Always-On Climate Controls?
 

Is it just me or do the climate controls never turn off...there's always a constant flow of air out of the vents... Any ideas? It always displays the temperature even when off and that's what the air feels like..

When I have the sync button on and the air is set to recirculate the INSIDE air there doesn't seem to be as much air coming out..but thy may be because it's the same temperature..

Any input would be greatly appreciated before I email my dealer and probably head back out there AGAIN. Thank you.

Here's a picture of what it looks like showing nothing's on and it still shows the temp it's putting out..

GM climate control systems never shut off by themselves. I have owned many many GM vehicles and they never shut off on their own. In my current SRX it has the electronic climate control and never shuts off. This is perfectly normal operation, no worries at all!

I think he means he can't get it to turn off. (Not auto shut off)

Power button in the middle?

Yea I wanna clarify, when you say "they never shut off by themselves", do you mean that if you were to shut off the AC/heat it STILL stays on? I don't understand how it could never turn off though... Why would somebody ALWAYS want either heat or AC coming out of their vents? I drive as much as I can without ever putting anything on. So now I have to get used to some sort of air flow always coming out? Shouldn't this at least be in the manual if that was the case?

And yea that's off, when the buttons are on they have a little yellow light above them indicating it's on, so as you can see all the lights are off this meaning there shouldn't be anything coming out of the vents. Tried to call GM but they're system said I didn't enter a valid number...thinking they're just obviously not in. Gotta love this frustration lol but it's stil worth it I LOVE the car.

Close the vent from outside air, hit the recirculate button to the right of the AC button, that should work for you.

When you say close the vent, do you mean manually close the vent? Because if I have to do this it's absolutely ridiculous, I'd have to throw myself across the passenger seat to close that vent and reopen when need be, there's no way that's how they made it.. I just find this so hard to believe there's no way to shut off all air flow..

No not manually close them...I mean hit the recirculate button, to the right of the AC button...this essentially closes the vents to the outside air, that is what I ahve always done when air is pulled in from the outside and I do not want any heat or AC on, always works.

So that's how they designed it? I still want to double check somewhere to make sure this is true (I believe you just for my own knowledge want to see something written in stone). I see what you're saying that's the only thing I could think of but still I don't understand why we can't simply turn it completely off, that's just weird..so the fan is always on and that also means I'll have to replace be cabin air filter when I've only done that once out of all the cars I've owned and that one was because of smoking.

Yeah GM HVAC systems are like this, itnis essentially still pulling air in from outside since the vents are still open. Now with fan systems on newer cars they run so much more than way back when. Even after you hit the power button to turn the system off, it will still pull in outside air, hence if you hit the recirculate button it will close out an any air coming into the the open vents. There is nothing wrong with it. If you think of this way, if you had a fan in front of an open window in your house, then shut the fan off but left the window open, you would still feel air coming in, just obviously not blowing in from a powered fan since it is off. Now if you closed the window, no more air would then come in...that is where the recirculate button comes into play when the system is off, it acts like a vent closer.

All of my GM HVAC systems have 2 buttons, one for recirculate and one to pull air from the outside, it appears and correct me if I am wrong from me sitting in a few 6th gens so far, there is only 1 button for recirculate, so if that button is not pressed then I would assume it pulls fro, the outside.

I'll check with mine later today to make sure it's the same

Thanks SSport, that makes more sense. But my question then is: why when it's off like were discussing and the air is still coming in (not really anything with parked but when picking up speed notice the air coming in) is it not the OUTSIDE air temperature? Is there even a way to do that? For example, I had it set to 78 and the air was coming out at hot, then I set it to 65 and cool air was coming out. So essentially the air is ALWAYS either being heated or cooled it seems like even when the system is "off". That seems defeat the whole purpose of everything to me.. Whether it's the summer or the winter I like to enjoy the outside weather alone, now it seems like I have to get used to some sort of air flow constantly in the car..

You are correct, it is one button and when you press it it will go through the two possible options and display it on the touchscreen.

Awesome! Any update jimmypop?

No problem...I am in a loaner from my dealer until my car gets here this week, a 2016 Malibu LS, has basic manual non electronic climate control. Has one button for recirculate, was playing around with it earlier today. Once I hit the recirculate button, hence closing the vents, there was no air coming in. With it off of recirculte I did feel air coming in, but that systems there is no off button, just an off type symbol on the fan speed knob.

The whole things just a major joke to me, I guess it's obviously working or they wouldn't keep making them with it. Sure with time I'll get used to it..still want to make sure others experience this as well but really appreciate it I was so bummed out the other day thinking I had a problem already, we'll see. If I put my hands on or in the vent I'll feel the air still coming out from recirculating the interior air but guess I'll have to make do. That's a decent loaner though!