Front and rear climate control

[Dino D]

Hi All,

Just wondering how to tell if Galaxy has proper front and rear aircon (by that I mean it has 2 rows of vents in the ceiling for the rear rows of seat and you can control the front and rear separately from the digital climate control panel).
Reason for asking is many for sale don't show pic of the ceiling to make it clear.
From my understanding if looking at the climate control panel (digital) they all show 2 sets of dan speed controls and 2 sets of temperature controls implying it has front and rear. Or could be for front only but for each side?

Hope that makes sense!

[Mirez]

If you have roof mounted vents then you have dual aircon.

They all show two heaters and fans on the digi panel because you can control the temperature and fan speeds for front/rear independently however if you don't have the roof vents then the rear fan heats only and can't cool.

[Dino D]

Thanks for that Mirez, makes it a bit clearer.

So if it has no vents up in the ceiling how does it pump hot air to the rear?

I see some floor mounted vents in between the front seats that will send heat to middle row but does that mean the rearmost row passengers get nothing?


Toying with the idea of a diesel to replace our V6 (only if the annual mileage doubles) so just looking around at what's out there. Not many diesels about with proper Dual aircon and heated seats (or they go for a lot more than the 3-4k range I'm looking at).

[insanitybeard]

The rear heater blower box is located behind the nearside rear quarter trim in line with the third row of seats, if you look at the bottom of said trim towards it's front end (closest to the nearside rear door) you'll see a couple of small ports/openings- this is where the blower box pumps hot air out to.

The first image in this article shows the three ports quite well (at the base of the trim).

[Dino D]

Thanks that explains it.

I guess my next question is how good/bad is it back there without dual aircon.
By the looks of it it should get warm enough but keeping cool in summer might be tricky in car with 5-7ppl in.

I've not been in the back for any period as it's me who drives on longer trips loaded up..

[marinabrid]

i got a v6 with dual aircon in july this year,   the rear roof vents would only blow warm and not cool,  it said in handbook     rear Aircon only works on recirclulating mode,    i tried this and presumed it sucked in the air at cabin temp and blew it through the roof vents,  so i had to run the air con for a long time to cool down the entire cabin for that cooled air to be recirculated, but what comes from the roof is far warmer than the front vents   so i don't know if i have a problem elsewhere   as another member said his roof vents blew icy cold without recirc mode ,  bit of a puzzle .   if all you get is cabin temp  then in summer its still warm in the back.

[Chrispb]

The rear unit can only recirculate the internal air it has no connection/flap to allow outside air, the recirculation button is for the front heater.

[marinabrid]

so does that mean that  the rear unit   sucks in the cabin temp air   and should it then re cool it  ?   this is what mine doesn't seem to do, not cold from the roof vents  but icy cold from the front.

[Chrispb]

Yes it uses only the cabin air to heat or cool.
Check air con pipes under car (or on the actual heater unit if trim is removed) for one cold and one warm pipe, if they are both the same temperature then there's either not enough gas in the system or the expansion valve is blocked.

Other fault could be air mixing flap stuck, have you checked with VCDS for any HVAC faults.

[marinabrid]

thanks, i had this in the summer !    the two pipes that go under the car to the back  are the same temp.   the vagcom check shows nothing ,    where or what could i check ,  such as flaps or where is this valve ?  are they jobs for an air con pro ?

[Chrispb]

As you have already confirmed that the rear aircon pipes are the same temp then I would suspect the expansion valve is at fault as these pipes should still get one warm and one icy cold providing aircon is running but regardless of the temp and air distribution setting.
As you don't have any HVAC faults then can only assume flaps/motors are working correctly.

You will need to degas to allow valve removal[attachimg=1]

[marinabrid]

thanks for help chrispb    maybe a job for another time