No Floor Heat My Feet are Freezing!

[elevenmg]

Driving out to the track early Sunday morning my feet were freezing! there was no heat coming out of the floor vents just cold air. The air vents were blowing toasty air. I played around with changing the temperature knob and the vent selector knob and still got no heat from the floor vents. Has anyone else had this problem? I'm hesitant to take it to my local dealer as they just picked up Lotus and I've heard some horror stories from other makes of cars that have been in their shop.

I did a search and couldn't find anything on this.

edit: spelling

[vortrex]

today is the first time driving my car in really cold weather (< 30F?). I was amazed how little heat there is. I did not investigate further yet, but maybe I am seeing the same thing you are. took forever for the cabin to even begin to warm up.

[milehitom]

It's 2 here today...so it could be worse.

Tom

[Genjuro]

From what I have heard, they all do that. The vent air is nice a hot in my car.... while the air on the lower vents appears to have cooled a bit before it reaches me.

Anyone have details on how/where the air is diverted?

[MattG]

I heard that some cars had broken flapper valves...it doesn't sound like that's the problem in this case, but I don't know the inner workings of that so can't say for sure.

[shay2nak]

LOL! I was wondering the same thing since I drive without shoes. Nice to know I can rely on that good ol' Lotus heater.

[elevenmg]

It just plain blows cold I stuck my hand down there and its COLD feels like it was just taking the outside air and routing it to the floor vents. I guess I need to stop by the dealer and see what they say.

[TimMullen]

Originally Posted by Genjuro

Anyone have details on how/where the air is diverted?

From the Factory Service Manual - the flapper(s) are controlled by a stepper motor:

[tvacc]

I have not had the opportunity to test this. My car is away for the winter and we had a great fall...so I never had the chance to drive it in the cold weather.

But one of our LOONYs did have this problem. I wonder if this will be able to get fixed. I wonder if it is a problem that is happening to a bunch of cars.


Tony V

[OriginalBlackCi]

With temps in the teens lately here, I've been noticing this problem too. My feet are always cold through my shoes. I put the heat on level 3 on the lower vents and put my hand there, you could barely feel anything. On 2, there was nothing. I hear a lot of blowing though and I'm wondering where is all the air going? There's always a lot of heat coming through the "face" vents.

[Chococar]

I covered the passenger side floor outlet, which helped a little.

[Genjuro]

I've asked my dealer what is going on here. I'll post an update with what they say.

[Lumn8r]

You just need a pair of Alaskan Driving Shoes.

[charliex]

to complement the AC i suggested last year

[Europa]

I get better, though not great, flow to the foot wells when I close the dash vents. What has helped the most is a couple of floor mats. I bought a cheap set at Target and used the ones intended for the rear to extend my Lotus mats backwards towards the seats. They keep the metal floor from radiating cabin heat outward and now my car, once warmed up, gets pretty toasty. The foot wells still aren't as warm as I want them but their better.

[ChrisB]

Originally Posted by OriginalBlackCi

With temps in the teens lately here, I've been noticing this problem too. My feet are always cold through my shoes. I put the heat on level 3 on the lower vents and put my hand there, you could barely feel anything. On 2, there was nothing. I hear a lot of blowing though and I'm wondering where is all the air going? There's always a lot of heat coming through the "face" vents.

If you are getting a lot (or more than a very little) air through the face vents when you have the selector set to the floor vents, either the control switch or the stepper motor are failing or the three-way flapper valve is binding or otherwise not operating properly. Any one of which probably requires a dealer tech to fix.

[Genjuro]

Well my dealer is certainly being a PITA on this subject. I suppose they are too busy to deal with the crappy Lotus product they carry, as Porsche customers are used to paying through the nose. God forbid they actually have to diagnose something.

In short, Chris as Euroclassics told me the would call Lotus to investigate.

[turbo2nr]

On a 20 degree day, my floor heater puts out about 65 degree air. Never going to heat my car. Takes about 30mins for the vents to somewhat heat the air, but my feet are still ice. Vents feel like about 75 degrees at the hottest. Sucks. I now am getting to hate the cold slippery shifter. Give me something warm and grippy.

[JnC]

Originally Posted by turbo2nr

Give me something warm and grippy.

[jond]

Originally Posted by Genjuro

In short, Chris as Euroclassics told me the would call Lotus to investigate.

I was wondering about euroclassics(richmond, right).
The sales guy seemed snotty as **** when I asked about the elise warantee. He said most owners just pay for repairs and dont worry about the warantee. WTF...