[sbford313]

Last year I had my heater worked on because it was blowing cold air only in electric mode. After a week with the dealer (and the dealer having to call headquarters cause they couldn't figure it out) they replaced the electric heating core and now enter the new year...
It's getting colder and I noticed when I have to run the heater, in ECO mode it stays at 100% climate power. When I switch to fan mode it stays at 100%.
Anyone else noticing this?
Also, I noticed my car sounds like it's got a slight rubber burning smell when it's been in gas mode, is this related? Anyone else having issues with climate settings (heat specifically)? Any solutions? I feel like the dealerships know less about the car maintenance then the owners do!

 

[Dodman]

If the heater is showing 100 percent on Eco my guess is you have "auto" enabled on the Climate screen. Not sure about he rubber burning smell. Have not experienced that on my 2014.

 

[sbford313]

Good guess... but no... auto isn't enabled. This only happens when I have it manually set on the speed of the fan (doesn't matter if it's set from the lowest fan blow, to the highest) with a temp of 80 degrees or more. Typically whenever the weather is in the mid 40s or lower.

 

[porbund]

Do you have the front defroster on?

 

[Volt Gambler]

The burnt rubber smell is a common symptom. It is caused by rubber dust from the tires on the roads getting under the hood or on the exhaust parts as you drive with the engine off. Then when the engine runs later the rubber dust burns off of the exhaust parts as they heat up. I get the same effect even worse when I tow mine behind the motorhome for miles and then run the engine enough to burn off the rubber dust. Happens on both my Volt and my Malibu. Just ignore it, it goes away fairly fast.

 

[canehdian]

The climate % is basically meaningless. Don't go by that.
Look at the heat icon - is it on?
When idle, look at the kW being pulled.
If the heat is on, you should see minimum 2kW at idle. Hit comfort and it should jump to 7kW. This rules out eco heat vs battery heat. If battery heat is on max plus eco heat you should see 4kW.

The only caveat is ambient temp - if it's reasonably warm out, it may not pump the heater to max. You might only see 5kW, for example.

If you hit comfort heat and see 7kW idle, your heater is working. The problem lies elsewhere, in getting that heat to the cabin.

 

[sbford313]

Great insight, I'll check into that thanks! Keep the great ideas comin fellas! (and ladies!)

 

[sbford313]

No defroster on when it happens

 

[don shaw]

just tun on auto, set a temperature you are comfortable at, and let the volt do the job for you. i used to fiddle with the havoc controls constantly and got weird stuff happening. now i leave it on auto summer and winter without changing anything and am always comfortable. sometimes have to reduce temperature setting in summer above 90 degrees outside in blazing sunlight.

this includes precondition car 20 minutes before i leave in the morning on cold days

 

[barbyoung]

What do I push to see the kW being pulled?

The climate % is basically meaningless. Don't go by that.
Look at the heat icon - is it on?
When idle, look at the kW being pulled.
If the heat is on, you should see minimum 2kW at idle. Hit comfort and it should jump to 7kW. This rules out eco heat vs battery heat. If battery heat is on max plus eco heat you should see 4kW.

The only caveat is ambient temp - if it's reasonably warm out, it may not pump the heater to max. You might only see 5kW, for example.

If you hit comfort heat and see 7kW idle, your heater is working. The problem lies elsewhere, in getting that heat to the cabin.

 

[El Dobro]

What do I push to see the kW being pulled?

It's in the screen under the speedometer. Turn the knob on the left until the screen that looks like two horseshoe magnets pops up.

 

[TSquare]

At the main DIC menu:
1. Turn the SELECT knob to scroll
through the possible DIC menus.
2. Press the center of the SELECT
knob when a menu item is
highlighted to enter that menu.
3. Continue to turn and press the
SELECT knob to scroll through
and select the available menu
items:
Trip A
Trip B
Oil Life
Tire Pressure
Vehicle Messages
Units
Tutorial Mode
Power Gauge
Following Distance Indication
Turn-by-Turn

 

[homesteadelectric]

Related question: How to prevent range being pulled down by electric heater on start up?

