While the A/C is on, The Jeep randomly blows HOT air from the floor vents for 3-5 mins then stops

[mgroeger]

I've had no success other than lip service from Jeep to include their representative assigned to respond to complaints on this website. Good luck!

The JL Jeep has been out for over two years now, it's pretty obvious Jeep isn't going to do anything especially since some suit at FCA told the my service manager two years ago this "feature" is by design. Just unplug it or read throught the thread and learn ways to mitigate it. Yep, it sucks but that's all we can do for now.

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[Persius]

Yes Pennyjeep I received the same from dealer but worse. Took it in for this problem plus another then regular oil change. The second issue was ignored. The oil change I guess was done. They said the A/C was working fine. Now the real rub. Dropped it off tuesday 1030. Picked up thursday 330. However I had a recorder on board and it showed the jeep spent an hour in the bay on wednesday. So keeping it two days was to show me they checked it out......BS. I will contact the salesman and let him know to forget that I was looking to buy a second jeep for the wife. And more spreading of complaints with them will ensue. There is no place for this pethetic customer relations that has existed for to many decades. Jeep has a real problem, especially with me now. It dosent seem customers can get any respect in our area from any dealer. FYI; I have extensive mechanical experience including race car building along with a career at NASA in R&D, plus I learned troubleshooting without computers first then used devices when needed. I am not a rookie when it comes to such things.

 

[Jabarsetti]

This thread is extremely interesting, I have not had the said problem of A/C on and heat blowing but the last 2 days, I have had a similar issue but with no HVAC on at all and heat started blowing from the floor vents. I usually don't run the A/C but just windows down. but with this issue, I had to turn A/C on in the foot wells to push the heat out. Super weird, I guess a dealer visit is in order although I am almost certain it will be a Can Not Duplicate "CND" response.

 

[mgroeger]

This thread is extremely interesting, I have not had the said problem of A/C on and heat blowing but the last 2 days, I have had a similar issue but with no HVAC on at all and heat started blowing from the floor vents. I usually don't run the A/C but just windows down. but with this issue, I had to turn A/C on in the foot wells to push the heat out. Super weird, I guess a dealer visit is in order although I am almost certain it will be a Can Not Duplicate "CND" response.

You do have this "problem". The hot air you felt was the damper opening and allowing outside air to dump into the passenger foot well. So it turns out you don't need to be running the A/C or heat or even have the blower on, it simply opens itself on some sort of timer.

 

[Mikester86]

2020 JLUR running hours on freeway, AC was set to auto with re circulation and same issue. Smell and feel of warm/hot air entering the cabin, the wife and I were perplexed. I have never had a vehicle do this.

Had a 2017 Ford Escape previously, and it functioned as expected.

 

[Toycrusher]

2020 JLUR running hours on freeway, AC was set to auto with re circulation and same issue. Smell and feel of warm/hot air entering the cabin, the wife and I were perplexed. I have never had a vehicle do this.

Had a 2017 Ford Escape previously, and it functioned as expected.

Your simply going to have to turn on recirc and then unplug the blend door behind the glovebox

 

[Mikester86]

Your simply going to have to turn on recirc and then unplug the blend door behind the glovebox

So this is normal and expected behavior for the AC system on JL's?

 

[Jabarsetti]

You do have this "problem". The hot air you felt was the damper opening and allowing outside air to dump into the passenger foot well. So it turns out you don't need to be running the A/C or heat or even have the blower on, it simply opens itself on some sort of timer.

I haven't encountered this issue in the over 1 yr of ownership and it hasn't done it while the A/C is actually on, it has just started these past couple days. I don't doubt anybodies knowledge, I am just trying to understand if this is something that I should get checked out, meaning it isn't a normal thing? What I have been doing when this happens is turn the A/C on for a few mins blowing only on the floor, it cycles the heat out and then it's good. at least in theory, I have only done this a couple times. I am just trying to see if it's something that warrants a stop to the service dept.

 

[Toycrusher]

So this is normal and expected behavior for the AC system on JL's?

