RaudiA7

In response to a recent post, I decided to conduct an experiment this morning in my 2001 2.7T

I set the driver side to 70F and passenger to 75. Outside temp reading 68. After a spirited game of tag behind a red boxster, I arrived at work 15 minutes later. According to my instant read thermometer, overall temp in the cabin was 72. I set the fan to blow through the front panels and took readings at each vent in the cabin, waiting until the needle on the dial stopped moving. Here are my results:

Front driver side console: 50F
Passenger side console: 57F
Center console - driver side 50F
Center console - passenger side 57F
Rear seat 70F

My conclusions of this preliminary experiment are as follows:
1. The two zones do blow air at different temps
2. The rear zone is pretty much worthless
3. There is no reason to set the temp colder than normal in order to get the cabin colder faster

I will repeat this test a few more times, preferably after driving the car for a longer period of time.

BTW, my preference is to set both zones at 74 and leave them there

Griff

74 on both is exactly what I do too - it seems to be the a/c vs heater threshold.

WildBlueYonder

Thanks for sharing your results. I'm curious: was the interior temperature BEFORE you started higher (so that cooling was needed to bring it to 72)? Since the vents were blowing in the 50s, I would assume so, but the exterior temp of 68 suggests heating would have been in order...

BTW, why'd you let the Boxster get in front of you?!

;^)

RaudiA7

The temp in my car was in the upper 70s when I got into it in the morning. Outside temp around 68. Obviously, the compressor blows supercold air in an attempt to normalize the cabin temp to what you set it at. I assume that the temperature sensors in the cabin register the overall temp and does not differentiate between driver side and passenger side. What I am interested in seeing is what temp air is blown from either side once the cabin temperature has equilibrated. I suspect that it will take about thirty minutes (depending on outside temp, sunshine, etc).

The porsche caught me by suprise off the stoplight and rapidly proceeded to hit 80mph on a two lane road (one in each direction) where the speed limit was 45.

Bollinger

Wow, I didn't know the car had to blow 50 degree air to make the cockpit 74. You learn something new every day.

Again, thanks for the info.