Under seat vents

Under seat vents

My car came with the severe winter package, and it has vents under the front seats blowing on the rear passenger's feet.

If anyone else has these, I have a question. Do the things only work with heat, not A/C, and on some sort of temperature sensor? I don't feel anything at all coming out of them, no matter where I set the vent control knob. My rear passengers fry.

Man i thought rear foot vents were standard on the corolla, my ce came with them and the only package i got was the all wheather package, which is suposed to upgrade the battery, but the battery in my car is the weakest POS iv ever seen only 330 cold cranking amps, any other battery i see in any car, even stock, has over 500 cold cranking amps, so every time i start the car it takes it about 1.5 seconds to turn over just because the battery is so weak. My old POS 1977 dodge aspen that barely even runs will turn over faster then my brand new car, pretty gay IMO.

But back to the vents. My rear vents as far as i know work best either with heat or AC it seems like, not too great with just cool VENT setting, without AC. but i dont really know, i seldomly carry passengers in the rear seats. But i imagine they would work best if you put it on the FEET setting on the vent control, and then manualy close the front top vents on driver and pass side, with the little wheel thing on the vent, and then turn the fan on medium speed or higher, low just barely circulates air. I ususlly just have the vents set on feet anyway, it seems to cool the car down and get pretty good air flow. i usually leave the front top vents open, and set it to blow on feet only, and then when the cars moving air still goes through the top vents even thou its set on feet, to me it seems like i get cooler air through the AC on just the feet setting for some reason.

But all that is my personal opinion on everything. My best sedgestion is to just play arround with diffrent vent settings and fan speeds untill you find out what really works best. It also seems like the AC in our cars is pretty weak, like the air dosnt get very cold at all untill at least half an hour the car finally starts to cool down. I know i dont have that problem they sent out the TSB for, because i get plenty of air flow, just not very cold air, all other air conditioned veichles iv been in b4 put out colder air then my rolla.

ok enough jabbering

Trevor

Thanks for answering Trevor

The under-seat vents do come with the all weather package. It is supposed to have a heavier duty battery, along with a heavy-duty heater system. The heavy duty heater I can attest to, that is the HOTTEST air I've ever felt coming out of a car's vents. I don't know what the standard battery is so I can't compare what's in mine to one. Wife's rolla was built in Japan so she's got the Panasonic battery and it cranked over very well last winter. I didn't have my car yet during last winter, mine was built in Canada so I have the Delco battery. I'll have to wait and see if I have the same cranking problems you do.

I did try playing around with the vent control on the dash to see if I can increase the flow to the back seats, didn't get any decent results at all, you can feel air moving but it's not enough to move a peice of string. What you suggested (to close off the dash vents) I hadn't considered, I like the cold air blowinng directly on me. I'll hike out today and try that, it's supposed to hit 91, which means it'll hit 95 (our weathermen around here are boneheads and constantly wrong).

J

Folks,

I've got the all-weather package on my LE. Only 310 CCA on my Delco battery, but I surely haven't seen any problems with starting or anything -- starts right up!

The under-seat vents send vent air or A/C air through whenever you've got the airflow selector set to "foot." It's definitely not as strong as the front panel vents, but it's definitely moving some air down there. My impression is that it's not even designed to be "strong" -- it's more to "augment" the front vents. I really don't notice any less air from the under-seat vents if you have it set for "foot" or for "front panel/foot" vents.

I've noticed that the "floor" areas in the back seats are like deep, squarish "boxes" -- perfect for stowing groceries and such. Whenever I've got anything perishable, it goes down on the floor in the back, and I turn on the A/C with the "floor" vents on, to help keep things cool. Works pretty well, as far as I'm concerned!

And, I've had the car in quite a bit of "over 100-degree" weather -- highest I've seen on the outside temperature guage was 110 degrees, down in Phoenix / Tucson a couple of days. I can't complain about the A/C -- it definitely got the job done. Make sure to start out with "Recirculating" when you get into a hot car, and that'll help a whole bunch to get the thing cooled down fast. Also, it's not a bad idea to open the windows quite a bit for a few minutes when you first get in, to let the hot air out.

At any rate, works for me! Hope this helps!

thoots

Thoots, what's the COLDEST you've had the car at so far? It gets down in the negative numbers here in NH, but not very often, mostly in winter it hovers in the teens. It's those negative numbers that I'm worried about with the Delco battery. Guess wait and see is the game.

Although after two weeks of beating on my latest winter-beater ( a 1990 Geo Prizm, which is a 1990 Corolla) it failed inspection for, ready for this....I tie-wrapped my front license plate on, just so I could drive it to the inspection appointment, and The Law says it has to be screw mounted! What a load of crap! So anyway it looks like I'll get to put my new rolla out back on cheap tires, a float charger, and a good cover for winter after all. Battery may not be a issue. Right now (in the 90's) the thing cranks right over, and I agree, the AC is superb!

I tried Trevor's suggestion to close off the front vents. But, when you put it in foot-only, the front vents are already closed off, except for a couple that seem to blow no matter where you set it. I'm fixing to go trace those vents and see if they're somehow blocked, like maybe there was something the dealer was supposed to pull off before it left the lot. When I bought my car, it rolled off the truck into the parking lot, some guy ran out and pulled all those white protectors off it, and by the time I was done signing the papers I went out and put a key in it. Maybe something was skipped.

