[fintonissimo]

2 Scenarios today...1st one: I drove my car today to show it to a friend who lived 35 miles away. Part of the drive was on the freeway, so I used hold mode. I parked the car outside and visited the friend for a couple hours, and then we went for a drive. I started the car up, and because the temperature was about 27 degrees F. outside, the ICE kicked on. The ICE heated the coolant temp and then shut off as per normal operation. We drove for a bit, and then sat in the car without shutting it off for several minutes, using the heater the whole time. The ICE came on again a couple of times as we were sitting there. I was surprised because it came on sooner than I thought it should, given that the coolant was still hot. We were sitting there for about 15 minutes with the heat on. The screen was estimating that I could drive 27 more miles on the remaining charge. The hood was securely shut the whole time.

2nd scenario: After the friend got out of the car, I drove home. On the freeway I again put the car into hold mode. However, when I got off the freeway, I tried to put the car into normal mode. The selector was indicating normal on the screen, but was showing that the car was still using gas for power, as if it was still in Hold mode. I cycled through the mode button selections a couple of times, and after doing so, the normal mode kicked in, and I was able to drive using the remaining electrical charge for the rest of my trip home.

I'm wondering if these are 2 separate issues, or if both could be related and caused by a faulty hold mode selector switch. Any thoughts? Thinking about the 1st scenario when I was parked, I was surprised that the ICE came on when it did. It was almost as if the car was operating in hold mode when I was parked, even though normal mode was selected.

In any case, I know that I can't prove this happened as I said it did. If it happens again, I hope I can video it, but that's hard to do when you are driving! I hope this was a fluke and won't happen again. I really don't want to have the car brought in for its 3rd warranty repair in only 3 months of ownership!

 

[Fourdoors]

I had trouble using Hold mode too. It looks like the trick is to make mmediately let go once you scroll to the mode you want. Otherwise it reverts to Normal mode. Seems like this could be easier.

 

[chevyman142000]

I think both scenarios you describe are completely normal operation. For scenario 1, you could go into the settings and change it to deferred, that way to gas motor wont kick in till it is somewhere near 15 degrees instead of 25. For scenario 2, I've had this too. Usually it is just the computer finishing up something and it will shut off eventually. I just assume that the computer/gm programmer is smarter than I and has it doing something for a reason. Hope this helps!

 

[fintonissimo]

For scenario 1, you could go into the settings and change it to deferred, that way to gas motor wont kick in till it is somewhere near 15 degrees instead of 25.
For scenario 2, I've had this too. Usually it is just the computer finishing up something and it will shut off eventually. I just assume that the computer/gm programmer is smarter than I and has it doing something for a reason. Hope this helps!

Regarding the 1st scenario, I knew about that, and chose to leave it at the higher temperature setting. I expected the ICE to operate because of the temperature, which it did. What was unusual to me, though, was that it came on again 2 more times in a relatively short time span, and the coolant was still hot. Is that normal? Scenario 2 I hope is what you say, but I've never experienced it before, though.

 

[chevyman142000]

You can display the coolant temp on the screen behind the steering wheel. I find in my car that the motor will come on and heat the coolant up to around 160-165, then shut off. It then comes back on when the coolant gets to around 125 degrees.

 

[fintonissimo]

I had trouble using Hold mode too. It looks like the trick is to make mmediately let go once you scroll to the mode you want. Otherwise it reverts to Normal mode. Seems like this could be easier.

But I had the opposite problem, going from hold mode to normal mode. It was like it was staying in hold mode even though the screen was registering that the car was in normal mode.

 

[fintonissimo]

You can display the coolant temp on the screen behind the steering wheel. I find in my car that the motor will come on and heat the coolant up to around 160-165, then shut off. It then comes back on when the coolant gets to around 125 degrees.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. The coolant had not cooled off to 125 degrees yet, but the ICE came on anyway.

 

[bentbiker]

But I had the opposite problem, going from hold mode to normal mode. It was like it was staying in hold mode even though the screen was registering that the car was in normal mode.

If, while driving in Hold, the SOC increases above the point at which you initiated that mode, miles due to that extra charge will be counted as gas miles. Once it hits the original SOC, the mile start counting as EV miles again.

On the bigger picture, you are going to drive yourself crazy if you question every little thing this car does. Try just enjoying it.

