Recirculate is not 100% for any car. Pass by a cow field and you will smell it. 🐄

 

I get it but this car is worse than any car ive ever been in. Its clearly not working right

 

I’m not sure how you can practically quantify the actual percentage of fresh air in recirculating mode. The best the dealer can do is verify the position of the dampers.

 

Edit: it turns out that recirculation depends on your vent selections. See below.

But I can say that when recirculation is actually working, it uses 100% inside air and does a good job filtering. (see my tests)

 

All fair, was just wondering how mine compares to others who own the same model

 

I was going to post this same topic soon. Mine is doing exactly as you described. It seems to have gotten worse all of the sudden.

 

SAME HERE!

8800 miles, Jan 2023.

 

Wow, glad I’m not the only one! Wondering if anything can be done about it!

 

Same here with my 2023 euv compared to my 2020 ev

 

Interesting!! Have either of you had it looked at by a shop?

 

Does anyone know where the recirculation intake is inside the cabin?

 

@NateGo1 & @balazer Nyet.

 

I tested my 2020 Bolt and found that recirculation only works when the selected vents are set to just the instrument panel, the instrument panel plus the floor, or all three: instrument panel, floor, and defrost/defog. Any other combination will disregard recirculation mode and take air from the outside. And when the vents are set to auto, the behavior of recirculation is unpredictable. Turning AC and heat on or off seemed to make no difference, as did the fan speed.

The damper that selects between outside air and inside air is directly above the cabin air filter housing. With the filter removed you can see it operating behind the glove box. In a quiet car with the fan on low, you can hear it operating. The inside air intake is behind the dashboard next to the damper. There is no duct.

 

I tested my 2020 Bolt and found that recirculation only works when the selected vents are set to just the instrument panel, the instrument panel plus the floor, or all three: instrument panel, floor, and defrost/defog.

Thanks will try this. Took my wife home from the hospital with floor+defrost on in the snow, and it was unbearable the car exhaust fumes we were getting. The recirc button made its little light turn on and off and little else. Listened for a damper and heard nothing and felt no increased fan blowing or more fan noise like in other cars.

We probably haven't used floor+defrost much till it got cold again so we didn't notice till now which explains why.

 

@balazer Wow! Awesome reply! Thanx! That is some 💩. I would expect to petition GM for a software update. It should not be operating that way. I mean, who came up with that idea and who allowed it to be coded as such? Veiled lessons of the cosmos.

 

Bingo. Thank you.

Can't post video but I tested every combo and it works as you said.

2023 EUV if that matters.

PS wanted to post the video to show that you do really hear the increased fan noise even if you don't hear the damper. Just like every other car.

 

Now. If we could get some verification from 2017-2019 EV owner's, that would be great. We could them start a methodical petition to GM for a firmware update.

I also question why this may never have been brought up before, if previous EVs have the same functionality?

 

So glad I saw this, I have a sensitive nose and it was driving me crazy

 

Yeah Actually seeing this, is there a way we can contact Chevy directly and voice a complaint? I can't stand that I have to turn off the defrost cause of the strong smell of a smoker outside the car, or a blast of exhaust.

 

All the cars we've owned since at least 1991 (Mazda, Ford, Honda, GM) link windshield defrost and recirculate (defrost on -> recirculate off). The premise is that between the blower getting moisture off the windshield and the meatbags breathing, the air inside is humid, and they want to swap that for presumably less humid outside air.

 

@Askyel, I'm sure it's quite deliberate that recirculation is disabled when defrost/defog is selected by itself or along with another vent. To reduce or prevent fogging of the windshield, the car needs dry air, and the air outside the car is usually dryer than the air inside, on account of all the people inside the car breathing. In fact, selection of the defrost/defog vents can cause the AC to come on for dehumidification, especially if you select defrost/defog by itself.

But I can find no logic in GM's other decisions around recirculation. Why should selecting the panel vents plus the floor vents allow recirculation, but the floor vents alone do not? Why should selecting the panel vents plus the defrost/defog vents disallow recirculation, but then if you add the floor vents it is allowed? Makes no sense.

Anyway, for your case, if you want recirculation when using the defrost/defog vents, you can have it, but you need to select the panel vents and floor vents as well.

I really don't think GM pays attention to this kind of problem or would do anything to fix it. GM pretty much does not do over-the-air software updates, and there's no future to the Bolt line as we know it.

At least the car has manual controls that work, once you decipher its idiosyncratic logic. That's good enough for me.

 

Wow, thank you so much everyone for helping yo decipher this problem for me! Going to try that vent combo asap and see if it fixes it for me.

 

Sidenote. For a while i was wondering if there was a software problem. It seemed like the air was fresher behind a dirty car without recirc on. I thought maybe the button was working in reverse.