My wife and I were enjoying the beautiful spring weather here in Colorado yesterday and decided to take a spin up the canyon. During the drive up, I noticed a significant amount of heat coming out of the lower console area near the gas pedal on just the driver's side. There was so much heatthe front lower wall of the consolewas very warm to the touch and my leg was burning up (it wasn't unbearable though). It also seemed like there was a lot of hot air coming out of the vent just above the gas pedal. I had my driver's side window all the way down, the sunroof was open, and no heat or AC was on. We did have the XM radio on. I thought maybe the heat was due to the fact we were climbing up the canyon and the transmission was just putting off a little extra heat from the extra work, but this occurred on our way back down the mountain as well. This also happened to me the other day on a flat highway going about 65-70mph. Is this normal to have this heat occur every once in a while or do I need to get the dealer to take a look at this? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

You don't mention if your Tahoe has the Electronic or Manual HVAC or what year it is.

This can happen even if the HVAC controller is turned off.
To prevent this you can turn your HAVC system on and select full cold and engage recirc mode then shut the system off.

 

Thanks for the information ZX. I have a 2007 LTZ with the electronic HVAC. So the recirculation mode (even when off) will keep the vent from pumping hot air into the vehicle?

 

If memory serves me correctly the air flow diverter door will remain in the last position it was in after the HVAC system is powered down, I know this is true of the manual control and believe it to also be the case on the automatic HVAC controller.

Give it a try, if it doesn't solve the problem then have the dealer take a looksee.

There have also been several software updates for the HVAC controller, you may want ot have the dealer make certain that you have them if you aren't already sure about it.

 

If you have your system offyou still get air flow. Without turning your system on, hit the temp up or down. It will display a temp that you can adjust. You can also hit the button to set where this "ambient" air comes into the cab.(feet, vent, defrost vents) but if you hitthe fan buttons it will turn on the system.

You can control the diverter and temp for times when the system is off. This "OFF" setting may set tobe different than your "ON" settings.

If you had the defrost on hot that doesn't mean your off settings will be the same when you power down. It remembers both.

 

This is all great information. I am out of town right now and will try these settings when I get back. Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like the HVAC system is smarter than I am!!