I picked up my 2010 RX350 last night and this is the first of what I'm sure will be a series of dumb questions.

On every other car I've owned with climate control I've been able to override the system and manually shut off the AC, normally by way of an AC button on the dash.

I don't see an AC button on the dash of this car (it does have nav) so I haven't been able to manually shut off the AC.

Am I missing something?

 

I just bought a new 2012...with Nav you can go into menu/climate and shut off the AC...but I too would prefer a button on the dash. Also when you hold down the Fan down arrow, you get a "fan off" message, but it's unclear whether the compressor goes off. Anyone know?

I'm of the old fashioned belief that you should only use the compressor when you need to--otherwise it's a waste of gas and hurts the longevity of the engine. Maybe that no longer applies...??

So if you just want heating without the compressor kicking in, it appears to be very cumbersome. What does everyone do about this?

Michael

 

That's helpful in that I didn't realize you could do it by drilling into the Climate menu. I'll check that out tonight.

But I agree it shouldn't be that complicated. Using AC all the time will definately use more gas. Not sure it will reduce the life of the engine or compressor but it annoys me!

 

I had asked the question of how to shut off the fan without hitting the fan down button, and I think someone suggested that I should use the voice command to shut off the A/C. I tried it one time and I think it worked.

I do however agree with you all that there should be a buton that says fan off and that should take care of things. :-)
I am not sure if the compressor still runs when the fan if off, but I am sure one of the members will have that answer that answer soon.

 

You would have a very hard time here in LA (LOWER ALABAMA) we never turn off the ac here NEVER in the winter we keep it on to remove the extra moisture that is the car on those few days when you have to run the temperature up over 78F when the outside temperature is below 40F

 

to turn off the compressor and the fan, you hold down the arrow down fan speed.

to turn off only the compressor, you go into the climate menu of the nav and there is a button there labeled A/C you have to unclick

 

You can do just THAT or adjust your temperature,

 

A/C on is the default setting for window defrost. That can be turned off somewhere in the menu under the vehicle customizations settings I believe. Car has to be on to see it. I keep the A/C on to avoid the smell and adjust the temperature as needed. I'm not a big fan of the artificial cold.

 

^^ mold smell is my arch nemesis in cars. I do the trick where I turn off the AC compressor about 10 minutes prior to arriving, and turn up the air temperature to at least 72. that give it enough time to dry out the vents

 

I am afriad it is the way that you describe. You cannot turn the AC on/off simply by pressing a button. Really bad design for me IMO. I never use the auto climate control because of this (I know you can disable the AC link to ACC) - too much hassle - I prefer manual fan speed control with manual AC.

On previous cars I happily had the air "temp" set using blue/red controls and turned the AC on if I needed more cooling. I could then easily turn off and back on at will by the press of a button.

I really do not like this design. I envy the non-nav people who have an AC button.

 

When in AUTO mode, I found that I can turn off the compressor (ie, de-select the A/C buton in the nav climate control screen) without turning off the AUTO mode. This then makes me wonder what is the purpose of the AUTO mode (especially in Summer) when the compressor is turned off? Is this a design flaw?

 

When the fan is OFF, there is NO AC but you can let the fan run and have no AC as well.

 

But how does this help us with our quest for a simple on/off AC button?

 

Hello all, when you lower the fan speed all the way to off, the AC compressor is still on, if you are driving you can still feel the cold air coming out from the vents and if you go to the Climate menu on the nav screen you will see that the AC button is still on (highlighted yellow). The only way to turn off the AC compressor is by going in the nav screen menu and turning it off manually. Then just hit auto the next time you want the AC again.

 

Ejm,
It definitely IS a PIA to shut the compressor off, but after you've done it a few times, it's not so bad. What bothers me is it's just another reason you must take your eyes off the road, and w/o a dedicated compressor button (which we have on our '09 TCH and Corvette), it requires even more "eyes off the road" time.