Recirculate/Fresh Air Behavior

I know for a fact a 2012 Prius doesn't exhibit this behavior. Auto mode does whatever it wants based on ambient conditions. If I change any setting other than temperature it kicks me out of auto mode and gives me full functionality to do whatever I want. It stays at whatever setting I leave it at. It'll only change when I press auto or the "scrub" button.

 

Can you please clarify what you mean by "this behavior"?

 

So just to be clear on this, you're saying that your Prius will never change the "fresh/recirculate" air setting by itself unless it's in "Auto mode"?

Has this been discussed in the Gen3 forums? I'd like to know if there's a consensus on this, because we've got two users saying opposite things here now. And this is a Gen2 forums, so there may not be too many people here that can help resolve this one way or the other.

 

The behavior of not having control of recirculating or fresh air control whether in auto or manual mode. I have full control in manual mode. In auto mode, it depends on if AC is used or if the defroster is on.

 

If by manual mode you mean that the AUTO light is not on, then this is how I have my 2012 Prius, and it does randomly switch to outside air mode even when I've manually selected recirc mode. I've also had a number of conversations with Toyota Customer Service and my dealer about this, and they say that the behavior I describe is how the Prius is designed to operate and cannot be changed (which I don't buy since a computer program governs this behavior and thus can be re-programmed if Toyota cares to do so).

 

Not exactly.

The vents will open and close for these reasons:

1. Auto mode does whatever it wants
2. Front defroster, vents open
3. Feet + defroster mode plus fan on, vents open
4. Scrub mode, vents close

If I am in manual mode and I don't touch anything but temperature, fan speed, and AC then the vents stay in whatever position I leave it at and remembers my setting when I restart.

 

The only thing I can think about is that you are using one of the two front defroster modes. (Not the rear) They automatically open the vents. And if you cycle through the air positions from feet to leg with the fan on, you could pass by the feet + defroster mode triggering the vents to open. I bypass this by turning off the fan first before cycling through the air positions. I wish Toyota would go to a rotary knob instead or separate buttons. That way you don't have to cycle through all the settings.

 

This might account for the disparity in my and mmmodem's reports: I have never driven my 2012 Prius in temperatures above 50 degrees F.

I've tried this too, and it did not work. Can you ask him if this is supposed to work on the 2012 Prius? btw, is he referring to the steering wheel recirc button or the combo recirc/fresh air on the console (not sure what the correct term is)

thanks for your help, Daug

 

I stand corrected. This has never happened to me because it's rarely under 50 where I live. Plus my default is to have the vents open anyway. I only close it when there is a smelly car outside or when I use AC. What an odd feature. You can google it. There is a lot of talk about it. It's to mitigate carbon monoxide poisoning in case there is engine trouble. I guess that might have helped an unfortunate MTV reality TV star last week.

On the Tundra forum, there is supposedly a dealer software fix that can turn it off like the annoying backup beep.

 

Can you please link me to a description of this software fix? My dealer and Toyota customer service are aware of my concerns and have said there is no fix, so I'd like to be able to describe the software fix to Toyota with some specificity.

thanks

 

Recirculating ir button turns off by itself

Post 7 has a PDF. I don't know if it applies to our Prius though.

 

Thanks for the link, mmmodem! I'm confused though - which is the relevant instruction?

 

I've also noticed that mine only defaults to "fresh" when it's fairly cool outside (hadn't noticed the exact temperature but yeah 50F sounds about right). It's a funny system, seems kind of backwards. Personally I prefer to use recirculate when it's cold and fresh when it's warm, but my Prius automatically does the exact opposite every time I turn it on.

Based on temperature, my personal preference is:

- Use "recirc" below about 60 to 65F to keep the car warm.
- Switch to "fresh" and adjust the fan speed for cooling from about 60F to 80F (+ or -, depend on how sunny it is).
- Use the AC for cooling and go back to "recirc" above about 80F.

Other than temperature based selection, I always change to "recir" if I'm driving somewhere that there's lots of fumes or even (as mmmodem put it) a particularly smelly car in front.