[bsjd00]

I'm speaking of the odd horizontal wheel between the two center vents on the dash and on the back of the center console for the rear seats. (Page 100 of the manual does not help.)

It seems to me that if I want heat, I should set the temperature accordingly. If I want A/C, I should set the temperature accordingly. Do I really have to adjust these wheels too?

I know people in California won't understand, but in the Northeast we switch back and forth frequently. It's bad enough that I have to set two knobs for different temperature zones...

What is the point of these things? The temperature knobs should be enough...

[JSpira]

Fresh air flow. Air can be warmed. Or not.

[bsjd00]

I must be having a bad night. I still don't understand. But rather than you trying to explain it to me, I should probably save you time and just ask this since you live so close...

Do you just leave your "knurled wheel" set one way, or do you adjust it with the temperature?

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by bsjd00

I must be having a bad night. I still don't understand. But rather than you trying to explain it to me, I should probably save you time and just ask this since you live so close...

Do you just leave your "knurled wheel" set one way, or do you adjust it with the temperature?

Neither.

I leave the blending wheel mostly towards cool in summer and mostly towards warm in winter.

This is based on several posts Jim Cash made explaining how this works.

[Josh49]

I have been wondering this as well/playing around with this.

I put the vent on all the way, and moved the knob to red. Hot Air. Moved it to blue. Very cold air came out. My conclusion was that this control works when the climate controls are in manual mode, and that once hitting "auto" the e90 will make the car whatever temperatures it reads on the display... Does that sound accurate? I've been confused about this as well. I don't really understand the point of the knob, it seems even if the car is in manual mode it should just put out air the temperature as indicated. So it seems you always have to move both. This is frustrutating if this is true, as a day like today in New England you need AC during the day, heat at night.. An explanation of this would be great.. Thanks

[JSpira]

The ,,auto`` function does not override the blending wheel.

[Josh49]

So that makes no sense, I don't understand. You could have the car automatically set for 70 degrees, but have the knob blowing 60 degree air at your face. Shouldn't it be if you want the car 70 make the whole car 70???

[hotsand5]

Yet another thing to "add to the list" of things we want fixed for our E90. If you never complain, nobody will ever hear you.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by Josh49

So that makes no sense, I don't understand. You could have the car automatically set for 70 degrees, but have the knob blowing 60 degree air at your face. Shouldn't it be if you want the car 70 make the whole car 70???

I don't disagree it's not completely logical but this is how BMW has done it for quite a while.

I keep my side of the car set at 21,5°. I don´t raise the temperature to make the car warmer unless I know the cabin is warmer than 21,5°. This is because - as you noted - set the dial for the desired temp.

Now, you can also adjust the fresh air flow. Clearly the rest of the system will compensate if you do it wrong, in fact if you have it all the way on cold it is possible to throw the system into emergency mode (see an earlier post I made with a link to Jim Cash´s post).

BMW in the documentation says this will adjust how much cool air hits the upper body. In other words, it doesn´t say very much.

As I find out more, I´ll update here.

[ex-poster]

Fer cripes sakes folks, it's not a bug or a defect that needs fixing.

It's a FEATURE that allows you to blow cooler (or warmer) air on your face (or body), whatever you want. Or not.

Didn't your dealer explain this when you took delivery?

[bos]

Here's how I understand it. Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong!

In the RED position, the upper vents blow the same air as the lower vents.

As you move towards the BLUE position, cool air (air conditioned, if the A/C is active) is mixed in to provide cooler air through the upper vents.

If this begins to cool the car, the climate control will further warm the warm air supply until the temperature stabilizes.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by hotsand5

Yet another thing to "add to the list" of things we want fixed for our E90. If you never complain, nobody will ever hear you.

Not sure what there is to fix, this is exactly how the feature has worked on all BMWs for about 2 decades. It allows the driver to regulate fresh air coming in.

[PittWm]

BMW calls it the "Antifatique" feature. Let cool air to your face after you've been driving on long trip. Keeps you refresh and awake.

[M3ti Compact]

The AUTO setting automatically adjusts the cabin temp to that setting.

The blender knob you can adjust for what teperature air hits YOU.

You don't know how this affects you until you lose it. My Lexus has auto climate as well. Sometimes, it'd blow cold air at my hands and face- I don't want that. If I were driving the BMW, then i'll set the blender to hot- while the rest of the car stays a comfortable temperature. In the Lexus, you would either have to override the auto system, or turn the temperature up...

[rss]

I think it is a great feature. It allows you to set the climate control (air con either on or off) so the ambient temperature is generally around what you have set it to.

If you feel like it's getting a bit warm, you can adjust the knurled wheel towards blue so your face receives colder air and vice versa.

This way you don't keep having to faff around changing from 18 to 22 degrees for example.

The main thing is to find a temperature that suits you. I prefer 20-21 so I leave it set to that all year round. On really hot days the air con comes on (not often in the UK!). Also, make small adjustments or you'll forever be turning it up and down.

[tctic]

Originally Posted by M3ti Compact

The AUTO setting automatically adjusts the cabin temp to that setting.

The blender knob you can adjust for what teperature air hits YOU.

You don't know how this affects you until you lose it. My Lexus has auto climate as well. Sometimes, it'd blow cold air at my hands and face- I don't want that. If I were driving the BMW, then i'll set the blender to hot- while the rest of the car stays a comfortable temperature. In the Lexus, you would either have to override the auto system, or turn the temperature up...

Agreed! The knob, if you set it to the 'blue' setting, it will not allow hot air to be blown out. If you set it to the 'red' setting, then it will blow out heated air. Try it. If you set the temperature up high on a cold day to the 'red' setting, it will not blow air out. In other words, it just restricts the temperature of air that comes out. I guess another feature for this is to enable rear passengers and front passengers to have their own control over the air temperature that they want. The front could be set to 'red' an then the back to 'blue'.

