AC/Vent/Heater Intake

[Great White Versa]

Now that it is cooling down, I try not to use my AC all the time. The only problem is that the air that comes out of my vents (dial all the way to cold, no AC) is significantly warmer than the outside air. Is that a problem common to all Nissans or just the Versa, or just mine?

I looked at the PDF of the service manual that someone posted up on here a few weeks ago to see where the AC/Vent intake was located but couldn't find it in there. I found the AC section, but not the intake vent. Does anyone know where the AC pulls its 'cold' air from? Where does it pull warm air from?

Aaron

[kc5f]

Make sure you don't have it set to "Recirculate". I was wondering just yesterday why the blower air was warmer than outside, too, and then had a "duh!" moment when I saw the lever...

[matttail]

Air intake for the car is the same air intake that goes through your air filter. So it's piped through the upper levels of the engine compartment before it comes into the cab - so yeah it's going to be kinda warm. As fas I know this is the same for all cars. why do they do this? so you can have heat in the winter - you've got a big fire going already - no sense in not using it for the heat. If your engine is about to over heat you can seriously help it cool off by running your fans on full heat at 3 or 4 speed - this will be piping outside air over the engine and help it cool off quite fast.

I had an 88 honda civic last that would overheat if I idled with the A/C on. one time I wasn't paying attention and look down to find the temp gage almost maxed out. Turn on the heat full blast and in on time things were back into safe temperatures.

Solution = roll down your windows. j/k.

[Great White Versa]

My understanding was that there were two separate air intakes (for the cabin heat/AC). One for the cool air and one for the warm air and that the temperature dial on the dash worked somewhat like a facet in that it simply mixes the warm and the cold air together. The warm air coming from near the engine and the cool air from somewhere with 'fresher' air. Is that not the case?