 

[freshcut]

I agree with bentbiker. I questioned a lot of things mine did for about the first month I had it. Finally I just gave up and accepted that the car has a whole lot more information being fed to the computers than what is displayed on my DIC and that some team of engineers at GM knew a whole lot more about making the whole thing work than I did, so I left it at that and just enjoy the car as it was meant to be which has thus far proven to be the second best choice I made. First of course was going from a mid 90's gas guzzler to the Volt.

 

[Arcanox]

But I had the opposite problem, going from hold mode to normal mode. It was like it was staying in hold mode even though the screen was registering that the car was in normal mode.

It will run the engine for a little bit (no more than a couple minutes) after switching from Hold to Normal, even if the coolant is hot. It probably has to take some measurements or wait for some sensors to reach a certain range. It will say "engine power" on the power display even if it's driving on mostly battery if the ICE is on at all.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. The coolant had not cooled off to 125 degrees yet, but the ICE came on anyway.

Depending on the outside air temperature and other factors, ERDTT (engine running due to temperature) may kick in the engine at higher coolant temps. I've had mine kick in at 135 before. Again, normal operation.

 

[llninja]

It does that in the winters cold. I don't think there is anything wrong with your hold button. If you cycled through your info messages, you would have seen the engine arunning Due To Temperature message.

 

[fintonissimo]

Is it normal, though, for the ICE to come on 2 times within 3-4 minutes with the coolant temperature still hot? That's what happened as I was sitting there. If that is normal, then no worries. I posted this thread, not because I am trying to drive myself crazy analyzing the car, but because if something isn't working as it should, I need to take care of it. I appreciate the collective knowledge of people on this forum. However, occasionally people don't seem to read the carefully worded details of posts before responding.

However, even though I love this car, so far my experience in the first 3 months has not earned my trust in its reliability. (I've had 2 warranty repairs already). That's why I want to make sure it is operating correctly, and why I posted this thread. I know the car is complicated, but I like to understand how it works and know that it is working as it should.

 

[llninja]

Is it normal, though, for the ICE to come on 2 times within 3-4 minutes with the coolant temperature still hot? That's what happened as I was sitting there. If that is normal, then no worries. I posted this thread, not because I am trying to drive myself crazy analyzing the car, but because if something isn't working as it should, I need to take care of it. I appreciate the collective knowledge of people on this forum. However, occasionally people don't seem to read the carefully worded details of posts before responding.

However, even though I love this car, so far my experience in the first 3 months has not earned my trust in its reliability. (I've had 2 warranty repairs already). That's why I want to make sure it is operating correctly, and why I posted this thread. I know the car is complicated, but I like to understand how it works and know that it is working as it should.

Yes, it happens all the time to me, though my g1 doesn't have coolant temps for me to do any checking. The ice does turn on all the time in cold, and I have my ERDTT setting set to the higher temp. The flip side is that when I drive into town in hold mode, then turn it off when hitting city traffic, even with ERDTT I can sometimes get 6-8 miles of ev driving without the guessometer losing any miles. So it goes both ways: burn a little fuel, battery goes farther than anticipated.

Remember the days when your ice vehicles had much less information in the dash? In some ways I miss not having all this telemitry. The numbers combined with the desire to avoid sipping Dino juice causes some of us go to OCD crazy about this (Like Ari_C, the king of EV range on this forum)

 

[fintonissimo]

Thanks LLninja, and others as well. Sounds like everything is operating as it should, which is a good thing! Incidentally, I let my friend drive the car. You should have seen the smile on his face when he tromped down on the gas pedal! I told him that this car is more fun to drive than any I've already owned. It outperforms the Prius, and I like the looks of it a whole lot better!

 

[llninja]

Thanks LLninja, and others as well. Sounds like everything is operating as it should, which is a good thing! Incidentally, I let my friend drive the car. You should have seen the smile on his face when he tromped down on the gas pedal! I told him that this car is more fun to drive than any I've already owned. It outperforms the Prius, and I like the looks of it a whole lot better!

Agreed, the new Prius is fugly

 

[Fourdoors]

I agree it's not good to overthink everything. However the Hold mode is very useful. We wanted to run the Volt as a hybrid on our freeway trip and then switch to electric when we got to our destination. It's frustrating when you should be able to do something and you can't. I just couldn't get it off Normal mode. Will try again on our next trip.