AC Blows cold even with switch off

I believe the AC will blow cold without the AC light on if it’s in Auto mode.

 

Wow

 

This may be the case. Might depend on country too.

On our Candian third gen, "almost always", if the AC compressor was cycling on/off, the AC button light would also be steadily on. One exception: if I had mode set to heat/defog*, the system would run the compressor, without the light on the button.

But yeah I've heard that about US Prius: if Auto button is pushed, the system will use the AC compressor, without light on the AC button, quite regularly.

* Not the front defog button, just setting vent mode to heat/defog

 

I think there was a minor philosophy change to how the climate control system settings are displayed. I don't know how the gen4 did it, but my gen3 would always have either the vent or recirculating light on depending on which mode the system was using. Auto would change it depending on the situation, but either one or the other was always lit. In the gen5, neither is lit while in Auto mode.

I think the new philosophy is to have nothing extra lit up when the system is under full Auto control. For those looking for maximum efficiency, there's an easy to access setting in climate to remove AC from control of Auto.

But the new HVAC system also includes a multi-stage AC compressor, so you're not going to see as much of an efficiency loss with the AC on as you used to. Older systems either ran at 0% or 100% power with nothing in between. The gen5 is supposed to have some intermediate stages that will allow the compressor to run at a lower power state if the cabin only needs a little cooling.

 

Does 2023 prius use 0w 8 engine oil?

 

No. It uses 0W-16.

 

I do not use the Auto Mode in either our Gen 4 or Gen 5. The new Gen 5 blows cold air with the AC off and I'd like to stop that before winter arrives. (Our Gen 4 blows ambient air when the AC is off.)

 

I think I solved it. Using the multi-information display screen, select the Vehicle icon, then select Climate, then Front. At that point there is a toggle for A/C. I toggled it off (though off vs. on is a little subtle).
The Auto Mode switch on the dash is also off.
Now I get ambient air unless I turn on the A/C switch on the dash.

 

Thank you for this- worked for me too!!!

 

Papa John: Thanks! This issue has been bugging me too. I'm happy with a pretty wide ambient air temperature. I like windows down for city driving, but need them up for highway and didn't want to be using the compressor.

Max Entropy: No-one replied to your other issue and it just happened to me today!! I was tinkering with the car waiting for someone and decided to mess with audio. For me it was making the transition from Android Auto audio back to the radio and I went to a pre-programmed FM station. No audio at all. I could pick AM and go back to Android no problem, but only silence (and once static) for FM. It behaved like it was tuning, but nothing out. I even tried an infotainment reboot (handy thing!), but even after that, no audio. The person showed up and I turned the car off completely for a few hours, and when I came back, FM was fine again. Bit spooky. I plan on trying the same general sequence soon to see if it is repeatable. That is the second time I've had to reboot the infotainment system for doing weird things, both involved Android Auto.

will

 

The general rule seems to be that the indicators are off if they're in "auto", and that includes the A/C one. That's different from G2, which was inconsistent - direction, speed and recirc indicators showed current state while the A/C light indicated "auto" versus "off".

The A/C now has three possible states - "on", "off" and "auto". When you press the AUTO button, by default the A/C light goes off and it is in "auto".

Then press A/C once, and the light comes on and it goes to "on". Press it again, and the light goes off and it will be "off", although you can't tell the difference between that and "auto" from the lights.

But you can see the difference in the Vehicle->Climate->Front multimedia display, because there there is an A/C button that has a 3-way "on/off/auto" selection. (At least here in Europe - odd that I don't see it mentioned above). That is manipulating the same setting as the A/C button, but lets you go back into A/C "auto" without hitting the overall AUTO (everything) button.

The quick way to ensure A/C is disabled without using the screen, is to hit A/C once or twice so that the A/C light ends up off. Then it will be really off, not auto.

If you don't want the A/C to be placed in "auto" when you press AUTO, there's a setting for that in the Vehicle customise bits in the multimedia display. Then I guess you'd have to use the multimedia screen to make it "auto", as you'd only have manual on/off ability from the buttons?

The other setting there is "efficient ventilation mode" which is for automatic recirculation control, I believe.

 

KMO: Yea, I guess there are just more modes than lights, so can't quite show everything. At least there are physical buttons. For my wife's Gen3 my standard sequence was to press Auto to get things started then right away press the AC button to turn off the compressor. With that car the AC light came on if the compressor was on (or at least could be cycled on) and if off wouldn't come on. That at least made sense to me. I'm sure someone at Toyota thought this made more sense, but not to me!

will

 

Max Entropy: I did try fiddling with the audio again last night just in the garage. Alas I wasn't able to get it to happen again with the Android/FM swap. Would be nice to get it repeatable so I could show it to someone at Toyota.

will