[MartinHattingh]

Hi everyone,

I've had my 2012 XDrive 2.0i for two weeks now, and I've been finding that the AC/Climate control is struggling to keep up, especially up when the panoramic roof's cover is open (glass closed completely).

This weekend was a fairly mild 26deg celcius in Cape Town, and I had to run it on the Max setting for almost 20min (after being parked in the shade) before the air coming through the front vents felt like it was *really* chilly and had the desired effect. Yes, logically having a slab of mostly transparent glass above your head is going to have an effect, but can it really be that pronounced?

In all my previous cars, I've practically never had to run AC at max for more than a minute or two, but in the X3 it feels like it's underpowered. I dread February's upcoming 32deg plus temperatures...

What's your general experience been like with the F25's AC?

[dandanio]

The A/C in Connecticut (with temps occasionally much higher than 32C and very high humidity) has no problem keeping up.
Get it checked, you might have a borderline low agent level and it can't cool quite enough... Besides: do you have a hot or a cold climate version?

[LeeAC]

Switching from a Honda to BMW was an eye opener for me. The A/C takes much longer to cool and heat the car, probably because the air volume is much larger. I do find that when the glass pano is covered with the cloth layer, it heats and cools faster, but marginally.

In general, I keep my pano closed in the winter. Or at least until the car has warmed up.

[Crash Test]

Martin, my experience is the same as yours. I've found that if I put the AC on max for about 5 minutes the car will cool faster although it's very loud. The AC just seems to not output cold enough air to rapidly the car down and keep it cool. It's one of several disappoints I've had with this car (sound system, reliability).

[brissim]

Must admit even living in what's classified as a sub-tropical region I've never had any real issues with the F25's AC. Maybe there is such a thing as cold vs hot versions of the AC system. Yes, with the cover open (and glass closed) the AC does struggle (which I'm not surprised at) but once the cover is closed the inside temperature is brought under control relatively quickly without even resorting to the "MAX" button. What have you got the maximum speed of your fan set at?

As an aside, the solid cover of the panoramic sunroof was one of the deciding factors in getting the X3 over both the Q5 and XC60 which only have a fabric-type blind on their panoramic roofs. Last summer I was in a friends Q5 with a pano roof and even with the blind closed you could hold your hand up and just feel the heat coming through the roof.

Tony

[Want the thrill]

Do you have the center dial next to the vents all the way on the "blue" position? It makes a big difference if they are not set to blue. Same for the back seat.

[pokerface]

I know that the roof cover does provide an insulating effect. I can actually feel a patch of cold air come down whenever I slide open the roof cover in the winter.

What you could try to do is put on a heat reflecting tint on the roof. I used Pinnacle F1 tint on my windows and it's a huge difference in the summer (didn't do it on the panoramic glass though)

[MartinHattingh]

Thanks for all the feedback!

I suspect it is just the pano glass that's impacting things. With the cover closed, things cool down very quickly. My car is the hot climate version, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Will ask the dealer to have a look either way, although I think I already know what their response will be...

[Crash Test]

Is there really a hot climate version of the car?

[fjrmann]

If you have the extra oil cooler in front of the passenger side front wheel, you have the hot climate version as BMW states.

[MartinHattingh]

Originally Posted by Want the thrill

Do you have the center dial next to the vents all the way on the "blue" position? It makes a big difference if they are not set to blue. Same for the back seat.

I feel really, really sheepish now...

Somehow I managed to not notice that the front dial was on the red/hot position all this time. What an idiot!

Everything's just fine now, it gets to a very chilly level quite quickly, even with the glass fully exposed.

*Sigh*, so you learn...

[philtrick123]

Originally Posted by MartinHattingh

I feel really, really sheepish now...

Somehow I managed to not notice that the front dial was on the red/hot position all this time. What an idiot!

Everything's just fine now, it gets to a very chilly level quite quickly, even with the glass fully exposed.

*Sigh*, so you learn...

Glad to see the forum working.

[Want the thrill]

Originally Posted by MartinHattingh

I feel really, really sheepish now...

Somehow I managed to not notice that the front dial was on the red/hot position all this time. What an idiot!

Everything's just fine now, it gets to a very chilly level quite quickly, even with the glass fully exposed.

*Sigh*, so you learn...

Happy to help!

[LeeAC]

Originally Posted by MartinHattingh

I feel really, really sheepish now...

Somehow I managed to not notice that the front dial was on the red/hot position all this time. What an idiot!

