[abdulh]

what exactly does it do and why is it important enough to make it to the steering wheel?

[fusionnv]

Originally Posted by abdulh

what exactly does it do and why is it important enough to make it to the steering wheel?

That is cool, I did not get mine yet but the point of that is to shut off the vents outside of the car from allowing air to come in. Basically the air moves around inside the cabin instead of pulling in new air. You might ask who cares. Well couple senarios here, somebody outside is burn oil and smoking like crazy in front of you. You press the button and the smoke is prevented from sucked into the car. Going thru a tunnel the air is kinda stale and just doesn't smell good. etc etc.

[abdulh]

great, so when driving past a field i can block out the smell of cow poo!!!

[fusionnv]

Originally Posted by abdulh

great, so when driving past a field i can block out the smell of cow poo!!!

I wonder if you can alter it with idrive. In the mercedes benz c240 that I test drove there is a "tunnel mode" what it does is if you held down the button for 3 secs it would close all ur windows and sunroof, closed the vents.

[abdulh]

Originally Posted by fusionnv

I wonder if you can alter it with idrive. In the mercedes benz c240 that I test drove there is a "tunnel mode" what it does is if you held down the button for 3 secs it would close all ur windows and sunroof, closed the vents.

so it stops fresh air coming in and closes all windows and vents, hhhhh!! i cant breathe!!!!! hhhhhh!!!

sorry couldnt resist

[roburado]

Another advantage to recirculation is that it can help you cool the car faster by recirculating cooled air until the air conditioning is ready to cool maximally.

[F32Fleet]

The X5 has it on its steering..It's very nice because it's allows you to make set recirculate quickly without taking hand off the steering wheel.

[BMWChi]

There is no air recirculation button on the steering wheel. There are two programable buttons that you can select from a few options and assign them to the two buttons. One of the options would be to assign a recirculation button, but you're not tied to it if you would like to use the button for something else, like the next audio option.

There are two buttons on the climate control center. One is an automatic mode for air recirculation. In auto mode, it will sense heavy exhaust, like diesel exhaust from a bus, and automatically close the outside vent and only circulate the air inside the cabin. When it senses the air is clean again, it will open up the outside vent allowing outside air to flow through the system. You can manually close the vent if you choose to with another button. When you switch on MAX for a/c or heat, it will also close the outside vent to heat or cool the air a little quicker.

[- Paul -]

Originally Posted by BMWChi

There is no air recirculation button on the steering wheel. There are two programable buttons that you can select from a few options and assign them to the two buttons. One of the options would be to assign a recirculation button, but you're not tied to it if you would like to use the button for something else, like the next audio option.

There are two buttons on the climate control center. One is an automatic mode for air recirculation. In auto mode, it will sense heavy exhaust, like diesel exhaust from a bus, and automatically close the outside vent and only circulate the air inside the cabin. When it senses the air is clean again, it will open up the outside vent allowing outside air to flow through the system. You can manually close the vent if you choose to with another button. When you switch on MAX for a/c or heat, it will also close the outside vent to heat or cool the air a little quicker.

There IS a recirculation button on mine. 320D SE (no Idrive)

[Flash]

if you have the idrive you have two bottoms wich you can program as you please. If you dont have the idrive you have the recirculation button.

[RedStripe]

For those without iDrive, what is the other button, the "CD" button above the circulation button? Thanks.

[- Paul -]

Originally Posted by RedStripe

For those without iDrive, what is the other button, the "CD" button above the circulation button? Thanks.

It changes the input for the audio between CD, radio and Aux.

[BMWChi]

Sorry, I didn't realize the buttons were different on non-iDrive cars.

[RedStripe]

It's an easy mistake to make. Glad we have these forums.

[abdulh]

I WANT I-DRIVE

it seems without it you loose a lot of configurables