escapA8

I've noticed that when it's cold (winter) outside the HVAC system doesn't allow it to be set to RECIRCULATE. The RECIRCULATE button's LED lights up when pressed but turns off half a second later. What is the reason for that I wonder...?

In the case of encountering the odor of other people's bad exhaust systems during cold weather, I can only avoid the smell by turning the HVAC system OFF.

JimR

If you recirc the air in the winter, the moisture level in the car builds up from the moisture in your exhaled breath. Pretty soon, your windows are fogged up, and you look like those guys driving down the highway in winter with their windows fogged, which I always assume is because the driver is too foolish to properly operate his HVAC.

So, Audi did this to keep us from looking foolish. ;-)

B7Quattro Pete

This isn't always the case (foggy windows) when using recirculation. What if you are just sitting behind a smokey bus at a stop light for a few minutes in cold weather and would prefer not to pass out from the fumes. Perhaps you are driving through a tunnel? Now it's freezing out there and I'm stuck breathing all kinds of sh#% because Audi engineers got too cute. I loved the ability to use recirc. w/out the A/C on in my previous Japanese cars. Thank God this is one of the few dopey things Audis and Fords have in common.

barryl

Hello,

Why not just leave the HVAC setting for Automatic recirculation?
On my car, a 99, there is the small button with an A and an arrow
on it, all the way on the right. It activates the auto recirc function.
When the car detects pollutants, pollen, etc, it will automatically
switch to recirc mode.

Barry