I got my rx-8 in September and have noticed that often times when I have the ventilation on only (no AC) the air that comes from the ventialtion is much hotter than the air outside. It often happens when I first start driving and then later it may cool down to equal the outside air.
My friend who has a Volvo says his car does the same thing so I guess it is not that uncommon but still pretty annoying because when the weather was warmer I often had to use the AC when the outside air was not even hot. I have a 92 GMC Yukon that has never done this. SO my question is do other people have this problem?

 

I don't think anyone has ever mentioned this before.

 

First, make sure that you are not re-circulating the internal air (select the fresh air mode).

Also, I think even then, the engine compartment can be quite warm initially (if the car was allready warm or maybe parked in the hot sun.

 

I have this too. It's winter now and 16 degrees outside but I still have to have the aircon on while driving around. I need it to cool down the footwell and centre tunnel which get really hot. I'm sitting on the equivalent of the passenger side for you guys so am on top of the hot floor "lump".

I also get what you mention when I'm not using the aircon. The first puffs of air to come out after you start steam up the windows - then you need aircon to get rid of the steam!

 

It's not just initially. It continues to happen long after my trip has begun. I don't have it on recycle. In fact, I have to set the fan speed to zero and then switch it to recycle just to keep warm air from coming out of the vents. If I have it on non-recycle and the fan speed on zero warm air continues to come out of the vents, even though I have the fan speed set to zero.
So if the weather is mild and I don't want to run the AC I have to set my air system to fan speed of zero, recycled air, and open my windows.

 

I have mentioned this before.

Here, in FL, we have just started to have some non summer temps in the 70's and I have been trying to use the vents. The vents for some time emit warm air but the other night I ran the fan at full for about 3 minutes (non recirculated) and the air got cooler. I cannot say if this would work on an extended trip but it helped. I also listed this on my suggestions for improvement under the thread of the same subject.

 

Which forumn did you mention this? In this forumn (rx-8 discussion) I did a subject search for "warm" hot air" and "ventilation" and got no results back.

 

the air still passes by a hot engine compartment before it gets to you. i have this isue with all of my cars.

 

I chalked it up to the heat that is generated by the rotary engine. I don't think anything's wrong, but I agree with you - it sure would be nice to get cool air on a cool day. I just open the windows on nice days!

 

I have this problem, too. Makes me leave the windows open. I hate using the a/c if I don't have to.