parallon

Hello all. I have a 2008 IS 250 . I noticed tonight while sitting in a parking lot with the AC on that after a couple of minutes, the AC started blowing out warmer air. After a minute, I turned the AC to off and then back to Auto. It immediately started blowing out cold air. Within another couple of minutes, it happened again. The outside temp was about 95 degrees. On the way home later, I never had a problem. It seems to only happen when I am not moving. Any idea what might be causing this?

I have also observed sometimes when starting the car, it will start blowing out cooler air with about 5 seconds, and other times it will blow out hot air for about 20 seconds before there is any noticeable cooling.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mike

magnuscat

The compressor cycles and blows cold, then slightly less cold. If it is cycling often and the difference is more significant then you might well be low on freon. It could be a couple of other things, but that would be where I would start. Of course when it is really hot, 95 outside equals probably over 115 in the car when you first get in. Also make sure it is recycle air mode.

DKnight350

My 2011 does the same thing though not as frequently. I get nice cool air for 10 or 15 minutes, then when the compressor cycles down, I get moist air with a smell (not bad, but not good either).

I know AC unit cycle, but I have never had a car do it this noticeably. I plan to contact the dealership about this Tuesday.

I would love to hear others who have had this looked into chime in about this.

magnuscat

I have been pleased with my Lexus AC and have not noticed what you describe. I do notice it on my Subaru and with the Subaru it is a systemic problem, due to small compressors. Well I guess it isn't a problem with the AC, but many complain that they simply do not work well in hot climates.

parallon

Thank you both for your reply. I do notice, while driving, that I will get about a 5 second burst of warmer and humid air, then it will get cold again. As for this instance, I had just driven for about 15 minutes to get to a football game, interior was already cool, then while waiting for the game to begin, my wife and I just sat in the car for a while. This is when I started having this issue of it blowing out warmer air. Unlike on the road where it is just a 5 second burst, this was at least 1 minute. I guess I will just take it in, as I have a couple other things I need checked as well.

Thanks again,

Mike

Bichon

The compressor in the IS is a variable displacement design that does not cycle, instead it changes capacity (shortens or lengthens piston stroke by rotating a swatch plate) depending upon both cabin temperature and driving loads. It should never cycle on-and-off by itself during normal operation.

If your car is navigation equipped, do you get the "Check Air Conditioner" warning message on the screen when the A/C cuts out?

JohnLX300

iTrader: (2)

I have had this exact same problem as well, dealership said they couldn't duplicate it and said there was nothing wrong. It happens on my 2008 IS250 at least once every time I am driving if not more. I keep my A/C on high all the time. You can really tell on the humid days. The condensation builds up on the vents chrome lever when it happens. Some times it happens more frequent than other time on my way to work. It is really annoying, especially on the hotter days. It take considerable longer to cool the car. Its not the A/C system cycling. Some how the fresh air intake is opening up letting the outside air into the car. Never had I ever have this happen in any vehicle I have owned. Hoping some one can shine some light on this to.

TheDonster

I have yet to experience this and I live in Florida. I usually have my AC on the first two options or medium (nav screen.) It would suck to have a minute of humid stale air blowing at me.. As someone mentioned does the car mention anything about checking AC?

TheDonster

Now this I can say I have experienced.. Although my AC doesn't blow warm or less cool, I can just tell that the outside air is somehow coming through my vents even with having the car use the recycled air option. Usually by the smell of other cars exhaust or when I'm on my way to work passing by a land fill.

DKnight350

I do not get any warnings at all (I am nav equipped).

nosurprise

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure if it's call cycling or what, but if you manually turn the A/C (or just the compressor?) off, you will get the same results with the same air smell. So whether it's suppose to cycle or not, it is most likely turned off by the car.

This sometimes happens on my car, but not very often. I would say it happens 2 or 3 times in the past year while I'm just cruising along, and it only lasts about 3 seconds -- not enough to have any kind of condensation.

mikeIs25

sound like cluth problem to me - if freon was low it wont even start to blow cold -

DKnight350

I emailed my service advisor this morining and described my issue. He claims it i likely the air filters needing to be changed. He says they need replacement every 15k miles. I have 21k miles on the car... I guess I iwll replace the filters myself before paying the dealer to do so.

nosurprise

iTrader: (1)

I think the schedule change is 30K. Next time I get new filters, I'm going to get those carbon ones that filter out the smells of outside air.

peschelgj

I have been pleased with my Lexus AC and have not noticed what you describe.