I want to drive the first 20 highway miles on Hold, then switch to electric in town. If it's cold it wants to use electric heat immediately, stealing my range, at least until the gas engine is warmed up. Am I not setting the interior temp low enough?

 

[hiperco]

Related question: How to prevent range being pulled down by electric heater on start up?

I want to drive the first 20 highway miles on Hold, then switch to electric in town. If it's cold it wants to use electric heat immediately, stealing my range, at least until the gas engine is warmed up. Am I not setting the interior temp low enough?

Set climate to fan only

 

[2VoltFamily]

Related question: How to prevent range being pulled down by electric heater on start up?

I want to drive the first 20 highway miles on Hold, then switch to electric in town. If it's cold it wants to use electric heat immediately, stealing my range, at least until the gas engine is warmed up. Am I not setting the interior temp low enough?

Precondition the cabin while plugged in before you leave. The use Hold with Fan Only once you depart. The fan will blow warm air from the engine heat.

 

[johnjames460]

Last year I had my heater worked on because it was blowing cold air only in electric mode. After a week with the dealer (and the dealer having to call headquarters cause they couldn't figure it out) they replaced the electric heating core and now enter the new year...
It's getting colder and I noticed when I have to run the heater, in ECO mode it stays at 100% climate power. When I switch to fan mode it stays at 100%.
Anyone else noticing this?
Also, I noticed my car sounds like it's got a slight rubber burning smell when it's been in gas mode, is this related? Anyone else having issues with climate settings (heat specifically)? Any solutions? I feel like the dealerships know less about the car maintenance then the owners do!

This is my first winter with my Volt and I don't have heat at all on electric only mode. Are you saying that I should have some heat when in electric only?

 

[2VoltFamily]

This is my first winter with my Volt and I don't have heat at all on electric only mode. Are you saying that I should have some heat when in electric only?

Yes you should have heat on ECO and Comfort modes on the climate control screens. You will have to turn the temperature up sometimes until it reaches "HI" just above 88 degrees.

 

[canehdian]

This is my first winter with my Volt and I don't have heat at all on electric only mode. Are you saying that I should have some heat when in electric only?

Yes you should have heat on ECO and Comfort modes on the climate control screens. You will have to turn the temperature up sometimes until it reaches "HI" just above 88 degrees.

Just hit AUTO and comfort on your climate screen.
You should never need to set it to HI, that doesn't make it heat up any faster anyway unless it's not actually cold where you are and you try to turn on heat (cough Texas, FL, CA people). That's just the temp setpoint to shut off at. It only matters if it's just cool and not cold and the computer won't go full heat to save energy.
As long as it's refrigerator temp or colder, 4C/40F, the computer should be putting out max heat. Above that, it may dial back the heater a bit from max to say, 3kW instead of 6kW.
But you should ultimately still get heat when the engine is not running.

You can set it to HI for testing, but that doesn't do anything for normal operation. Just like setting your home thermostat to max hot or max cold doesn't make it heat or cool any faster - it just controls how the system cycles.

 

[burgandy25]

Last year I had my heater worked on because it was blowing cold air only in electric mode. After a week with the dealer (and the dealer having to call headquarters cause they couldn't figure it out) they replaced the electric heating core and now enter the new year...
It's getting colder and I noticed when I have to run the heater, in ECO mode it stays at 100% climate power. When I switch to fan mode it stays at 100%.
Anyone else noticing this?
Also, I noticed my car sounds like it's got a slight rubber burning smell when it's been in gas mode, is this related? Anyone else having issues with climate settings (heat specifically)? Any solutions? I feel like the dealerships know less about the car maintenance then the owners do!

This is our first winter with the Volt so I'm not sure if its normal or not but I can attest to the 100% on fan only as well. We just got the Heater control module replaced and with the heat on eco or comfort the climate jumps straight to 100%, after a few minutes I decided to turn it to fan and it stayed at 100%, it was about 28 degrees out. I hope thats normal. Hopefully someone can chime in in regard to this.

 

[hiperco]

I think the climate percentage number MAY include battery climate as well. But I don't know for sure