Manual climate control

I have a 2013 Passat SE 6M that comes with the manual climate control system. I find myself adjusting the temperature setting alot. When it is set to full hot, it is hot and when it is set to full cold, it is cold. In between is where I struggle. As I back off full hot, I have to move the dial to almost straight up before the temp in the cab reduces (after giving it plenty of time to catch up). Then it gets to cold and I move the dial 1 click to the hot side and it in a few minutes it is too hot. Every 10 minutes on a long drive I have to move the temp blend up or down 1-2 clicks just to keep the temp where I like it. Is that normal? Is it worth asking the dealer to look at it or is that the way it is?

I have the same experience with mine. Hot is REALLY REALLY HOT, 3/4 hot is pretty cold. I am keeping it three "notches" off full hot.

Its a strange manual system since the dials are all electrical there aren't any cables or mechanical connections.

I have the same problem. Lots of movement at both ends where nothing happens, then a small section in the middle designed to piss off OCD sufferers. I just set it to where I'm a little too cold and leave it. Alternatively, try making the air go somewhere other than directly towards you. I always have some air going to the feet or windshield to mitigate the feeling of a breeze.

Same here. Heat output is very inconsistent. Seems to put out varying heat even if I don't change the settings. I thought it may be the winter temps and the varying speed of the car, but not sure.

It's a. Mystery setting. I'm always playing with my settings as well. The Dual Zone Climatronic was so much nicer in my previous VW cars and in our Audi.

Driver_found said:

It's a. Mystery setting. I'm always playing with my settings as well. The Dual Zone Climatronic was so much nicer in my previous VW cars and in our Audi.

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I'm so glad we got Climatronic. I'm constantly fiddling with the HVAC in our '99 Jetta and it's nice to set it and forget it in the Passat.

jettanight said:

I have a 2013 Passat SE 6M that comes with the manual climate control system. I find myself adjusting the temperature setting alot. When it is set to full hot, it is hot and when it is set to full cold, it is cold. In between is where I struggle. As I back off full hot, I have to move the dial to almost straight up before the temp in the cab reduces (after giving it plenty of time to catch up). Then it gets to cold and I move the dial 1 click to the hot side and it in a few minutes it is too hot. Every 10 minutes on a long drive I have to move the temp blend up or down 1-2 clicks just to keep the temp where I like it. Is that normal? Is it worth asking the dealer to look at it or is that the way it is?

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Mine also has the bad habit of getting stuck at full hot, and when it happens the only way to get the heat to cut off is to turn the car off and then turn back on. They replaced the damper motor but it did it again yesterday. What was wrong with a simple cable that always worked?

I was thinking the same thing the other day. The temp control really sucks, takes a long time for the foot area to warm up and when things finally do warm up I am constantly messing with the dials. If driving for an hour or more I find 3/4 heat and fan on 1 works pretty good.

I am also not liking the "zone" settings we have to choose from. When cold I have to keep the dial more toward the defrost setting so very little gets to the feet. After warming up a little I would like to switch to feet and vent but I still need the defrost. I miss being able to use all 3 zones at one time.

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately it sounds like it is just something to live with.

My previous Passat (2002 GLX), had the Climatronic system and in the last couple of years I had that car I had endless trouble with the Climatronic system vascilating between blowing out extremely hot air and 3 seconds later ice cubs and then extremely hot and then extremely cold. In the summer, if it was 90 outside and I set the AC to 76, it would blow extremely cold air until just about the time the car got down to 76 and then it would start pumping 100% heat at me. The only way I could deal with it was to run car at max cold at all times, direct the output to the floor and put the blower on setting 1.

I was GLAD to be over the Climatronic system when I got my new 2012 Passat SE with the manual controls again.

I've not had much trouble finding a comfortable temp, but I am disappointed with the "zone" settings. It just seems like even with the blower at 4, if I have it set to dash and footwell both that it seems like air is barely trickling out of my dash vents. Almost like there is not enough air pressure to get everywhere it needs to be. So, I have to manually set it to dash, then floor, then defrost and then dash, and then floor until I get the car warmed up. And with our record setting low temp winter we just went through, it seemed like the car never really got there. I had the heat at Max heat and blower setting 4 for practically the entire winter.

pparks1 said:

Almost like there is not enough air pressure to get everywhere it needs to be.

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I find that if I close the rear seat vents, there's significantly more air coming out the front. I just open them back up when I have passengers. I shouldn't have to, but it helps so I do it.