Jetta air recirculation button keeps turning off

In the heat of this summer my 15 jetta air recirculation button keeps turning off by itself, not hard but annoying to keep turning back on. And I don't want something big to go out on me once warranty is up. Any ideas?

if you turn your temp knob to max it will turn on the rec. option..any time set to anything BUT max the button will do whatever you want.. at least with mine it will..2011

Mine is a jetta tdi s. The real basic one. I have it on full cold. A.c. is on and the recirculate button I I turn it on turns off occasionally while driving usually just once or twice in 30 minutes. It just kicks off by itself

Imortl said:

Mine is a jetta tdi s. The real basic one. I have it on full cold. A.c. is on and the recirculate button I I turn it on turns off occasionally while driving usually just once or twice in 30 minutes. It just kicks off by itself

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mine does this too, is super F*cking annoying. doesn't matter if i have the AC set to max or not.

Battled this while my 2013 bug was under warranty, started noticing it around 20,000 miles. According to VW, its normal. The "solution" is to turn the ac to max, now turn the dial up one click, turn recirc back on. Problem "solved." That being said when its 95* +, i drive my passat tdi sel, the max ac button is amazing! Ive never had it turn recirc off unless it is on auto.

The benefit the 2015 has is the light goes out when recirc goes off, it did not on my original 2013 controls. The same scenario will work on a '15.

06bluebeetletdi said:

Battled this while my 2013 bug was under warranty, started noticing it around 20,000 miles. According to VW, its normal. The "solution" is to turn the ac to max, now turn the dial up one click, turn recirc back on. Problem "solved." That being said when its 95* +, i drive my passat tdi sel, the max ac button is amazing! Ive never had it turn recirc off unless it is on auto.

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is that supposed to stop it from doing it? I just press the button again

06bluebeetletdi said:

The benefit the 2015 has is the light goes out when recirc goes off, it did not on my original 2013 controls. The same scenario will work on a '15.

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never was an issues on my 2005 jetta. for me i can tell by the air feel and smell of the air before even noticing the light.



would almost speculate that its bad software/hardware. something is going into thermal shut down when reset the micro it initializes to the default state then does a check of the user inputs. if not a thermal shutdown or Brown Out Reset. Then an watchdog error reset.

Yes, the one click up stops it. I have been doing it for the last 3 years with my beetle.

I also noticed the change in air temp/speed which is why i brought it up at the 20k/30k and before my cpo warranty ran out at 60k, but when the recirc light stays on while the fan turns off, it seems a bit crazy. I like the 2015 version of the controls better because at least the light/switch position matches the reality of off vs on and i'm not pushing the switch twice to turn it off then on.

Normal. Lots of newer cars do this. My Sprinter does too.

I suspect on VAG products you can go in and change some coding in the Climate module and make that "feature" go away, though.

oilhammer said:

Normal. Lots of newer cars do this. My Sprinter does too.

I suspect on VAG products you can go in and change some coding in the Climate module and make that "feature" go away, though.

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explain how its a "feature" and not a bug.

driving on my way to work and it start to smell like cow sh|t. recirculation turned off. oh it smells like hot cats in the car from the person in from of me... recirculationis off. smells like uncatted exhaust from the bust carb truck that is burning oil infron of me... recirculation is off



its a bug, a small but annoying bug, that combined with other bugs or quality cutting make the car just feel like less of a car.

keaton said:

explain how its a "feature" and not a bug.

driving on my way to work and it start to smell like cow sh|t. recirculation turned off. oh it smells like hot cats in the car from the person in from of me... recirculationis off. smells like uncatted exhaust from the bust carb truck that is burning oil infron of me... recirculation is off



its a bug, a small but annoying bug, that combined with other bugs or quality cutting make the car just feel like less of a car.

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The owner's manual may shed more light on it, but in mine it says that this feature is to reintroduce fresh air into the cabin as soon as the temp has been obtained and stabilized for a period of time. I'm not saying I like it, I didn't design it that way, but the folks that did evidently think differently. There are also lots of them that turn the recirc on as soon as you put the transmission in reverse, to avoid the potential of pulling exhaust fumes into the cabin as you back up... they'll also swipe the rear wiper (if equipped), when you back up if the [front] wipers are on. Or doors that lock and unlock automatically.... I personally hate... and turn off.... that one. Again, a "feature" that you (and I) may not necessarily like.

As I said before, some of this may be able to be switched off via module coding.

My dealer was willing to try different things with the bug, we found not much affected it be it software changes from vw, etc. the interesting thing was my work vehicle at the time was a '14 passat tdi sel after a '14 passat s, the issue does not exist in the passat unless using the auto feature on the sel. I own the passat now, i dont use auto and it has never (over 40,000 miles) turned the recirc off.

The dealer won't have any clues as to long coding changes.

AC on all these cars is marginal at best. I've never had a weaker AC than on my former Jetta TDI and now Alltrack. I have to use the recir button to get anything like decent cooling. We're not talking 90 degrees here,maybe 80. They must not need strong AC in EU.

My Volkswagens' air works fine. I know they have issues with RCVs, and of course neglected cabin filters (because they are ALWAYS in the flow, not just outside air) on the newer stuff. But ~40-45 F at the vent is plenty cold.

Now I do feel that, except for fancier Audi models and stuff like the Phaeton, the lack of a heater bypass valve certainly makes the A/C have to work harder against the radiant heat of the heater core... but that really only comes into play for a short period, then it becomes TOO cold and you need to mix in a little heat anyway.

Many other brands have a heater bypass valve that will not allow hot coolant to flow through the heater core when the temp knob is switched to full cold. But I have never been bothered by this. Some cars are better than others, though. And the pano roof stuff just sucks no matter what. The sun load is FAR too much, and the "shade" does very little to help.

oilhammer said:

The dealer won't have any clues as to long coding changes.

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would love to know the long coding to fix this... who would know beside the factory?

showdown 42 said:

AC on all these cars is marginal at best. I've never had a weaker AC than on my former Jetta TDI and now Alltrack. I have to use the recir button to get anything like decent cooling. We're not talking 90 degrees here,maybe 80. They must not need strong AC in EU.

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sounds like something else is wrong with your AC. I'm in Arizona it was 117F out and the AC was coming out ice cold ~50F according to the thermometer i have in the vent.

oilhammer said:

The dealer won't have any clues as to long coding changes.

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When asked my dealer to activate window up/down with the key fob, or maybe it was turn off the DRL's with their VAS tool, I was told it was not possible to do. Same dealer told me the brush/regulator assembly was not a replacement item.