Completely disable auto HVAC recirc?

[DigitalN]

Living in Canada in the winter, recirc is incredibly annoying. All it does is fog the windows when driving down the road colder than -10C.

For some reason Ford has decided that recirc needs to auto-enable itself, even if I don't have the setting turned on. The only way to turn it off is press the window defrost mode which turns the fan full blast and heat on high. So I get to drive down the highway cycling the defrost on, off, on, off just to stop the car from having frosted windows. In every other car I've owned I just don't enable the feature during the winter, and I never have to touch my HVAC.

Is there a method in which I can permanently turn off automatic re-circulation? I'm tempted to tear the dash apart to unplug the motor if it's not something that can be done with Forscan. Any help is appreciated!

Also PS: I do have the latest HVAC update, this happens even with that update. It also happens whether I'm in auto-mode, or if I have a manual fan speed set with a manual temperature and manual windshield/foot zone set.

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[Maquis]

I’ve never had recirc turn itself on…..only off.

 

[emichnov]

I’ve never had recirc turn itself on…..only off.

Same

 

[Maui]

Yeah.. I gave up the battle of trying to keep it on.

 

[rugedraw]

This has always been a pet-peeve of mine. I have been meaning to go into the HVAC with FORScan and disable everything that has to do with the recirculation strategies to see if it just stays on what I set it to, but I have yet to actually do it to see what happens. Part of the reason is, if you go to the FORScan spreadsheet under the HVAC and control F and search for "recirc", there are SO MANY different kinds of recirculation strategies, I don't even know where to begin in terms of disabling them.

The one thing I have seen there that may just prevent the recirc actuator from ever working is this:

My truck shows a 2 there which means no 3rd row actuator (makes sense) and it does have a recirc door actuator WITH feedback. No sure what "with feedback" means, but I have thought of going in there with FORScan and chaning it to a 0 to see if the recirc actuator just gets disabled permanently while recirc is on and just stays on.

 

[SpeedRacer72]

I’ve never had recirc turn itself on…..only off.

You mean like this

 

[AtomicInternet]

You mean like this

If you still have a button that says "e-heat" you're behind on software updates. Might want to find someone with an FDRS setup or your dealer to see if you can do some software updates.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

This has always been a pet-peeve of mine. I have been meaning to go into the HVAC with FORScan and disable everything that has to do with the recirculation strategies to see if it just stays on what I set it to, but I have yet to actually do it to see what happens. Part of the reason is, if you go to the FORScan spreadsheet under the HVAC and control F and search for "recirc", there are SO MANY different kinds of recirculation strategies, I don't even know where to begin in terms of disabling them.

The one thing I have seen there that may just prevent the recirc actuator from ever working is this:

My truck shows a 2 there which means no 3rd row actuator (makes sense) and it does have a recirc door actuator WITH feedback. No sure what "with feedback" means, but I have thought of going in there with FORScan and chaning it to a 0 to see if the recirc actuator just gets disabled permanently while recirc is on and just stays on.

The op wants it to “fail” to the off condition though.

 

[rugedraw]

The op wants it to “fail” to the off condition though.

Yea, in his case, he would need to figure out which recirc strategy needs to be disabled to achieve his goal. For me and the others, I think it will be easier to figure out how to disable it entirely as opposed to what the OP wants to accomplish.

 

[Maquis]

You mean like this

No it stays on for 10 minutes. As mentioned above, your software is outdated.

 

[SpeedRacer72]

No it stays on for 10 minutes. As mentioned above, your software is outdated.

It is an old video, from 2022, but unbelievably 4 years later and the recirc is still an issue.
So it seems it does not matter what version of software is in use.
@Ford Motor Company thinks you can't be trusted to know when the windshield is fogging up and to push a button.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Living in Canada in the winter, recirc is incredibly annoying. All it does is fog the windows when driving down the road colder than -10C.

For some reason Ford has decided that recirc needs to auto-enable itself, even if I don't have the setting turned on. The only way to turn it off is press the window defrost mode which turns the fan full blast and heat on high. So I get to drive down the highway cycling the defrost on, off, on, off just to stop the car from having frosted windows. In every other car I've owned I just don't enable the feature during the winter, and I never have to touch my HVAC.

Is there a method in which I can permanently turn off automatic re-circulation? I'm tempted to tear the dash apart to unplug the motor if it's not something that can be done with Forscan. Any help is appreciated!

Also PS: I do have the latest HVAC update, this happens even with that update. It also happens whether I'm in auto-mode, or if I have a manual fan speed set with a manual temperature and manual windshield/foot zone set.

Meanwhile, I have little to no issues with fogging in the same conditions and colder? Also on the latest HVAC software. I use 20ºC AUTO 2 as my preferred setting (I leave it in AUTO 99% of the time).

The ONLY time I have issues with fogging is when I slow down (<60 kph), above that speed it seems the outside air damper never closes. When I do slow down, the fogging only lasts for a minute or two before clearing by itself.

Also, I'm typically just one person in the car with minimal snow on my boots.

Do you think you have a lot of moisture in the car, usually drive below 60 kph, or park in heated garage that might cause a lot of melt water or trigger the AC to run during remote start?

I want to understand why some people have a lot more fogging issues than others.

 

[AliRafiee]

I’ve never seen it go to recirculate on its own either.

But pressing max defrost is not your only option.
Expand the hvac controls, set the output to windshield, set temperature and fan speed to your liking.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I’m not going to chime in too much, because a guy living in Hawaii has no real frame of reference for cold, but @Mach-Lee has a point about moisture. Moisture, either from humidity like we have, or brought into the car through normal use, could account for some of this.

 

[XGC75]

@Ford Motor Company just put the recirc button on the "home" screen below the HVAC drawer button. There are two buttons stacked one on top of the other on the other side of the volume knob so it's feasible to put two buttons on the right side.

If you have a touch screen, at a minimum it's your responsibility to minimize touches (and waiting for a response, for that matter). Makes me wonder if the lawyers considered how far the car goes down the road while a user waits for the HVAC screen to appear?

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