First chilly trip of the season - ACC etc fault - resolved

[QLeo]

We left Stirling in temperatures of -1°C, which required a lot of window scraping to clear the ice, and it took some miles before the car's efficiency seemed to start to stabilise. I can only think that it warms itself as well as the occupants at first, then uses less power for that. The roads were busy, and I was using the automatic cruise control, which really makes heavy traffic, or (later in the trip) being held up in badly managed roadworks, almost a pleasure.

So imagine my dismay when I got the dreaded BOING and a series of errors appeared on the screen, starting with ACC error, LKA etc. This was seconds after using the windscreen wash, so I thought it was to do with the camera. Also, after scraping the ice, there was a lot of moisture on the inside of the car, so I wondered if there was condensation inside the camera housing. the good news was that, after an hour or so, the fault cleared, and the dreaded yellow triangle was gone. I was pleased about this, as I was wondering where we could stop to switch off to reset the system. I'm glad the software is smart enough to check that the fault condition still exists, in this case anyway, and resolves the issue without intervention.

We stopped after a while for breakfast, and a convenient charge, and I noticed that, yes, there was condensation in the camera housing. It was still very cold. It seemed a lot from the outside, but all camera-dependent systems worked perfectly.

This was also our first longer trip after a software update, and while, in general, LKA is now tamed, we did notice that the car much more assertive on solid lines on the left of the road (Scotland, driving n the left) while being calmer on dotted lines on the right.

 

[Rolfe]

You didn't use the car's pre-heat to clear the ice then?

 

[QLeo]

You didn't use the car's pre-heat to clear the ice then?

I did switch on the demister switch while I was scraping, but no, I didn't think of that. Must learn how to do it. If you have a quick eejit's guide for it, I'd be grateful.

 

[Rolfe]

You use the app. It's a bit of a fiddle, and occasionally it doesn't connect, but usually it works.

Control panel screen, bottom right. A wee thing that's supposed to look like a heater (I think). Push the slider to the right, or just tap it to the right. Screen comes up asking for your PIN. Enter that. Screen comes up saying "turning AC on". There's a "success" message when it happens, and it tells you it will switch off in ten minutes.

But then! Tap on OK. You're back at the Control Panel screen, but now it has a new feature near the top on the right, labelled HVAC. Tap on that, and it will invite you to send the temperature to the car. Set it at HI, if it needs doing it's not worth doing it at less (unless you're trying to pre-cool a very hot car of course!) Tap "send" at the bottom. It will send it, and then again tell you it will switch off in 10 minutes.

If you don't do that second bit, I don't think it works. It's ridiculously over-complicated, but you have to go through the entire sequence. (Six months ago it made you re-enter your PIN to send the temperature. Baby steps.)

You can do this twice in succession if you really need to, but I believe the car will refuse to accept a third command.

If you need to drive off before the ten minutes is up, sit in the car and press the brake pedal. That will stop it.

I find I lose 2% of battery for one pre-heat. You have been warned.

 

[QLeo]

You use the app. It's a bit of a fiddle, and occasionally it doesn't connect, but usually it works.

Control panel screen, bottom right. A wee thing that's supposed to look like a heater (I think). Push the slider to the right, or just tap it to the right. Screen comes up asking for your PIN. Enter that. Screen comes up saying "turning AC on". There's a "success" message when it happens, and it tells you it will switch off in ten minutes.

But then! Tap on OK. You're back at the Control Panel screen, but now it has a new feature near the top on the right, labelled HVAC. Tap on that, and it will invite you to send the temperature to the car. Set it at HI, if it needs doing it's not worth doing it at less (unless you're trying to pre-cool a very hot car of course!) Tap "send" at the bottom. It will send it, and then again tell you it will switch off in 10 minutes.

If you don't do that second bit, I don't think it works. It's ridiculously over-complicated, but you have to go through the entire sequence. (Six months ago it made you re-enter your PIN to send the temperature. Baby steps.)

You can do this twice in succession if you really need to, but I believe the car will refuse to accept a third command.

If you need to drive off before the ten minutes is up, sit in the car and press the brake pedal. That will stop it.

I find I lose 2% of battery for one pre-heat. You have been warned.

Thanks for that. I'll have to have a practice, I think. I did have a go this morning. later, while we were having breakfast, to turn on the heater, and yes, I got the pin screen. It then said turning o the AC, which I acknowledged, but it then said something about the car being unlocked. Sure enough, the lock slider was unlocked, so I thought nature was telling me not to play with things beyond my ken, I locked the car and left it.

I should perhaps put some more effort into understanding the app.

 

[Rolfe]

It's a handy way to lock the car if you forget. But you could have kept going. It does deliver a pleasantly warm car - I used it last night after choir practice when the temperature was hovering around zero. Some members from Sweden have reported complete defrosting of iced-up cars.

 

[QLeo]

It's a handy way to lock the car if you forget. But you could have kept going. It does deliver a pleasantly warm car - I used it last night after choir practice when the temperature was hovering around zero. Some members from Sweden have reported complete defrosting of iced-up cars.

