First road trip in the 9 and immediate problems. Ever hear of this?

[T.Narley]

2008 GT purchased in August of 08 with 5k on it (dealership owner drove it). As of the start of the trip it showed just over 17,000 miles on it.

The trip is approximately 1,156 miles from Cleveland to Florida, 3 kids 1,2 and 3 along for the ride. (eekdance) We left this morning with an outside temperature of around -2 farenheit. At a steady 70mph the temp dropped to -8. This caused the inside side windows to frost over, which no amout of defrost would clear.

That was only a minor issue. About 1/2 an hour into the ride I began to feel my knees freezing, so I dialed in some floor heat. It helped but my knees were downright uncomfortably cold. It was being caused by frigid air leaking out around the base of the steering column/ tilt adjuster. This was compounded by the fact that the climate controls seemed to only have 2 settings. When set at 60 deg. it would blow cold. At 61 it would blast heat at the highest fan setting. No inbetween.

Now that we are in Georgia, I can still feel air leaking in around the column, but at 50 deg. it's barely noticiable. The climate controls now appear to be working normally, and I can feel warm and cold being dialed in as I adjust the settings.

Anyone else ever deal with something like this?

Other than that, the 9 has been flawless, albeit awful on the gas mileage. Over the course of 740 miles I averaged about 18.5 mpg (unamused)

 

[T.Narley]

81 views and no replies. Guess that answers my question

 

[IslandTractor]

I have not experienced any air leak. I wonder if there is a rubber boot out of place around the steering column where it passes through the firewall?? Or maybe where wires or heater tubes enter the firewall? Just a guess.

I am not sure what you are describing for the heating system is abnormal. If setting heat at 60 is essentially shutting it off then that would explain cold air from the vent. If the vehicle is cold and you set it for 61 or anything higher with the system in automatic mode it will normally put the fan on to max and blow hot air. I find that annoying with both heat and A/C so I basically never use the automatic fan setting and just leave the fan at 2 or 3 bars. I agree that in very cold weather (we are also at zero degrees right now) I find it necessary to adjust the system to blow air to my feet....usually just having air from the dash is fine for heating but in this current weather my toes are cold unless I specifically blow air down there.

 

[T.Narley]

I may not have been clear on what it was doing. Even with the cabin at a comfortable temperature, setting it at 61/auto would result in a non-stop blast of hot air on the highest fan setting. If left alone it would have barbecued us

Alternately, setting it at 60 would result in an arctic blast. Definately not normal.

 

[Wisconsin Proud]

Ive had situations in another car that this happened. Generally, it's an abrupt outside temp change from driving in a hilly area where there are pockets of low temps. It happens really fast and can scare the hell out of you!

Use your AC! Turn the fan on high with the AC and temp on hot. This will remove the moisture faster from the windows.

 

[IslandTractor]

I may not have been clear on what it was doing. Even with the cabin at a comfortable temperature, setting it at 61/auto would result in a non-stop blast of hot air on the highest fan setting. If left alone it would have barbecued us

Alternately, setting it at 60 would result in an arctic blast. Definately not normal.

Understood. That sounds like something worth having the dealer check out if it happens again. Definitely not the way my 2010 behaves.

 

[T.Narley]

Yea, I tried running the A/C to clear the windows. I think it was just too much at -8 with 5 people in the car. The windows cleared up once we got into the teens.

We just completed the return trip and this time I was paying particular attention to the behavior of the climate controls. Everything worked apparently normal until it got around freezing. Then we starting finding it necessary to dial down the temperature setting to keep from baking. At about 28 degrees outside we had it down to 61 in the car, and we were getting too hot.

We stopped for food /gas and within minutes of driving parking lot speeds (no air leaking under the dash) the controls began working fine. I'm certain the problem is the leaking air is messing with the interior thermometer, causing it to think the inside of the car is freezing. I'll talk to the dealer about it.

Overall, my (already high) opinion of the car has gone up. We drove 2,300 miles, with me in the drivers seat for about 2,200 of it. The car seemed hungry for asphalt. I never found it to be lacking for power, even through the mountains of West Virginia. High gas mileage number was 20.7, with the overall trip average at 18.9. I hoped for better, but when you consider that most of the way I was around 80mph (in 70mph zones), I guess it's not bad. There were several stretches in Florida where the cruise was set at 85 and I was being passed by everything but tractor trailers. (five-0)

On a few occassions the seat got a bit uncomfortable for my 6'3 frame, but only after normal fatigue began to set in. Other than the climate control issue, the 9 was trouble free and I look forward to our trip next year. (drive)

 

[IslandTractor]

Glad the trip went well. Regarding the heating system, while I certainly agree something is wrong and the idea that the interior thermometer is being fooled makes sense, were you not able to control the heat simply by lowing the fan speed? I never use the automatic fan setting as I just don't like it blasting at full fan and it is hard to imagine that with frigid temperatures that a fan setting of 1 or 2 would overheat the cabin. Did you just need to keep the fan higher due to defrosting requirements?

I haven't yet taken a 2200 mile trip but just did a 460 mile round trip to NYC that was very comfortable and proved again what a highly compenent road car the 9 is. Outbound trip was in light snow/sleet and return in 15 degree clear weather. Averaged just over 20 mpg with speeds mostly in the 65-70 range.

 

[T.Narley]

Glad the trip went well. Regarding the heating system, while I certainly agree something is wrong and the idea that the interior thermometer is being fooled makes sense, were you not able to control the heat simply by lowing the fan speed? I never use the automatic fan setting as I just don't like it blasting at full fan and it is hard to imagine that with frigid temperatures that a fan setting of 1 or 2 would overheat the cabin. Did you just need to keep the fan higher due to defrosting requirements?

