter area is shiny metal. Then reassemble and reset all the volatile memory items that were dumped when disconnected.

You can also take your car into the dealer and ask for all the chassis grounds to be disconnected, cleaned, and reconnected. This will result in collateral damage you likely don't want to deal with either.

 

[MagneticFiesta]

My problem is only in auto. If I set it to any temperature and keep it in manual mode it works just fine. The second I switch it to auto its cold air on full blast unless it is set to hi. Even at 85 degrees it blows cold air...switch it to hi and it blows cold air. It's an easy problem to avoid by just not using auto mode but on a brand new vehicle I shouldn't have to work around a problem.

 

[koozy]

My problem is only in auto. If I set it to any temperature and keep it in manual mode it works just fine. The second I switch it to auto its cold air on full blast unless it is set to hi. Even at 85 degrees it blows cold air...switch it to hi and it blows cold air. It's an easy problem to avoid by just not using auto mode but on a brand new vehicle I shouldn't have to work around a problem.

that's normal for 'auto'. Once the interior temp sensor reaches the temperature set, it stabilizes and the blower slows down to keep the interior temp steady at predetermined setting.

 

[jayrod1980]

This is definitely not normal. I own/have owned other ford cars as well with auto climate control. They've never been like this. Something either software or sensor based is going on here. Auto climate fine until you turn the car off and fill up gas when it's only 55 degrees outside and It blasts cold air upon startup thereafter is not normal.

I just hate taking my car to any ford dealer. They scratch stuff, dirty up stuff and generally just treat your car like crap... Especially an econobox car like the fiesta.

 

[Btlscrz]

well, good to know i'm not alone! i'm going to try the ground cleaning process and see if that helps. if not, i'm just going to sit back and wait for the recall or TSB that SHOULD be coming from Ford. I was expecting SOMETHING to be a little wonky when i went back to a Ford, i guess this is it... My Mazda6 has worked perfectly for 34,000 miles, FWIW. Maybe Ford shouldn't have burned that bridge

 

[OCDFist]

I experienced the same thing when using AUTO, or if I turned off the hvac system when turning off the car and turned on AUTO after starting the car (habit). I don't turn on AUTO, but I adjust the temperature and usually keep it on the second fan speed. Works smooth as far as I can tell.

 

[jayrod1980]

This is not normal though. I've looked at parts and possible sensors and I've had this issue since purchasing the car new and stock. Either heat is blowing over a sensor somewhere or there's a software issue. I lean toward heat because doing a three point turn from a stop or a long reverse will start the fan blowing cold air on high when set to auto. To me that says that air is flowing over a sensor... Same happens if I turn the car off while gassing up and then restarting. The car has had a chance to sit with heat radiating from the engine with no fans etc on to mitigate and the car blows AC full blast after that. I feel as well that the car is too cold when set even to 80 degrees. I've never had a ford climate control issue prior to this in any of the many fords I've owned. Something is up somewhere.

 

[MagneticFiesta]

I've finally been driving it on a regular basis for the past week and it seems to be working normally now. For some reason when I first start it up while in auto the A/C is always on. Not really necessary in 30 degree weather but I turn that off and it works just fine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay that way!

 

[jayrod1980]

There seems to be a widespread issue with the climate control system with the 2016 models.

If you have a 2016, try this... Go for drive right now (it's less than 70 out most places) in a cooled down car and set your climate control to 78 degrees and auto. It should be working fine. Now drive down to the gas station. Gas up or drive elsewhere, turn the car off completely and let it sit for 5 mins. Turn the car back on and you should be hit with cold blasting air unless you turn it to HI for temp. You can start the car again without the climate control system on but it will still exhibit this condition until you fully cool down the car with the ignition off.

This is exactly what is happening to me, and it also happens if I back up while the system is on. Once I get going again in forward gear cold air blasts out of the system.

Reddit and the other fiesta sites are all reporting this issue on 2016s.

I haven't been to my dealer about it yet because I don't trust them. Even if the fix is a new climate system, I know I'll get my car back with the plastic and dash and trim all scratched up or broken.

 

[rweidman]

I have found that auto climate does not start pushing heated air until the air temp coming off of the heater core matches the temp you have set on the control. That is why I set the temp to 68 to get quicker heat up

 

[jayrod1980]

Well there's a difference here with the heater not working and the car giving you air conditioned cold air regardless of what the temp setting is. I know my heater works... It's the 2016 issue I'm talking about.