Thanks for the idea and the pointers.

 

[Rolfe]

Bear in mind the power consumption though. (Although you might use that in any case bringing the car up to a tolerable temperature once you're on your way, I don't know.)

 

[QLeo]

Bear in mind the power consumption though. (Although you might use that in any case bringing the car up to a tolerable temperature once you're on your way, I don't know.)

Yes, a real balance. We'll learn, I'm sure. Part of the equation of getting an EV at this stage in our lives is so that learning new ways like this won't get easier as we get older. So yes, I will look into using the app in this way.

I assume this can be done when the car is on charge?

 

[Rolfe]

The wrinkle that people are finding is that when charging has stopped and the car is still plugged in, it won't work. You get error messages. You have to unplug the car, then it will work. Unless you are one of the people who has had an update that seems to fix this. Allegedly. Maybe just Trophies?

This is going to impact you less than the people who charge their cars overnight, and now find they have to go out into the snow to unplug them before they can pre-heat. So far as I know, it does work while the car is actually charging. People with LR batteries say they can re-set the charging % to 90 (if it's stopped at 80), let the car start charging again, and turn on the pre-heat. You can stop it charging once it's heated, it won't have taken much in ten minutes.

One more ridiculous work-round for an MG bug, which doesn't work with the SR because the LFP battery always goes to 100% and you can't put any more in after that!

 

[PeteC]

People with LR batteries say they can re-set the charging % to 90 (if it's stopped at 80), let the car start charging again, and turn on the pre-heat. You can stop it charging once it's heated, it won't have taken much in ten minutes.

Just to say that with my Trophy, if it has stopped charging at my usual 80% and is still plugged in, I simply start the pre-heat. I don't reset the charge level or start it charging. When the pre-heat starts the car also starts charging again, even though the charge is set to 80% and the car has already reached that percentage. Seems (and probably is) stupid that it ignores the percentage setting in this instance, but a handy stupidity as it makes pre-heating easier!

 

[Rolfe]

Different people seem to have different experiences. I wonder if it depends on the charger?

 

[PeteC]

Different people seem to have different experiences. I wonder if it depends on the charger?

I'm sure it does. Mine is a 5 year old podpoint that is set as a dumb charger so is always ready to give charge whenever the car 'asks' for it.

 

[Rolfe]

I only use a granny lead, and I have an SR so the car always goes to 100%. I don't know anything about wall boxes! All I know is that the car won't pre-heat of the granny lead is still plugged in. Which is a royal pain.

 

[Starplots]

You use the app. It's a bit of a fiddle, and occasionally it doesn't connect, but usually it works.

Control panel screen, bottom right. A wee thing that's supposed to look like a heater (I think). Push the slider to the right, or just tap it to the right. Screen comes up asking for your PIN. Enter that. Screen comes up saying "turning AC on". There's a "success" message when it happens, and it tells you it will switch off in ten minutes.

But then! Tap on OK. You're back at the Control Panel screen, but now it has a new feature near the top on the right, labelled HVAC. Tap on that, and it will invite you to send the temperature to the car. Set it at HI, if it needs doing it's not worth doing it at less (unless you're trying to pre-cool a very hot car of course!) Tap "send" at the bottom. It will send it, and then again tell you it will switch off in 10 minutes.

If you don't do that second bit, I don't think it works. It's ridiculously over-complicated, but you have to go through the entire sequence. (Six months ago it made you re-enter your PIN to send the temperature. Baby steps.)

You can do this twice in succession if you really need to, but I believe the car will refuse to accept a third command.

If you need to drive off before the ten minutes is up, sit in the car and press the brake pedal. That will stop it.

I find I lose 2% of battery for one pre-heat. You have been warned.

If you’re plugged in at home and the battery is less than 100% charged, put it on charge whilst the aircon is on? Also preheat the battery about 1h before you’re due to set off if possible (you can set a timer on the app for this, in the charging section).
All takes some power but the battery will be more efficient at the right temperature so there’s a useful trade-off there.
It hasn’t been cold enough here to need battery pre-heating but I’ve tried it a few times and when I check in the app it tells me the battery didn’t need pre-heating so it’s not going to waste power unnecessarily..

Edit I just read the comment above that the cabin preheat won’t work with the granny lead plugged in, I have a Zappi so maybe that’s why it worked when I tried it - if not I can always stop that remotely while it preheats then turn it back on again. EV’s are a continuous learning curve, obviously

 

[Rolfe]

I'm not sure it matters whether it's a granny lead or a wall box. The issue is that the SR always goes to 100% and balances whenever you charge. You want it to do that, because you want the full charge. If you set a timer to stop the charge before it gets to 100% you don't get your full charge and the battery doesn't get to balance, which it doesn't like.

Under normal circumstances the SR will be at 100% when you're ready to go in the morning, and trying to arrange for it not to be is both a nuisance and undesirable in other ways.