# Air vent blowing hot air



## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

You might want to reset the damper doors. There is an internal fuse, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now. But disconnect the battery for 30 seconds, reconnect and wait 40 seconds after starting the car before touching the any of the buttons so it can initialize itself. That may fix the problem.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Sure have this problem with my all black Supra, parked out in the sun, can fry an egg on the hood. Air flows over that red hot hood directly into the fresh air intake. Generally takes about ten minutes driving at highway speeds to cool things down.

In theory at least, the temperature of the air from your vents should be the same as the ambient temperature. And I mean highway speeds for rapid cooling, not moving at 2 mph in the city. If the vent temperature is much hotter than ambient, could have blend door problems. A door that completely bypasses the heater core.

Ha, before getting in this Supra to prevent being baked alive, open the two super wide doors and open the rear hatch to cool the interior down for a couple of minutes. Cruze is not nearly the problem because with all this electronic crap on the inside, intentionally purchased a white color and a light tan interior.

What color is your Cruze, and is your car parked in a red hot asphalt with the hot sun pouring down on it? Sounds like by using recir, getting your air source from the interior rather than from a read hot fresh air intake. 

Supra also has a very powerful AC system, so get cool air quicker this way, but the major problem is me, wanting a black one.


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## Bullet (Aug 9, 2013)

I've had quite similar problems several times and every time it vent away after few starts of the engine. Usually it happened when the weather was somehow different, more rain, ice or something. Really hot air came and nothing helped. Had to open windows in winter. I didn't know that there could even come so hot air. Anyway, next time I started the car to go somewhere it usually was ok again, at least after couple of stops and starts.
The dealer here didn't find the reason, even when they once found some error message from OBD, but they did note down that I have had problems with the heater and they promised to fix it from warranty if it comes after my warranty is over. It should be on when coming to the service, but that is difficult when usually I'm driving to somewhere else when it comes on and when coming back, it works normally again. So, I'm waiting that some stiff thing would come loose with some hatch or something. I believe there can be some plastics which are too tight touching somewhere or some tight rod etc.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Bullet said:


> I've had quite similar problems several times and every time it vent away after few starts of the engine. Usually it happened when the weather was somehow different, more rain, ice or something. Really hot air came and nothing helped. Had to open windows in winter. I didn't know that there could even come so hot air. Anyway, next time I started the car to go somewhere it usually was ok again, at least after couple of stops and starts.
> The dealer here didn't find the reason, even when they once found some error message from OBD, but they did note down that I have had problems with the heater and they promised to fix it from warranty if it comes after my warranty is over. It should be on when coming to the service, but that is difficult when usually I'm driving to somewhere else when it comes on and when coming back, it works normally again. So, I'm waiting that some stiff thing would come loose with some hatch or something. I believe there can be some plastics which are too tight touching somewhere or some tight rod etc.


Wife, not exactly superman, bend the cable in our 04 Cavalier trying to adjust that blend door. Moisture in the system froze the blend door up. Told her not to play with it until the engine warmed up.

Cruze uses a servo system to adjust the blend door that also can freeze up, but apparently using some kind of current limiting so don't burn up the servo systems. Earlier GM vehicles would burn these motor up. Neither cheap nor easy to replace.

So if your blend door is working okay after the engine warms up, frozen blend or mode doors is the problem. Does help to keep your car in even a semi heated garage, or maybe even left in the showroom.

Few years back, had to leave my 92 DeVille outside and wasn't thinking, left it in defrost mode, had an icy rain then cold weather. Went out to start it, blower motor kicked on, but was frozen. Blew the power MOSFET transistor controlling it, but was shorted it out, even before blowing a 30 amp fuse.

Blower motor was running at full speed when I switched off the ignition, so had to disconnect it. Rather than paying my dealer 250 bucks for the same piece of crap blower control module that many people had to do. I opened up the module, replaced that 13 cent transistor with a 22 cent one that would let the fuse blow first before this happened.

If this ever happens again, the fuse would blow first saving me hours of work. Cruze is also using a power MOSFET blower control module, price tag is around 110 bucks. Make a habit of switching everything off when the car is parked, and don't even touch anything until the engine warms up.

Ha, an age old battle for engineers dealing with marketing, built for the showroom, but they do make a point, if the vehicle doesn't sell, won't be any engineering jobs.


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## Bullet (Aug 9, 2013)

Hi NickD !
That was a helpful message You wrote. I will start to have a habit to switch everything off when leaving the car from now on. Anyhow, in winter I need that blower when commuting, windows can't be free from ice or mist without it. But in next winter I wuill try how I could manage without to switch the blower on in the beginning of drive. Now in summertime it is the same if I'll keep windows open a bit even in colder mornings. Well, I'm not good with the words and writing in english, but I think I did understand the reason. So, thanks again, best wishes & regards from Finland !
Risto


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## Chevycruzer2014 (Jun 11, 2015)

My Cruze is all white. So it shouldn't be attracting that much heat. It seems like sometimes it doesn't it and other times it doesn't. So I'm not sure if weather affects it. But I know in 100 degree weather I want it to stop as soon as it can. Lol I'm not a car expert so I wouldn't even know where to start to fix it. Lol I just hope the dealer wouldn't charge me and arm and a leg to look into the problem. Lol


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## CruzeDan (May 17, 2015)

As of early this week GM is conducting an engineering study on the AC systems in 2014-2015 MY Cruzes and Veranos regarding poor AC performance. GM must think it is a widespread issue. Bring it into the dealer and they should be able to find the info the computers.


