Well, lookit what I found. Remember that air recirculation button on the climate control system? The one you press expecting it to stay that #*$&@# way until you turn it off or shut down the car? Turns out you can override the annoying 3 minute timer on that.

The 3 minute time period for recirculated air can be overridden by pressing and holding the fresh/recirculated air switch until the switch LED's flash 3 times. The air intake door will now remain closed until the next drive cycle.

But they don't tell you that in the owner's manual, only in the fricking service manual! Unless I missed it. I've been killing neurons faster than Ukrainians killing Russians these days.

 

...and I verified today that it works but my A/C is still not blowing cold air. This is pissing me off.

(Update: It was a refrigerant leak behind the dash.)

 

Thank you for this information. l thought mine was faulty as it kept turning off but it was just the three minute timer.