I was adjusting settings in the menu for the engine assisted heating (the defer vs. on option that I read about elsewhere on the forum to change the temperature at which the engine will kick on)... and noticed that there is an option for "Engine assisted heat when plugged in". Is it safe to say that with this setting off the engine will never start when preconditioning? Like if I remote start the car while it's in my garage it won't fill the whole garage up with exhaust gas, but if I remote start it while it's sitting in a parking lot it can use the engine heat?
Engine assisted heat when plugged in option
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Yup. Turn it off.
I would still be careful and maybe listen in your garage when you start it to make sure it doesn't start the ICE. I'm always nervous that either I forgot to plug it in, or the charge got interrupted or something that would cause it to start the ICE in my garage. Usually what I'll do is use a clicker to open the garage door from inside my house and then remote start it just in case.
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Does anyone actually use or want this feature?
I would love to have this feature. I always pre-condition in my garage and want to insure that the ICE will never kick in to avoid exhaust fumes. This is generally not an issue, but if I drive when it is cold and stop in the garage when the temp is under 25F, the ICE will start the next time I pre-condition, even if the garage temp is higher. It appears to use the last temp when running to determine when to start the ICE.
Unfortunately, my 2012 does not have this feature. ERDTT also ALWAYS kicks in at 25F with no ability to change it. That's not even cold!
Unfortunately, my 2012 does not have this feature. ERDTT also ALWAYS kicks in at 25F with no ability to change it. That's not even cold!
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It's good to be careful.
But I also doubt a mere 10 minutes of a Volt engine running in a closed garage is a significant risk to anyone, especially if it would be discovered within a matter of minutes when the driver enters the garage to get in the car, at which point they could leave the garage door open for a bit to air out the exhaust.
Probably not the vast majority of people.
But it could be useful for people with only a L1 EVSE who don't want to dip too far into their EV range to warm the car.
It doesn't have anything to do with power flow or actively charging, charge complete, etc.
If it knows its plugged in, it won't start the engine.
I think it even knows it's plugged in but the EVSE has lost power (no longer receiving signal from it), but you'd need to confirm that one.
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I do - well, I set it off, not on. The only thing I worry about is if the battery is cold, it might start the car anyway. I've never seen it happen, though I did see it start once because I forgot to plug in the EVSE the night before. It had no choice but to start. But nobody died in the process and the garage barely smelled at all. If it were my 7.4L suburban, it would have been a different matter.
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I would like to know this, too, and if so how and why? I only have a level 1 charger so I experimented with it in extreme cold to see if it would allow me to "precondition" with shorter lead time to recharge the battery. It didn't seem to make much of a difference, except that I now had 0.3 gallons of fuel used upon leaving. I would be curious if there any other experiences with this.
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I could see someone using the feature if they were preconditioning the car outside and knew the ice was going to run anyway, or just wanted to avoid the drain on the battery. The other night I was opportunity charging my car in sub-ERDTT temps. I did a remote start to precondition. The instant I unplugged the car, the engine started in ERDTT mode. So, if you precondition while NOT plugged in in ERDTT temps, the engine is going to run.
That's weird...the other day when I remote-started my car while plugged in, it (obviously) didn't start the ICE right away, but it didn't start it when I unplugged it either. It started when I pushed the power button (it was still running from remote start). It could have been that I remote started it and then opened the garage door, so it wasn't cold enough until I went to actually start it....maybe it uses the temperature when you first remote start it, instead of when you unplug it.
Question for you guys.
I got my Volt in June and I disabled the engine assisted heat when plugged in option
All my remote start were working fine all summer/fall long.
Now, it's starting to get real cold here. Last night, it was -25 celcius (yes, that's -13 F). I tried to do a remote start. Parking light flashed then nothing. Went into the car, try to start manually. Everything worked except a message saying : Initializing wait to shift. I waited and waited but nothing happened. I couldn't change gear.
Radio was working, heating too but not driving the car. I changed the option to enable engine assisted preheating and did the test again. It worked on the first time (and the engine started for several minutes).
Then this morning, same test (was pretty cold too). Tried to remote start, didn't work. Same message in the car when trying to manually start it. Enable the engine option again. Do the test, bang it worked.
Now it's always on and I did several test during the day and they all worked.
So, could it be that when it's REALLY REALLY cold, the engine is necessary ?
I got my Volt in June and I disabled the engine assisted heat when plugged in option
All my remote start were working fine all summer/fall long.
Now, it's starting to get real cold here. Last night, it was -25 celcius (yes, that's -13 F). I tried to do a remote start. Parking light flashed then nothing. Went into the car, try to start manually. Everything worked except a message saying : Initializing wait to shift. I waited and waited but nothing happened. I couldn't change gear.
Radio was working, heating too but not driving the car. I changed the option to enable engine assisted preheating and did the test again. It worked on the first time (and the engine started for several minutes).
Then this morning, same test (was pretty cold too). Tried to remote start, didn't work. Same message in the car when trying to manually start it. Enable the engine option again. Do the test, bang it worked.
Now it's always on and I did several test during the day and they all worked.
So, could it be that when it's REALLY REALLY cold, the engine is necessary ?
I am not going to try to outsmart the carefully thought out and tested engineering defaults on the car. It was 15 degrees this morning and I was glad the ice was available to warm the car cabin and battery! I hardly use the ice but in winter I'm glad it is there.
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I certainly do. Warm up the plugged in car that is in the garage without any carbon monoxide danger. I'd call that a great feature, especially when ambient is minus zero.
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Are you misunderstanding the thread? How do you avoid a CO risk in the garage with the engine running?
Many people are misunderstanding this thread.
It is asking if anyone actually wants the engine to run while plugged in.
The answer should be NO if you're in an enclosed space (or even outside but in front of entry doors or other leaky areas).
I still can't believe they allow it as an option despite the triple honk auto-off fiasco. If leaving your car on as a stupid user is a liability for them, how is this not?!
It is asking if anyone actually wants the engine to run while plugged in.
The answer should be NO if you're in an enclosed space (or even outside but in front of entry doors or other leaky areas).
I still can't believe they allow it as an option despite the triple honk auto-off fiasco. If leaving your car on as a stupid user is a liability for them, how is this not?!
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If I parked outside and lived in Alaska or Wisconsin (or Canada) I would definitely use it to get a warm cozy cabin in the shortest amount of time. It's no different than warming up the ICE vehicle a few minutes before leaving.
As for the triple honk, I wish I stopped them from doing that update. Though maybe there are some other tweaks in that update that causes the car to be more stable. Maybe WOT could share info on this...
There is a difference, in that this vehicle can warm up/cool down without the engine and is normal operation most of the year for most people.
If we put the two situations side by side:
Vehicle left running: I expected that my vehicle was off and the engine was not running when I left it.
Engine eventually turned on in garage - lawsuit, ruined for everyone from that day forward
Remote start: I expected that my vehicle would not run the engine when plugged in as it has not done so until now (because it wasn't cold enough per ERDTT threshold). But suddenly one day it does - future lawsuit.
We park ours outside in the driveway, so no CO exposure worry, and we want the vehicles to get as warm as possible, as quickly as possible, so we like it. Yesterday the ice was running out on the road most of the time due to the low temps. I just got the propulsion power reprogramming recall done so I'm wondering if that increased ice use but given the temps maybe not.
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