Precisely. To properly defrost the windows we needed some airflow, but with any amount of airflow the 9 would turn into a sauna.

I haven't yet taken a 2200 mile trip but just did a 460 mile round trip to NYC that was very comfortable and proved again what a highly compenent road car the 9 is.

I think it's one of the best kept secrets in the automotive world. I'm not quite sure WHY though.

 

[CulRidr]

You were going as high as 85mph, in a AWD 4500lb SUV, carrying 5 people and were hoping for better gas mileage? Seriously? You were lucky to reach that mileage considering the car is rated at 21mpg when going ~60mph with only one person in the vehicle...

Your theory about the cold air "leak" playing with the climate control does seem pretty accurate though.

 

[sjg]

With two kids in the back and a hard-breathing dog in the "way" back, we develop a pretty thick layer of frost on the back windows as soon as the temps drop into the single digits. Rear defroster clears up the tailgate window no problem and front defrost clears the windshield, front windows and part of the 2nd row windows.
Haven't seen the other climate control problems you've had.

 

[T.Narley]

You were going as high as 85mph, in a AWD 4500lb SUV, carrying 5 people and were hoping for better gas mileage? Seriously? You were lucky to reach that mileage considering the car is rated at 21mpg when going ~60mph with only one person in the vehicle...

The weight of a vehicle has negligible effect on mileage once a vehicle is in motion. See Newton's first law. As for my speed, I already commented on that..

when you consider that most of the way I was around 80mph (in 70mph zones), I guess it's not bad.

It does seem a little bit odd that a brick like the Honda Odyssey is rated 4mpg higher on the highway yet has the same size engine. (No, I would never own a minivan!)

 

[CulRidr]

Are you going to try and convince me that a car that has 5 people sitting in it will get the same mileage as one with 1? Good luck with that. Sure the mileage won't be much different (extra "drag" in the tires from the extra weight will cause some difference), but that isn't really real world mileage...

And you can call it a brick, but it has a better drag coefficient (0.3 VS 0.35), and doesn't have AWD... not odd at all.

 

[T.Narley]

Are you going to try and convince me that a car that has 5 people sitting in it will get the same mileage as one with 1? Good luck with that.

Once in motion, yes. I don't have to convince you of it, it's basic physics.

Sure the mileage won't be much different

That's why I said "negligible"

(extra "drag" in the tires from the extra weight will cause some difference), but that isn't really real world mileage...

I think I just showed that it IS real world mileage. Actual, measured with a calculator, mileage over a 2,300 mile trip. The stretch where I got 20.7mpg was, oddly enough, where I was going the fastest.

And you can call it a brick, but it has a better drag coefficient (0.3 VS 0.35), and doesn't have AWD... not odd at all.

Well that would explain it

 

[CulRidr]

Once in motion, yes. I don't have to convince you of it, it's basic physics.

That's why I said "negligible"

I think I just showed that it IS real world mileage. Actual, measured with a calculator, mileage over a 2,300 mile trip. The stretch where I got 20.7mpg was, oddly enough, where I was going the fastest.

Well that would explain it

Now that IS odd... you weren't going down a hill the whole time were you?

 

[T.Narley]

No, but I suspect I had a strong tailwind. On the way back I noticed the 9 working a lot harder to maintain speed (Virginia) than normal, to the point where I wondered if something was wrong it with. The scangauge was showing much higher load than normal too. Once we stopped at a toll booth the problem became obvious when I almost lost my cash to the headwind we were facing.

I do recall in the early 80s dad getting 35mph in our Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser diesel on the same trip. It's probably not a good comparison since it needed a rebuild at 20k and suffered a catastrophic failure at 36k (boom07)

 

[IslandTractor]

The weight of a vehicle has negligible effect on mileage once a vehicle is in motion. See Newton's first law.

Not quite that simple. Otherwise tractor trailer rigs would be getting 20mpg towing twenty ton loads across country.

 

[CulRidr]

You'd have to compare engine to engine on that comparison since a 1.5L econobox engine isn't going to need as much fuel to keep it running as a ginormous tractor trailer engine will...

 

[T.Narley]

Not quite that simple. Otherwise tractor trailer rigs would be getting 20mpg towing twenty ton loads across country.

I agree it's not absolute, but the analogy doesn't work either. Minus hills, a loaded tractor trailer gets roughly the same mileage as an empty one. The hills kill them because they often have to brake on the downhill stretches, killing the coasting mileage. I didnt make it up either, I acutally texted my friend who is a OTR driver for Knight Refrigerated.

 

[FORZDA 1]

.......temperature of around -2 farenheit. At a steady 70mph the temp dropped to -8. This caused the inside side windows to frost over, which no amout of defrost would clear.

Sounds like maybe a bit of operator error. The auto-climate control system has a bad habit of closing the fresh-air vent into the recirc mode. If this happened to you, the moisture form all those folks breathing would not be evacuated by the HVAC and there is no way the windows will clear.

.Now that we are in Georgia, I can still feel air leaking in around the column, but at 50 deg. it's barely noticiable. The climate controls now appear to be working normally, and I can feel warm and cold being dialed in as I adjust the settings......

It is possible you have an external air leak, but also note that if you have the outlet selection on both upper and lower, the upper vents blow fresh (cold) air while the lowers output the heated air, UNLESS the selected temp is set to ~ max (90).

Most japanese vehicles are designed this way as well....

I also have an `08 CX-9 along with several other late-model mazdas.