[KungFuJoe]

My understanding, from what my sa told me, is that, if set to red, air will be heated on the way in...if set to blue...it will not be. Setting it to blue will NOT cool/AC the air on the way in...it will basically come in "unadulterated".

I live in southern cali so the SA just said "most people keep it on blue".

[Josh49]

It seems like a very useful feature, I'm just having a hard time understanding it. The owner's manual does not document it well enough. As shown above each person who posted had a different idea of what it does or doesn't do.

Say I want the air coming out at that level to be around the 70 degrees I have auto set for. Do I need to move the middle to warm in the winter, cold in the summer? I almost wish there was just an "auto" setting in the middle, and then you could adjust from there if you need to. Most of the air that you notice tempwise is this air, as air to your feet you don't really notice, and high air you don't notice as much either. So this one knob to me renders the rest of the automatic climate control useless. Also from side to side the automatic climate control seems useless too. I usually like cooler air while my gf likes warmer air. So do I put it on blue and have her shut off the vents? It seems now they almost need one of these knobs for each side, so that she can have red and I can have blue...

What a confusing system, this knob to me kills the luxury and convenience of automatic dual climate control..

This is just from my understanding so far, and what people have written. I'm hoping its actual much clearer and easier...

(Insert good explanation here.. Thanks )

[JamieA]

Originally Posted by Josh49

It seems like a very useful feature, I'm just having a hard time understanding it. The owner's manual does not document it well enough. As shown above each person who posted had a different idea of what it does or doesn't do.

Say I want the air coming out at that level to be around the 70 degrees I have auto set for. Do I need to move the middle to warm in the winter, cold in the summer? I almost wish there was just an "auto" setting in the middle, and then you could adjust from there if you need to. Most of the air that you notice tempwise is this air, as air to your feet you don't really notice, and high air you don't notice as much either. So this one knob to me renders the rest of the automatic climate control useless. Also from side to side the automatic climate control seems useless too. I usually like cooler air while my gf likes warmer air. So do I put it on blue and have her shut off the vents? It seems now they almost need one of these knobs for each side, so that she can have red and I can have blue...

What a confusing system, this knob to me kills the luxury and convenience of automatic dual climate control..

This is just from my understanding so far, and what people have written. I'm hoping its actual much clearer and easier...

(Insert good explanation here.. Thanks )

I agree with you that it makes the climate control much more complex, and less luxurious (because there is manual intervention).

I hated it with a passion at first... now I just ignore it as a BMW quirk, and leave it set in the middle. I raised this issue on the forum once, and it seems to be a "heritage listed" feature... I don't know it is like some secret nobody has let me into...

My A4 had dual controls and I just left them on 22 deg C CONSTANTLY, no adjusting necessary, and I was never uncomfortable, it just worked in the background with no further input from me thank you very much. In fact the feature became so invisible I would sometimes be shocked by the temperature when I got out of the vehicle after arriving.

The BMW system has not offered me the same level of invisibility. I have to constantly play with this stupid wheel... I would love for it to be a "delete feature". The cold setting does seem to cool the air with the AC, or it does on my vehicle at least.

The only valid reason I have seen so far is the "refreshing air on long trips" one. I used to wind down all the windows occasionally on the Audi to achieve the same thing on long trips just to spice up the air temperature.

I like having the wheel at the back because it allows the rear passengers a level of independence and we don't have 4 zone a/c, but I would dearly like to disable the feature up front.

I kind of guess if it is the only thing I really dislike about the car, I am doing very well, so I have learned to live with it, but seeming you asked, I have to have a little tanty about it.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by Josh49

It seems like a very useful feature, I'm just having a hard time understanding it. The owner's manual does not document it well enough. As shown above each person who posted had a different idea of what it does or doesn't do.

Say I want the air coming out at that level to be around the 70 degrees I have auto set for. Do I need to move the middle to warm in the winter, cold in the summer? I almost wish there was just an "auto" setting in the middle, and then you could adjust from there if you need to. Most of the air that you notice tempwise is this air, as air to your feet you don't really notice, and high air you don't notice as much either. So this one knob to me renders the rest of the automatic climate control useless. Also from side to side the automatic climate control seems useless too. I usually like cooler air while my gf likes warmer air. So do I put it on blue and have her shut off the vents? It seems now they almost need one of these knobs for each side, so that she can have red and I can have blue...

What a confusing system, this knob to me kills the luxury and convenience of automatic dual climate control..

This is just from my understanding so far, and what people have written. I'm hoping its actual much clearer and easier...

(Insert good explanation here.. Thanks )

Here is a good working example:
You set it for the temp. you want blowing at you as opposed to what ALL of the vents will do. Let´s say you have the heat on - but you don´t want hot air blowing in your face. Set the knob away from red.

Let´s say you don´t want ice cold air hitting your face (well, you should probably have the vents directed to have the air travel past you, as the manual does suggest, for draftless ventilation) - but still, you would not have have the wheel all the way to cold.

[E90Fleet]

The reason for it is many people in Europe say the best way to drive in winter is with warm feet and a cool head

So the middle vent lows cool air, and the side ones and the ones by your feet warm.


It allows you to custom set the temp from the middle vents, which is great


Also say you get a pax that gets in later and they want to warm up their feet, well they can set their side to extra warm, which will blow on their feet and side vent, but you can keep the air comming out the middle vent at the temp that is good for you

[JamieA]

Originally Posted by E90Fleet

...Also say you get a pax that gets in later...

pax = passenger

That is real airline speak... you worked in the airline industry??