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## CruzeDan (May 17, 2015)

Personally, in my month old 14 diesel the air works fantastic if the car was in the shade. If it isn't, it feels like it never wants to get as cold. I'm not sure yet if this is due to my black leather interior or an issue with the AC.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Called heat loading, and color makes a huge difference. A white Cruze with a light tan interior and be as much as 80*F cooler than an all black Cruze with a black interior when just sitting out in the red hot sun.


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## Chevycruzer2014 (Jun 11, 2015)

It's so weird that the AC issue was brought up too! My AC doesn't seem like it gets THAT cold. I feel like it should be a lot colder! Would I have to take it to a chevy dealer to have them check it out? I bought my cruze at a VW dealer so idk if they'd know about this issue or not. Lol


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Chevycruzer2014 said:


> It's so weird that the AC issue was brought up too! My AC doesn't seem like it gets THAT cold. I feel like it should be a lot colder! Would I have to take it to a chevy dealer to have them check it out? I bought my cruze at a VW dealer so idk if they'd know about this issue or not. Lol


Hi Chevycruzer2014, 


We are sorry to hear what you're experiencing with the temperature of your AC. We understand that you purchased your Cruze from a VW dealership, however, a Certified GM dealership would be in the best position to advise you further. We would be more than happy to reach out to a local dealership on your behalf. Please send us a private message with your contact information, VIN, mileage and preferred dealership if this is something that interests you.


We look forward to hearing from you!


Jasmine F
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## LizzieCruze (Feb 17, 2014)

My AC works, but it seems that while it is cooling the car, hot air is also seeping in near the steering wheel area and at my feet. Is it poor insulation between the engine compartment?


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## Vlixtor (Jul 29, 2016)

Hi, Greetings from Chile.

I have the same problem.

After driving a while and stopping the car and starting again really hot air comes from the vents, even in near 0°C conditions. This happens even if the car was parked in the shade for 2 hours.

I have to use AC to get tha car colder. This leads to get foggy windows and have to drive with AC even in Winter, what is really annoying.

I took the car to service at least 3 times and they reprogrammed each time, but nothing got better. Also, their answer was don´t use the blowers..!!!!???? Not using the blowers makes things worse!

I guess if is there a valve or something with a malfunction that be causing this. What do you think?

Regards,

Victor


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Should be no air coming out of the floor vents in dash vent mode, sounds like mode door problems and if hot, sounds like blend door problems as well. These use to be made out of metal, all plastic now, not bad, some thermoplastics can handle 700*F without problems, but using multiple sources for parts, some Chinese vendors could be cheating. Who knows, one reason I say buying a new vehicle is like buying a lottery ticket.

All these are electronically controlled using electric servo motors with code stored in flashram. Is cheaper than using a cable controlled system and this is why its used. If reflashing the ram doesn't solve the problem, its not the problem if you have a blend or mode door sticking. 

Can't even drive these new vehicles safely without a blower motor anymore, could crack open the windows, but not a good idea during a rain storm. All those switches on the door panel will get wet, corrode and have more problems, not water proof.

What use to work very well was side vent windows and could be opened even during a rain storm, but the stylist and bean counters got rid of those. Making doors that were a good part of the roof was a good idea for getting in an out without bumping your head. But a very bad idea during an rain storm or an ice rain, with the former would be sitting in a puddle of water, latter, couldn't even open your doors.

MVAC like AT rebuilding was always considered a specialty field. Rare to find a dealer that even knows the first things about MVAC, just guessing. Not a very good idea to open up a shop up north here, will only have work about three months out of the year. 

One thing the owner can do is to keep the condenser clean, one heck of a good bug collector, blocks air flow, high side pressure goes way up, puts a lot of stress on the single drive belt system, water pump is the first to suffer and also really cuts down on cooling capacity. Use to be able to remove that shroud between the condenser and the front grille, but can't do this on the Cruze without removing the front bumper first. So even made this job very difficult. Somebody is not thinking.


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## Rendeb (Sep 9, 2020)

LizzieCruze said:


> My AC works, but it seems that while it is cooling the car, hot air is also seeping in near the steering wheel area and at my feet. Is it poor insulation between the engine compartment?


Have you had any success? My 2012 LT has been having this issue for the past few years and this summer has really gotten worst.


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## TrevorJ (Oct 25, 2020)

ChevyGuy said:


> You might want to reset the damper doors. There is an internal fuse, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now. But disconnect the battery for 30 seconds, reconnect and wait 40 seconds after starting the car before touching the any of the buttons so it can initialize itself. That may fix the problem.


This fixed it for me. Had a massive temperature change overnight and it dropped from 0 down to -15 Celsius. The vents on my car were immolating me as I drove despite the very cold outdoor temperature. Also I noticed changing from vents to defrost wasn't working - very bad in winter. Also turning to hot or cold didn't matter, basically plasma blowing at me.

Got home, searched online and found this. Went out and disconnected the negative terminal of the battery for a minute or so, reconnected and bam, fixed. Vent to defrost working, hot to cold working.

Also discovered my engine coolant is really low and I have a leak somewhere. But that's another issue...


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