Seat Heater when Preconditioning
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When preconditioning the Volt decides whether it is cold enough to require the seat heaters to come on during the preconditioning cycle. Only the front seat heaters may be activated. In the 2018 Volt the steering wheel heater (if equipped) may also come on automatically. Try sitting in your Volt during the preconditioning. You will be able to tell if the seat heaters are being activated.
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Did you program them to come on in your Vehicle Personalization?
Pg 143 in your manual
https://cdn.dealereprocess.net/cdn/servicemanuals/chevrolet/2017-volt.pdf
Auto Heated Seats
When enabled, the AUTO heated seat buttons on the touch screen will be highlighted. This feature will automatically activate heated seats at the level required by the interior temperature. The auto heated seats can be turned off by using the heated seat buttons on the center stack.
Select Off or On.
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I believe this is only for when the car is turned "on," not for preconditioning. Check out page 146 "remote start auto heated seats." The two should operate independently of each other--at least they did in the Gen 1. I could enable remote-start heated seats, but still leave the "auto" heated seats off when the car was running.
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Good catch...it seems that it disappeared during one of my edits of that post...
Remote Start Auto Heat Seats
If equipped and turned on, this feature will turn the heated seats on when using remote start on
cold days.
Select Off or On.
I did read the manual. So be astounded by someone else. I have this set to true but the seats don't heat until i start the car.
I think (but am not certain) this may have something to do with one or both of the following: (a) the last temperature you set before turning off the car (which is the target temperature for preconditioning), or (b) whether your climate control was in "auto" mode when you turned off the car (being in "auto" might be required for the seat heaters to be activated).
Before taking the car to the dealer, you could try futzing with these parameters. Try setting the temperature to the highest possible setting, on "auto", before you turn off the car. If you do that, and seat heaters still don't come on when you precondition on a cold morning, something must be wrong.
Before taking the car to the dealer, you could try futzing with these parameters. Try setting the temperature to the highest possible setting, on "auto", before you turn off the car. If you do that, and seat heaters still don't come on when you precondition on a cold morning, something must be wrong.
When the Volt is running the preconditioning cycle, doing its thing, the climate control settings/buttons do not illuminate. The only way to tell if the heated seats have been activated during preconditioning is to sit in the seat or hold you hand on the seat cushion/lower seat back cushion.
Check fuses F7, F8 (Front Heated Seats) in the rear compartment fuse block. It would be unusual for both front seat heater fuses to be bad but maybe they forgot to install the fuses. Also, F21 is the fuse for the rear heated seat. See page 270 of the 2017 Volt Owner's Manual.
You are correct, if the fuses were missing then the seat heaters would not work at all.
In my experience preconditioning the Volt is a real world Forrest Gump box of chocolates experience; you never know what you'll get. I believe that the preconditioning program takes inputs from the outside temperature, cabin thermostat setting, daylight sensor and last climate control settings before deciding how much heating or cooling will be performed. Hell, it might even be using GPS and looking up the average daytime and night time high and low temperature for the Volt's location.
I have sat in my Volt while the preconditioning cycle is still running, there are no climate control system indicator lights that would provide a clue as to what setting are active. I have felt the heat from the front electric seat heaters (both driver and passenger seat) so the Volt can turn on the front seat heaters when it decides to do so. I don't frequently park outside where I need to melt snow and ice from the rear hatch glass and side view mirrors but I believe that depending on the air temperature and/or humidity level inside the Volt's cabin that the rear defrost/defogger may come on automatically during the preconditioning cycle. I did recently drive a 2018 Volt Premier as a loaner vehicle and I can confirm that the steering wheel heater does come on automatically during preconditioning if the outside temperature is low.
I also believe that preconditioning using the MyChevolet App and the remote start feature available via the key fob do not always function the same. In my experience the key fob remote start will resume the most recent cabin climate control settings while the MyChevrolet App may choose different settings.
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