ToyMan,

Hehehe. We're not nearly as severe as it sounds like you are!

I got the car in late April, so I haven't seen anything too awful cold yet. But, it's rare that we'll even see "teens" in the winter -- somewhere in the "twenties" is about as low as we can expect to see. So, I expect that the stock battery will get the job done.

I wonder what kind of CCA we "really need" might be. It would seem that the "winter package" ought to give you a robust enough battery to get the job done. On the other hand, the "retail" batteries are all out there like beauty queens, trying to attract you with ever-higher CCA values. Bottom line -- do we really "need" that much CCA?

thoots

Hey 03ToyMan, i was thinking by closing the top vents manualy it might stop more air and force it out the lower vents. I know when its on the 'Foot' vents its not suposed to blow any air out the upper vents, but mine still seems to blow a little out.

I live in Wyoming and we get some pretty cold winters, but im not sure what the coldest my rolla has been in was. My car came from seattle, washington, built in the Numi plant, and it came with a Delphi battery, which I imagine should a pretty good battery. But sometimes when im at school and i leave at the end of the day and its been really cold it takes a few seconds of cranking before it turns over, and you can hear it cranking kinda slow, but it has never faild me yet, not that it should, any new car should turn over fine for the first couple winters. When i stated earlier that the car turns over slow and takes about 1.5 seconds of cranking to start, (which seems like a lot compared to other cars ive driven, most turn right over after you click the key to the start position) I meant that it dose that no matter what the temp is, it will sit all day in my driveway at 90 degree temps and i go out to start it, even if its just been out and the engine is warm, and it takes it a sec to crank over, im sure the starter is fine, sounds fine and its cranking at full speed, i just think a more powerfull battery would help it turn over right when you click the key to the start position. Has anyone else noticed that it takes a sec for the car to turn over no mater what the condition is? And another question for people without the All Wheather Package... If you look on your battery, what dose it say the Cold Cranking Amps are? It will probably say something like CCA followed by a number, maby in a little box. But im curious what kind of battery they put in the Non All Wheather Rollas.

ok enough blabing again

Trevor

Nope, mine and my wife's crank and fire up right away, no problems there. But when I first got my car I was trying to start it like my last car, a 2000 Kia Sephia. The Sephia required me to hold the gas pedal down just a tiny bit before it would start, the Corolla didn't like that. Soon as I got over that habit, everything was fine.

Don't know if it's still applicable, but in my old car building days, 2 amps per cubic inch of engine was a good rule to follow...eg the 440 in my charger wanted a 900 amp battery to crank it. If it's still like that we wouldn't need too much of a battery at all.

I had trouble starting my car one morning this past winter - the engine just barely turned over. My 1995 Corolla started just fine. It was -23 Celcius (-10 Fahrenheit). The stock battery sucks.

Ya the stock battery dose kinda suck, too weak.

I think if you do the math our Rolla has a 109 Cubic Inch engine, which by your calculations 03Toy, would mean we would only need a 220 cca battery. I cant imagine how much that would suck. 330 cca barely dose the job.

So i wonder if my rolla is the only one that takes a coupld secs to crank over?

Iv been thinking about taking a trip to wal-mart and getting a much more powerfull battery. Say 500-600 CCA of power, it seems like that would make the car turn over much faster then a 330 cca battery, and it would be better for winter too. The only down side is im looking at 50 - 70 bucks for something i dont REALLY need. So thats why i havnt done it yet.

Do any of you experts think a more powerfull battery would have any negitive effects? Like could too much power burn the starter out.

Trevor

Yeah, no way a 220 amp battery would do in our car.

No such a thing as too much available current. Starter (and rest of car) will only take what it needs.

Measure your old battery first, make sure the big-a** one will fit.

I started the car in -31C weather before. Even withe block heater plugged it, there was a bit of a struggle. Also when it gets cold, the starter seems relunctant to disenage. Of course the dealer said it was "normal", but no other car I have been in does that.

The heater in the car works awesome though, it can get way too hot at times. Too bad the A/C isn't like that. Doesn't ever seem to get cold enough for me.

Well jeez, if you're used to -31 degree weather no AC is gonna be cold enough, Nanook!

Maybe I shouldn't have used the A/C line in the same sentence lol. When it's HOT out, the A/C is not cold enough. And thanks to that interlock switch, even when it's -30C, when defrost is on, what do I hear? The click and strain of my engine when the A/C swtiches on....oh joy.

I hear ya on that. I just drove 120 miles for a job, it was 85 degrees with a 90% humidity level. Not hot enought for AC, but needed to de-fog the windshield all the time. Did not want the AC on just to get air on the glass!

Working on how to de-couple the two logically, soon as I get some time.

jeez you needed the defoger in 85 degree weather, iv never needed mine below about 45 degrees.

Ya i gues either way its still 12 volts. Iv found a 525 CCA battery that would fit, but i want to get something more powerfull than that. I dont think 525 CCA would be enough of a diffrence to make it worth buying, i want atleast 660, double the balls of the stock battery...

Trevor

jeez you needed the defoger in 85 degree weather, iv never needed mine below about 45 degrees.

Ya i gues either way its still 12 volts. Iv found a 525 CCA battery that would fit, but i want to get something more powerfull than that. I dont think 525 CCA would be enough of a diffrence to make it worth buying, i want atleast 660, double the balls of the stock battery...

Trevor