Everything's just fine now, it gets to a very chilly level quite quickly, even with the glass fully exposed.

*Sigh*, so you learn...

I think this is a sorta stupid feature. My understanding is that the vent nob basically overrides any of the A/C or heating that you've programmed for set temperature on the console. What's the point!!

[Peter_R]

Originally Posted by LeeAC

I think this is a sorta stupid feature. My understanding is that the vent nob basically overrides any of the A/C or heating that you've programmed for set temperature on the console. What's the point!!

Normally to just blow cool air on your face. Naturally it has a temperature control so that if it is too cool outside, you can raise it a little.

There are many car manufacturers using this feature.

[powertech83]

I live in a tropical country where the typical day is about 26-32 deg C (+/- 79-90 deg F) all year long.
From my experience, the car will only take longer to cool down the cabin if there is a direct sunlight to the cabin with the pano shade open. But if I put my hand in front of the vents, i can feel it blows cold air just fine.. and did not have to wait 20 mins for it to blow cold air out.
If it was overcast (but still a hot day, mind you), with no direct sunlight glaring into the car, the A/C cool down effect is the same with the pano shade closed.

Comparing it to my previous Mercedes ML, A/C "power" seems to be just fine, but if you compare it with Toyota, the system in Toyota felt stronger. I don't know if it's because the fact that all Toyotas built for Indonesia has no heater feature (you can crank up the thermostat to the highest setting and there will be no warm/hot air came out from the vents). So if I am driving at night, and feel the a/c is too cold, i feel no effect changing the thermostat from 20 deg C to 25 deg C.
All in all, I prefer the system in my previous Mercedes and current BMW, the cold is softer, so to speak, and there is a difference to be felt when changing the thermostat up/down.

@Crash Test: I don't know if there is really a hot climate version of the car (if they actually change anything to differentiate it to the car intended for 4 seasons countries), but in my spec sheet, I do have that stated. It was on both BMW and Mercedes's spec sheet.

[pokerface]

Originally Posted by Crash Test

Is there really a hot climate version of the car?

Yes, it's also on the Canadian build sheet FWIW

[Crash Test]

Originally Posted by pokerface

Yes, it's also on the Canadian build sheet FWIW

Does that mean it must be ordered as an option, or that it's in all Canadian vehicles?

[pokerface]

It's standard. Code S823A

quick search on the interwebs says:

"With the SA 823 you have a modified cooling control to avoid critical situations for the engine concerning overheating. With those options the cars have slightly higher fuel consumption and slightly less power but usually the difference won't be noticed by the customer. Therefore there won't be problems with knocking or overheating engines."

A second search also seems to reveal that Option Code 842 pertains to Cold Climate Version, which has some hardware changes adapted to cold climate + standard cold weather passenger ammeneties. Conjecture seems to be that either your car is built as Hot Climate, or Cold Climate.

823A seems to make sense for North America given that heated seats are optional (or upgrade items), but we probably need the heavy duty coolers and A/C for severe duty.

[PX3]

Ok, I realise this is an old post but it relates to my question.
Yesterday here in the UK we were lucky enough to experience temperatures in the region of 35C (95F) (hottest day for some years) so obviously air con was essential. I found the air con wasn't as cold as my 7yr old E90, even though I had everything set to low (blue setting, 16C on both sides). Don't get me wrong it was putting out cold air, but not what I would class as freezing my hands off like the E90 does (even when that is set to 17.5C).
Having read this particular post I too was driving with the blind open half way and the sunroof on tilt, so I wonder whether this could have some adverse affect? Although I would have thought that the air con would attempt to push out colder air to keep up if it felt as though it was struggling. I understand that maybe I was losing some of that cold air, so will certainly try it out again with the sunroof and blind closed, but I just wanted to see how your X3 has coped in the warmer weather (Guys in the US, please don't come on and say that's not hot!!! This is the UK after all Although you guys should be the perfect people to tell me the answer)

Cheers

[zalagan]

Don't forget EcoPro mode also reduces the "power" of the A/C system. To get it really cold quickly I do as above but also set manual recirculation on so internal air is being further cooled as it re-cycles through the A/C.

Too long in this mode and you're in danger of running out of oxygen though !

[PX3]

Thanks Zalagan. I was driving in Comfort mode, not ECO.
I will certainly try out your idea with switching to recirculation mode to see if that helps speed things up and will certainly bear in mind the lack of oxygen - haha