ralphe991

I just purchased a 2002 A4 3.0 Quattro. The car is of course totally awesome, in fact I'm only uphappy about two "little" things...

I'm unhappy with the dual-zone Climatronic climate controls, because they don't seem to really pay attention to the actual temperature in the cabin. For instance, I set the controls on 64 degrees, because I like it cool. Well, I've carried two different thermometers in the cabin with me, and the temperature never gets anywhere near 64. Maybe it might get down to 68 if you drive for 45 minutes. I'm contrasting this with my C70 Volvo I recently lost, whose climate controls worked awesome -- when you set it to 64, it cranked like crazy for a few minutes to drop the temperature fast, then backed off as it appoached the target temperature. In the A4, it never cranks the A/C, and I mean NEVER, unless I override the climate controls completely, which makes them pretty much useless. I've taken to just leaving the thing on "LO" and manually adjusting the fan.

The question is, has anyone else experienced this problem with the 2002 A4 3.0? Was it fixable? Should I take it back to the dealer, and if I do, can they calibrate it or something? Any suggestions?

My other complaint involves the trip computer. It's very nice in that it has two separate trip computers -- one for the most recent trip that resets to zeroes automatically after two hours, and one cumulative that has to be reset manually. So far, so good. Problem is, it's missing the "trip odometer" feature! It's got the usual avg.mpg, avg.speed, time.traveled, miles.to.zero, etc., but no "miles.traveled". Instead, to get any miles.traveled information, one has to use the separate, hokey, old-fashioned "trip odometer" that's next to the main odometer. Just one trip odometer -- it's not tied into the two main trip computers in any way.

This seems to me to be exceptionally stupid, since number of miles traveled should be one of the main functions of a trip computer! And it's not like they can't calculate it using the time.traveled and average.mph values, but what, they expect me to whip out my own calculator while I'm driving?!?!?


My question is, is this "fixable"? If I had designed the A4, I would have made the trip computer either upgradable or "fixable" -- either by dropping in a new chip, or a software update done by the dealer. Anybody know if this can be "fixed" to include miles.traveled in both trip computers?

Thanks,

Ralph

eh-4Q1.8

I haven't yet experiance warm or hot weather so I can't comment on the A/C. What I found works best is to set the tempature to 18 C (65 F?) and use turn down the fan when things start getting to warm.

formerly dennisA4

When i first turn on the car it CRANKS full blast for a minute until it starts to cool off, and then slowly reduces fan speed. When it's warm out and the ac is running i usually end up setting it to around 71. When it's cold and the heat is running, it's usually set to around 68. That's the only weird thing i noticed. I like it so far. Sometimes i set it to just run to the floor or to the floor and front defroster if i don't want it blowing directly on me. It took me a while to find those buttons.

ralphe991

Thanks for the info. Just to clarify, yeah, it kind of works, but when I say "64", I mean I want "64", ya know? Maybe just a calibration issue -- but question is, can it be calibrated?

thebubster

When it's cold outside (<35 deg F) I completely agree, 64 is still too warm. But when it gets warmer out (>50 or 55) it seems to respond quite well. I'm no engineer so I have no idea why it would do that.

cr8n

It basically seems to be a function of the position of the feedback sensor, which is just above the temperature controls, and is much more pronounced in cold weather (heat mode) without the sun (sensor on dash does not see sun).

It takes quite a while for warm air to reach the sensor, and meantime it is blasting hot air at the driver.

Try this:
Keep at minimum setting (18.0C or 64F) and use the foot level control to keep the upper cabin from getting too hot. Occasionally switch to AUTO to warm the upper cabin. Turn the fan speed to minimum if that helps. And keep the face level vent wheels in the off position at all times.

The ambient temperature here has not gone above 5C since I bought the car in January, and I have not moved the setting off the lowest temp (except for test). On a really sunny day, the dashtop sun sensor seems to provide some sanity to the way it operates, and I have actually gotten some cool air on my face. Cannot wait for July when we are into A/C mode. I note that when Consumer Reports and Road/Track reviewed the car, the outside temp was pretty warm, so they had no complaints about the climate control.

Re: only one trip computer - I guess the designers ran out of CPU power and decided to use it for that really useful "instantaneous fuel consumption" instead.

ralphe991

Thanks for the info! I did search past posts, and saw that quite a few people have seen this "problem", but I didn't see any real solutions other than baby-sitting the controls. But I guess my feeling is that if I have to baby-sit the controls to get what I want, it's not really a successfully designed automatic climate control system.

Still would like to find out if anyone has taken this issue back to a dealer and had any useful action taken... I still don't know if it's possible to calibrate (or re-calibrate) the climatronic system, but I'd sure like to find that out. I have a message into my dealer, but I'm not holding my breath.

And I'll take it as hyperbole about the "really useful" instantaneous fuel consumption reading. I agree. I would much, much rather have trip odometers built into the trip computer(s) than instantaneous fuel consumption -- if I had to pick one or the other. (In fact, in my humble opinion, both instantaneous fuel consumption and miles-to-empty are not really "trip computer" functions, and in my opinion could/should be displayed separately from the "resettable" trip data.)

Thanks again. I'll keep searching, but so far, no one has said the magic words: "Oh yeah, just take it back to the dealer and they can fix it..."

Still loving my car, of course, despite these minor woes. One person on another post basically suggested that I chill out (no pun intended) about these minor problems, that I have a fine car, etc. etc. But since I just got the car, I figured now is the time to remedy any problems, if a remedy is indeed possible... I'm sure in time I'll just get used to how it works.

-- Ralph

cr8n

Asked dealer about recalibration or reprogramming, said no