A/C turns AUTO automatically in summer

Hi there! When the weather is hot and the car has been on the sun for a while and I enter it and turn on the engine, the car automatically turns on the A/C on AUTO, without asking me. Regardless of whether or not A/C was on last time the engine was on. I don't like that, because as advised in this forum, I'd first like to drive for a while with the windows down so as to get rid of the very warm air and then close the windows and turn on the A/C. Furthermore, sometimes I just start the car while the doors are open and I'm doing something outside the car. In that case I often forget that A/C turns on AUTO by itself and I just do whatever I do outside of the car with the doors open while the A/C is struggling to cool things down ... completely in vain. That's another situation when the current behaviour of turning the A/C to AUTO by itself is wrong, in my opinion. By AUTO I mean the AUTO that displays when the AUTO button is pressed or simply as seen in the 1st attached image.

How can I change this behaviour so that AUTO does not turn on by itself. I've tried the Menu on my radio (seen on the 2nd attachment) but in vain.

soewhaty wrote:How can I change this behaviour so that AUTO does not turn on by itself. I've tried the Menu on my radio (seen on the 2nd attachment) but in vain.

Mine doesn't behave like yours, but I don't know why.

Do you have access to a lexia box? You may find the answer in there, but I have not seen a screen for 'Auto Auto A/C' yet.

There may be some fault where one of the sensors is not functioning correctly and a lexia box can help you with that too.

Arfur Dent wrote:Do you have access to a lexia box? You may find the answer in there, but I have not seen a screen for 'Auto Auto A/C' yet.

There may be some fault where one of the sensors is not functioning correctly and a lexia box can help you with that too.

Don't have one, sadly. Will try and see what local mechanics can do about it, but would appreciate to hear from other users as well!

Could it be that this 'Auto' aircon is a feature. If you have a thermometer it would be interesting to place it in the car and see if there is a pattern to when the aircon auto activates ie is there a certain cabin temperature that triggers the behavior?

That is a very good guess. Normally this automatic 'Auto' triggers itself when it is very hot inside the cabin. It is worth mentioning here that I've noticed that the warmer it is in the cabin the higher the 'Auto' turns on the fan speed. What it does, I've noticed, is that it starts the A/C and gradually increases the fan speed ... it somehow guesses and estimates how warm it is in the cabin in order to know how much to speed the fan. Thus, the warmer it is in the cabin the more it would increase the fan speed. When it is only very hot in the cabin it speeds the fan only so much, let's say. But when it's VERY, VERY hot it speeds the fan even more, sometimes nearly to max fan speed.