No heat in -15c and colder temps (partially fixed with the HVAC update)

[Kennykustom]

Same here.

Sponsored

 

[Kennykustom]

Hi all,

Trying to get a baseline of information for those in the colder areas of the world as I have an open customer care case with Ford Canada and my vehicle is still trying to be diagnosed at the dealership. Tech helpline is trying to flag a plugged heater core but I'm disagreeing with this.

-12c to -15c I get lukewarm/tepid heat when on max defrost setting only.
-16c and colder I get ice cold air on any setting leaving the vehicle partially undriveable as the interior fogs up.

They allowed me to take a new MME identical to mine home to test it as they keep getting customers in for this issue, this one was built in October 2022, Mine was built in March 2022. Same situation even with preconditioning and plugging it in.

I was told by the dealership that everyone that experiences these issues should make a customer care case as they provide you with a free rental, and if they cant find another EV for you to drive they reimburse your fuel spent. Just save the receipts and submit to your customer care rep.


*EDIT: I totally forgot to state the recall/HVAC update was done on my vehicle. They did it twice to no avail.

Let me know your experiences!

I actually saw your car sitting outside the dealer on main on Monday am .
Hard to miss i think.

 

[shadowchan454]

I actually saw your car sitting outside the dealer on main on Monday am .
Hard to miss i think.

It’s quite the posibillity! Very few like mine.

 

[shadowchan454]

Yes. At +15ºF there is still plenty of heat available, no issues there. That changes dramatically when you get below around 0ºF. Once you reach the threshold it will suddenly stop keeping up.

Just as an example it is -26c here with a wind chill that makes it fee like -37c which would be -34F. Honestly it can’t keep up past -15c which is +5F. I drive 25 minutes going highway speeds each day (80-100KM/hr) and once I even get past 20 km/hr I lose all heat that was built up during the pre conditioning.

Thankfully the dealership has gotten back to me and there is supposed to be a technician coming down to look at the purple people eater soon-ish. Till then I’m stuck with this rental Corolla.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Do you guys with heat issues have glass roofs? I'm finding that makes a big difference. This is what I'm finding:

Glass roof heat threshold: 5ºF/-15ºC
Regular roof heat threshold: -15ºF/-26ºC

 

[Rory]

Do you guys with heat issues have glass roofs? I'm finding that makes a big difference. This is what I'm finding:

Glass roof heat threshold: 5ºF/-15ºC
Regular roof heat threshold: -15ºF/-26ºC

Makes sense. They should have a cold climate package that includes an upgraded 12 kw PTC heater (which should be enough for cabin and battery) and regular roof instead of glass. Should take care of most of the cold climate problems.

 

[shadowchan454]

Do you guys with heat issues have glass roofs? I'm finding that makes a big difference. This is what I'm finding:

Glass roof heat threshold: 5ºF/-15ºC
Regular roof heat threshold: -15ºF/-26ºC

Mine is a Premium which comes standard with a glass roof. But honestly I don’t think the glass has any relation to the fact the heater core is too weak to heat both the battery and cabin at cruising speeds.

 

[Shayne]

Do you guys with heat issues have glass roofs? I'm finding that makes a big difference. This is what I'm finding:

Glass roof heat threshold: 5ºF/-15ºC
Regular roof heat threshold: -15ºF/-26ºC

Premium glass roof. Would of not have got it if I could but wanted the 4x. Like it now and find it is more of a skylight than a window. The car is brighter less confined. One small stone chip so far

I leave hvac at 18C auto low, seat on 1 and no wheel heat. I like it a bit cooler when dressed for -25C. The seat has 2 warmer settings and the wheel gets real hot. Adjusting the heated seats and steering wheel higher could help people? That is the real heat in this vehicle and maybe we should not be talking hvac to keep warm? As long as the car is not frosting hvac should be good. It has a defrost setting also.

The heater may not be big enough and is over worked? I have seen the HVB temp start at 11C and drop when I am driving to way less than optimum. That is the only thing I have saw with the little electric heater that may indicate it is over worked. Thinking the hvac update may have further exacerbated that stealing heat from the pack. You would think it should be able to get the HVB up to a reasonable operating temperature?

I agree with you 2 heaters 2 jobs would be something to look into. Not informing people to turn off the hvac when real cold and DCFC as that makes no sense to the guy sitting in the car.

 

[jonkMACHE]

Arctic blast in my neck of the woods, so I'll see how it does with 12F Temps. Wind chill in the -10F, and I wonder how much all that convection will have an impact on it.

 

[shadowchan454]

Tough luck for me and everyone else with this issue.

My shop foreman just reached out saying the field service Engineer said, in shorter terms, "too bad." That this is how the vehicle is supposed to work. Even after the supposed recall that I was told only slowed down the coolant in the system so it heated up more.

The shop foreman said the FSE is entertaining suggestions from techs on fixes for this as they are as stumped as we all are.

This is a design flaw. Through and through. This is not able to be mended by a software update. And to suggest lowering my fan speed and praying my front windshield doesn't fog up is not a fix.

I will be reaching out to Transport Canada on this and I implore others to do so as well. This recall did not fix the issue.

What say you @Ford of Canada

 

[Mach-Lee]

Tough luck for me and everyone else with this issue.

My shop foreman just reached out saying the field service Engineer said, in shorter terms, "too bad." That this is how the vehicle is supposed to work. Even after the supposed recall that I was told only slowed down the coolant in the system so it heated up more.

The shop foreman said the FSE is entertaining suggestions from techs on fixes for this as they are as stumped as we all are.

This is a design flaw. Through and through. This is not able to be mended by a software update. And to suggest lowering my fan speed and praying my front windshield doesn't fog up is not a fix.

I will be reaching out to Transport Canada on this and I implore others to do so as well. This recall did not fix the issue.

What say you @Ford of Canada

Mine is good down to about -20 to -25ºC. If you take the outside temp and add 40ºC that's as warm as the cabin will get. That's just how big the heater is, it can't do more.

 

[shadowchan454]

Mine is good down to about -20 to -25ºC. If you take the outside temp and add 40ºC that's as warm as the cabin will get. That's just how big the heater is, it can't do more.

That's the problem though. I shouldn't have to do math to make sure I can drive my $80k vehicle. That is not right.

 

[Guy]

We had -27C last week end. I had good heat, not toasty but enough to keep the windows clear and stay comfortable. I did precondition the car which stays outside before going out.

 

[shadowchan454]

We had -27C last week end. I had good heat, not toasty but enough to keep the windows clear and stay comfortable. I did precondition the car which stays outside before going out.

Did you drive faster than 80kmph?

 

[ARK]

Out of curiosity for those of you who live in sufficiently cold climates to experience this, does it make a difference if you are alone in the car versus if you have passengers?

In theory, each person in the car is sort of like a natural 'heater', wondering if it meaningfully makes a difference in what the coldest possible threshold is before the heater becomes ineffective if you have one passenger or multiple passengers versus being alone in the vehicle.

Sponsored