It's designed to do it about every 50 minutes. Stupid design, but by design

 

[Jeepsterfreak]

I haven't encountered this issue in the over 1 yr of ownership and it hasn't done it while the A/C is actually on, it has just started these past couple days. I don't doubt anybodies knowledge, I am just trying to understand if this is something that I should get checked out, meaning it isn't a normal thing? What I have been doing when this happens is turn the A/C on for a few mins blowing only on the floor, it cycles the heat out and then it's good. at least in theory, I have only done this a couple times. I am just trying to see if it's something that warrants a stop to the service dept.

Post #324 includes a video of the problem. The recirc damper door automatically opens, but only partially opens. This partial opening allows outside air to enter the cabin behind the glovebox and is directed toward the floor instead of into the HVAC filter and ductwork. You can hear the outside air rush past the damper door into the cabin. This is obviously more noticeable while driving at high speed.

Apparently this is by design. So for now, enjoy periodic blasts of warm air during the summer and blasts of cold air during the winter. As many have suggested, you can unplug the damper door motor while the door is in the completely closed (recic) position to disable the damper from operating. This would result in the HVAC unit always operating in recirc mode and will not allow outside air into the system/cabin. For this you’d have to roll down a window.

 

[pennyjeep]

Post #324 includes a video of the problem. The recirc damper door automatically opens, but only partially opens. This partial opening allows outside air to enter the cabin behind the glovebox and is directed toward the floor instead of into the HVAC filter and ductwork. You can hear the outside air rush past the damper door into the cabin. This is obviously more noticeable while driving at high speed.

Apparently this is by design. So for now, enjoy periodic blasts of warm air during the summer and blasts of cold air during the winter. As many have suggested, you can unplug the damper door motor while the door is in the completely closed (recic) position to disable the damper from operating. This would result in the HVAC unit always operating in recirc mode and will not allow outside air into the system/cabin. For this you’d have to roll down a window.

Jeep dealer said the same; by design. Sounds like poor design to me to have a hot blast of 100 degrees while trying to keep cool inside. the engineer who designed this needs to go back to school. Not the quality expected. This is a design FLAW! is there a service bulletin on this and does it fix it?

 

[Jabarsetti]

Post #324 includes a video of the problem. The recirc damper door automatically opens, but only partially opens. This partial opening allows outside air to enter the cabin behind the glovebox and is directed toward the floor instead of into the HVAC filter and ductwork. You can hear the outside air rush past the damper door into the cabin. This is obviously more noticeable while driving at high speed.

Apparently this is by design. So for now, enjoy periodic blasts of warm air during the summer and blasts of cold air during the winter. As many have suggested, you can unplug the damper door motor while the door is in the completely closed (recic) position to disable the damper from operating. This would result in the HVAC unit always operating in recirc mode and will not allow outside air into the system/cabin. For this you’d have to roll down a window.

thanks for the responses, I'll live with it and don't want to unplug anything if I don't have to. It hasn't been that big of an issue, more of a concern Extreme hot/Cold days haven't been that common here in CO and normally I would have the doors off but we've been having hot/humid days then nasty afternoon rainstorms for the last couple weeks so the doors are on.

 

[Jeepsterfreak]

Jeep dealer said the same; by design. Sounds like poor design to me to have a hot blast of 100 degrees while trying to keep cool inside. the engineer who designed this needs to go back to school. Not the quality expected. This is a design FLAW! is there a service bulletin on this and does it fix it?

Seems like a very easy software fix. The rumor is the damper periodically opens to allow “fresh air” into the cabin to help regulate CO2 and O2 levels. Okay, I’ll buy into that claim however ridiculous it sounds.

If engineers simply programmed the door to fully open automatically instead of partially opening, problem solved. This would allow fresh air to still periodically enter the cabin, BUT it would be directed into the HVAC system for regulation. It would go completely unnoticed by the occupants.

The software would simply determine that the driver has been running the recirc for too long of a period and decide to turn off recirc for a few seconds or minutes then turn it back on again.

Jeep’s design of only partially opening the damper door is the problem. With it fully open or fully closed, problem solved!

Others have claimed that other FCA vehicles behave in the same manner. The problem is exacerbated in the JL due to the design and layout of the dash/glovebox.

 

[Trollboogie]

I would buy a Tazer for my stock Rubi if this was an option to disable it.

 

[cobra]

I think on 117 I showed where to un plug it. Takes me less than a minute to do it. Just be sure to do it with a closed damper. You could wire a switch to it but it's easy to unplug. It does have a double lock on it.

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