One month Old PHEV: No heat and climate error! Booked in!

[Nicolai]

Hi all,

Approx five days ago my RAV developed a warranty issue: I can no longer pre-heat the cabin: The app starts op the climate but very shortly after it stops again with the message: "Stop request received from climate control (11)"

This happens regardless of the car being plugged in or not. SOMETIMES it manages to "pre-heat" all though the air from the vents is cold regardless of set climate temp. Also, when driving in EV it cannot heat the cabin. And even in HW mode and HI temp, it's not very fast and warm compared to my previous Auris.

Ironically, snow has started to fall heavily in Denmark so the preheat feature is really needed now.

Car is booked in at the dealer's on Friday. I have little faith though that it will be a quick fix.

The issue started when the cold came. Before that I could preheat just fine.

I can charge the car remotely just fine.

Any ideas?

[Nick72]

Does it work if you use the air con button on the key fob rather than the smartphone app? If it does then its an issue with the App and onward connectivity. Probably software. 

[Nicolai]

Not by app and not by key. The air intake on the front has snow and Ice on it but I would expect it to work regardless. The manual is impaired heating at -10 Celsius. Not 0 or -5....

[Nick72]

On 12/3/2023 at 10:21 AM, Nicolai said:

Not by app and not by key. The air intake on the front has snow and Ice on it but I would expect it to work regardless. The manual is impaired heating at -10 Celsius. Not 0 or -5....

I've not had a problem starting or with Air con at minus 12C although it just isn't effective in EV mode at all. Short trips down the road only of course. 

It's worth noting that preheating via App or fob uses the traction Battery AFAIK. So if it's very cold it isn't going to work nor work as well as when the ICE is running. You just have to start the engine for that.

There are some good videos on YouTube of what Canadian R4P owners do. Many are preconditioning at very very low temperatures. Could be some tips.

Still, I'd get the dealer to check it out.

Worth also testing it when the car is still plugged in to a home charger because the power used for preconditioning essentially comes from here (albeit may still be via the traction battery). I'm not sure if there will be a difference but worth a shot. I leave my car plugged in during winter so I can precondition it without draining anything from the traction Battery so I can preserve range.

 

[Nicolai]

Dealer found the AC Condenser was leaking BIG time. Car had NO fluid at all in that system. Repair underway and hopefully I'll have the car back on Wednesday.

BZ4X as a loaner - happy I bought the RAV and not BZ: the chassis is so hard and uncomfortable compared to RAV imo.

[Nick72]

11 minutes ago, Nicolai said:

Dealer found the AC Condenser was leaking BIG time. Car had NO fluid at all in that system. Repair underway and hopefully I'll have the car back on Wednesday.

BZ4X as a loaner - happy I bought the RAV and not BZ: the chassis is so hard and uncomfortable compared to RAV imo.

Glad they found the problem. Fingers crossed it all gets sorted quickly. Not a great start for a new car.

I imagine the BZ4X is a heavy car. Perhaps as heavy as the RAV but smaller and without the amount of suspension articulation we have on the RAV?

[Nicolai]

2 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Glad they found the problem. Fingers crossed it all gets sorted quickly. Not a great start for a new car.

I imagine the BZ4X is a heavy car. Perhaps as heavy as the RAV but smaller and without the amount of suspension articulation we have on the RAV?

All I can say is that I'm now 100 percent positive that I made the right decision in going with the RAV over the BZ4X.

Like you, I figure the weight between the models are similar. I read on a Danish RAV4 PHEV FB group that one described the RAV as a flying carpet (in a good way: very smooth ride) compared to the BZ.

Having driven both back to back now, I see what he meant. The RAV4 (PHEV) is by far superior.

Fingers crossed this repair will the only one in time of ownership.

[Nicolai]

Condenser replaced. Car is back to normal. 🙂