Hybrid Pre-Heat not working

[dazmisiak]

I've had my car for getting on for 12 months now and the pre-heat / cool function has been working ok.
In the last month or two though every now and again I'd get in the car and it hadn't pre-heated it as scheduled.
Now it seems to have stopped working completely
I haven't changed any of the parameters , I'm guessing there's a fault somewhere but just wondered if anyone has any suggestions - other than suck it up and man up

 

[JT437]

This is no help … I know …

But I’ve got a similar problem with my Cupra Leon eHybrid. I bought it brand new in summer, and it was fine. But then, during summer it never really needed to preheat the interior.

Now it’s freezing (literally!) in the UK, it’s a different matter. Having the car automatically preheat itself (the HV battery and interior) is essential (well, for a PHEV).

Mine is set to preheat itself every morning before I drive to work. Some mornings it does, but occasionally it “forgets” And it’s still frosted over and cold inside.

It is kept on charge, so it’s not that.

However, me personally, I don’t think it’s a fault per se. It’s either crap firmware in the Infotainment, which (if you are on the latest update) a dealer can’t do anything about, or it’s something which is just innate to VAG hybrids.

I had a Golf GTE before this (basically the same car) and kept it for 4 years. And occasionally that “forgot” to preheat itself at the prescribed time. Though I think the Leon forgets more often.

It’s really annoying, I know. But if I know it’s going to be a really bad frost overnight, I’ve taken to grabbing my phone, and checking the app just before I leave for work, to make sure the car has preheated. If it’s not started preheating, I just initiate it from the app. Annoying, I know, but at least I can drive off in a nice warm defrosted car.

However, if yours is failing to preheat every morning, perhaps you do have a fault. I’m not sure if the preheating is governed by some sort of interior temperature sensor, that may have failed. I have no idea if such a thing exists, though it may, as there is no point heating a car interior to (eg) 20 C in summer, when the interior may already be warm.

I assume your car charges up to 100% before departure? That would rule out the car “losing power” in the morning so it can’t preheat.

And have you tried enabling the option for “preheat using battery power” in case that helps?

If you have the app, try forcing the preheat during the afternoon, to test it that way.

Aside from that, I guess it’s a trip to the dealer. I hope you get it sorted.

 

[dazmisiak]

Thank you for the reply, it sounds like you've experienced the same, I also had a GTE previously and that never missed a beat to be fair.
I can't use the app as the subscription has just run out and I'm not paying for it out of principal

I think a trip to the dealers may be in order...

 

[PeterThomsenDK]

Well add one more to the club. My Seat Leon eHybrid s completely ignoring departure times and is stone cold in the morning. When I bought it used a year ago it worked every morning, even after getting the car updated to 1940. Now its been failing more often than not and is overall having some weird issues regarding heating/preheating. I've paid for the car to be updated to 1969 and while the overall response of the infotainment is faster it hasn't resolved my heating issue.

Weird issues:
1) It takes for ever to heat the cabin if I only drive in EV-MODE and ICE engine isn't engaged. Even after a 19km trip home from work where the car is asked to start preheat 10 minutes before departure, the car is not fully heated to 100%(usually 21.5c, but it goes for any temp set) when I arrive at my home 19km later or roughly 20-25 minutes after departure from work. It use to be rather fast even in EV mode. It gets to around 74% of whatever temp I've set somewhat okay and the snails the rest of the way. Outside temp is below 7 these days..

2) It will completely ignore departure times set in the car and only rarely will it work(1 out of maybe 20 if Im lucky). It used to work when I bought the car in late october 2023. I can activate heating through the Seat App and that starts things up but then we are back to issue number 1.

3) I've noticed that the seat heater for the passenger side will turn on by itself when I either press the start button without foot on break or when I turn the car off.

4) If I just enter my car, put on seat belt, press start without foot on break, no heating happens at all. Just a lot of cold air. This is also different from when I bought it where it would start to heat up rather quick.

5) When I leave the car and lock it, the car will continue to try and warm the cabin and I have to wait for a good while for it to stop or kill heating through the APP.

I have following settings on in e-Manager.
Heating when car is unlucked.
Allow use of the high voltage battery for other things(cant remember the exact name).

This issues happens no matter if the car is plugged in to a charger or not. The charger I use can resume charging without being restarted. All works fine and is controlled by the car no problem. I've been through complete factory reset twice. I've trid signed in and being a primary user and without having any user signed in and only using Guest mode. Same behaviour. The car is a late 2020 model imported from Sweden to Denmark where I live.

Whats further weird is it seems to drain a lot of power even when it its just blowing cold air while not driving(upwards of 5kw/h according to the cockpit). I don't recall it being this hungry last winter. I cannot confirm this though as I don't have figures from last winter. What I have noticed is my EV range has gone down a little. Winter 2023/24 I was able to hit 44km on a full charge rather easy going to work with minus degrees C outside. Now with 7c outside it drains about 50% just going to work(15km).

 

[dazmisiak]

I THINk I may have sorted my issue, I've reset the factory settings ( bit of a ball ache) and got all the departure times and settings re-entered, got in it to come home tonight and it was toasty ..
It was plugged in at work though so will see what happens in the morning when it's not plugged it