Recirculation Feature

[Dragonsm]

I thought I'd post this as an FYI for all others who prefer to figure out how things work on their own rather than reading the owner's manual (I am guessing this is in there) Every vehicle in the past I have owned has always had the knob control for the A/C....never a separate button. With that, the recirculation feature is new to me also. Shortly after we purchased our Vibe. (We bought it the end of October) I went into my "push buttons" mode to figure things out as we went to visit the family. Being MN...and somewhat cold in November, my wife (who was driving at the time) had the defrost/heater combo on. As I went to push the A/C button...it clicked down and all was good. However, I couldn't get the recirculation button to engage. For the past few weeks I thought I had a bad recirc button. The darn thing wouldn't engage. However, after much digging on the infamous 3rd button in that panel....I stumbled across the fact that right behind the 3rd button is the electronics to engage/disengage the recirc button pending on if the defrost is on.How novel! So, last night.....I moved it over to the air vents, turned on the A/C and wow.....the recirc button worked. Here's your sign?!?!?!

[Vibr8tr]

It happens to the best of us, just ask how many people thought there brights were broken cause they wouldn't stay on when they pulled the knob.... and then one day they learned the idea of "pushing" it.I know there are alot of topics in here about the recirc button, just type "recirc" in the search and ALOT pop up. But thanks for the heads up to the people who don't know yet....

[LeatherVibe]

My '06 "recirc" kicks out in both the floor/defrost mode and the defrost mode. I think in earlier years it only kicks off recirc when all the way to full defrost.I also did some exploration to get rid of this feature and found my "kick-out" is done by a cable. There were some clips holding the cable in place and it was a little difficult to get it loose. My cable is now just laying behind the plastic face plate.Getting the face plate off was done by popping it out at the bottom, then rotating it up to be able to pull it loose at the top. A couple electrical connectors and that cable are all that keep it from coming completly out.Recirculating the warmer air is going to defrost the windsheild a lot faster than the cold outside air. I'll kick on the A/C if it starts to fog up.

[fmwright]

FYI, The recirc kicks off the when you turn on the defrost because the AC compressor is engaged. This helps to dry out the air and prevent fog/frost from forming on the inside of the windshield. Disabling the recirc keeps the water vapor from your breath, and melting ice/snow/slush in the car. Granted it does help warm up faster when it is disabled, but the idea is to keep the moisture off of the glass.(Steps off of soap box)

[joatmon]

if, for some reason, one might want to disable the auto recirc off in defrost feature, just pull off the radio trim and unplug the cable from the back of the AC/recirc sdswitch that ties it to the air direction control.I think the only times I have used recirc in my Vibe is out of curiosity to make sure it still works.

[Vibr8tr]

I do in the summer when it's REALLY hot, and I want the AC to not bring in air from out side..... the only other time I use it is in the winter, when people are using thier fireplaces, and thier smoke from the chiminy (how the heck do you spell that) is blowing across the road, I hit the recirc button so my interior doesn't smell of smoke (which is odd cause I am a smoker.... hmm... weird)