How does the 406 digital climate control work?

[steve_earwig]

"Eco" means off, "auto" is climate control and "air con" means it works without regard to temperature control, although if your heater's set to a high temp it should still give out hot air, I'm wondering if you've got some kind of fault (will have a play with mine later )

[mjb]

no cos it either says auto, eco or air con, if its on auto and i press air con it says air con on display and it goes cold, i really dont understand it

off, on , auto... what's not to understand?

[eoin27]

I know that 'econ' in jap cars means on but not as high as 'a/c'. In my dads oooooooooooold spacewagon the settings were 'off/econ/a/c'

[Welly]

If you don't like hearing the fan running then you should select a temp you like, turn down the fan speed manually, and turn "off" the a/c.

"Eco" in climate control means it will "try" to maintain the cabin temp without the use of the a/c compressor (in fact it won't use the a/c).

They dropped ECO on the D9.

[mjb]

They dropped ECO on the D9.

You sure? I've only had my D9 a few days but it seems to me they dropped 'on'. When it says 'a/c' it's on auto and when you press the button and it goes away, it appears to be off

[Welly]

On the D9 if you press the a/c button it switches it on/off as required whether in Auto or not.

If it dont say "a/c" on the MFD then it's off. I suppose that's "ECO" in a way then it just doesn't advertise it

Just to be clear you can have "auto" running in all other respects but just without the a/c part.

[Busman]

Greetings all.

played around with my climate control when I first had it. Did some experiments with the fuel consumption as well. to my amazement, it makes no difference to the fuel consumption if you turn the ac off. But it could cost a lot to turn it off when all the interior electrics, BSI etc, get damp and stop working. Also, ac systems like to be used as it keeps all the joints lubed by the gas and oil that is in the system.

Stick it on auto and let it do what it wants and enjoy the nice dry air.

[mjb]

Did some experiments with the fuel consumption as well. to my amazement, it makes no difference to the fuel consumption if you turn the ac off.

That's exactly what I discovered with the tubby, and 120 miles a day at bang on 34.2mpg every day (except traffic jam days). It may make a barely noticeable difference on the HDi90 or 1.8 engines, but not on anything bigger

[gordiebennett]

Hi, I have just bought a 2001 Peugeot 406 LX90 HDI with Digital Climate Control. It has an "Auto" button on it. I always thought that when pressing the "auto" button the fan will fire up and cool or heat the cabin to the desired temperature quickly then the fan would slow down and maintain the desired temperature. But when I press it the "auto" button in the 406 the fan speed just slows down to the slowest setting and remains at the slow speed.
If I have to alter the fan speed myself the surely thats not called "automatic climate control"?

Any one got any ideas if i am doing something wrong? Thanks in advance!

[KozmoNaut]

Hi, I have just bought a 2001 Peugeot 406 LX90 HDI with Digital Climate Control. It has an "Auto" button on it. I always thought that when pressing the "auto" button the fan will fire up and cool or heat the cabin to the desired temperature quickly then the fan would slow down and maintain the desired temperature. But when I press it the "auto" button in the 406 the fan speed just slows down to the slowest setting and remains at the slow speed.
If I have to alter the fan speed myself the surely thats not called "automatic climate control"?

Any one got any ideas if i am doing something wrong? Thanks in advance!

It's working as designed. "Auto" balances the fan speed and A/C based on inputs from the outside temperature sensor, cabin temperature sensor and the sunlight sensor at the base of the windscreen, in order to maintain the cabin temperature that you have selected.

It will generally do this with as low a fan speed as possible, for driver and passenger comfort. After all, nobody likes to be blasted by hurricane-level winds, so the climate control does things a little slower. It gets rather noisy at high fan speeds as well.

What I usually do when I want the cabin to cool down quickly when first setting off, is to drive with all the windows open for a minute or so, to get the stale hot air out of the car, then close the windows, put the fan speed up manually and enjoy the blast of cool air from the vents. After a couple of minutes of this, the "auto" button brings everything down to a more comfortable wind and noise level, while still maintaining a pleasant temperature.

Or you could just leave it in "auto" permanently and let it take a minute or two longer to cool down the cabin. Despite the low fan speed, it works rather well. If the fans slow right down to almost nothing, the temperature in the cabin is actually what you've selected, but the sun through the windows can make it feel warmer.

[mjb]

Also worth noting that it'll drop the fan speed right down if it can't get to the temperature you want - i.e. if you've asked for sahara with a cold engine, or if you want arctic with non-functioning AC.

Sadly, it seems that (on the mrs' car at least) non-functioning AC means the windscreen demist button does bugger all - you need to set it to 'up' vents and crank the fan yourself.

[Busman]

I wouldn't worry about the fuel consumption issue, on my HDI110, it makes about 2mpg difference. And to turn it completely off, just hold the minus symbol on the panel until it's err, off.
But after plenty of fiddling, my conclusion is that it's best left on auto to keep your nice complicated electronics dry.