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Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 7:05 pm
by Mukesh
I am contacting my dealer now to clarify , as I was also under the impression that , the pre - heating and cooling can be done remotely and timed .
I have a demo app for the volvo on call , and it doesn't mention any temperatures , but has the timer facility . I am very surprised that this timer facility is now not available in the UK , but the UK Volvo on call app , has this feature ( at least the demo version ) .

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 8:09 pm
by Whiterdesign
Unless you have an auxiliary heater you cannot preheat the cabin. Remote start will start the car for a maximum of 15 minutes and you can set your heated seats, steering heating and front and back screen heater to come on. The heaters will only come on if the temp is below 10 degrees C. Obviously running the engine for this time will slightly warm up the cabin as well. This is how it works on my XC60

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 8:44 pm
by Boomer
Thanks Whiterdesign - if the same with the XC40 that works for me. So it is definitely an engine start?
Mukesh - thanks for raising with your dealer. Look forward to their response.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:57 am
by pjm007
Boomer wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 5:49 pm
I am totally and utterly confused by all of this now. [Well not quite as I get the parking heater bit and that not being available in the UK]

pjm007, would you mind sharing what "Remote start" actually does in your XC40? Does it start the engine or something else?
Sorry for the delayed response. Yes - as others have now mentioned, remote start actually starts the engine, flashes the indicators etc. I am attaching a jpeg of the VOC app help page which describes what happens. The help page attached has more detail but is truncated here. Timing of the start can be for a max of 15 mins, with the app set at 5 mins by default. I have not had the time yet to check on how the “automatic settings” work re. temperatures, seats, screens, etc

D16F43A0-0501-49A2-8C24-36FA2C247203.png


Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 7:38 am
by Boomer
pjm, thanks that’s really helpful.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 8:53 am
by pjm007
Boomer wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 7:38 am pjm, thanks that’s really helpful.
Cheers. The main point of my initial post was to say that we can only pre-heat by starting the car, and not as I had been led to believe by switching on some sort of separate parking heater without creating noise and exhaust fumes on my drive. The app still suggests you can do that but the feature does not work. See further jpegs. By the way I now have a full feature code breakdown of my actual vehicle and one of the codes is “2B01 Heater Type: - Without Heater”

The jpegs show - 1) Failure to work message, 2) Attempt to start by pushing the Start button, 3) The pre-set timer for 7:15 - the time came and went but there was no auto start of pre-heating.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 8:58 am
by pjm007
2 jpegs didn’t appear above!

3BB6EC9E-E2A8-4621-83E9-874DE76201F6.png

D426E3A3-55B8-45B2-B193-B7EFC0CA04F2.png


Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:07 am
by Boomer
pjm, thanks again and an excellent question/thread to have raised. [I think the other one area which will run and run is phone/media/internet and general connectivity as everyone starts to work out what works (and doesn't) for their own circumstances].

I've only been able to use the "demo" in the Volvo on Call app, and thought that the live version might be sophisticated enough to know the spec's of the car and so tailor content appropriately. Clearly this is not the case.

So it looks like (at least for us in the UK - and no parking heater) that the parking climate function is redundant. This sort of makes sense on the basis that you could have the car starting up on a timer when you are nowhere near it, and so the car is not suitably supervised (and so illegal in the UK). Equally disappointing as I might have at least liked to have programmed one slot first thing in a winters morning, though you'd have to then remember to switch that off when not needed.

So it looks like Volvo have gone down the safer (more UK legal?) route and concluded that we can have a remote (engine) start but that this needs to be consciously made each and every time.

As posted above, it the remote start allows 15 mins of heating seats, front and rear window heaters, steering wheel heater, and perhaps some background cabin heating then for the majority of UK winter mornings that will get you some of the way then. I recall reading that you can do 2 x 15 mins sessions if needed.

Not the same as a parking heater scenario. I wonder if there might be a retro fit available if you really needed it?

Looks like the missing piece is what are the climate conditions that remote start then works to? What you left them on when last used the car? That's going to be a pain to have to turn on the front/rear heaters last thing when leaving the car.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:24 am
by AlexK
Boomer wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:07 am Looks like the missing piece is what are the climate conditions that remote start then works to? What you left them on when last used the car? That's going to be a pain to have to turn on the front/rear heaters last thing when leaving the car.
This is mentioned somewhere in the manual but can't immediately find it. My recollection is that the last-used settings will be recalled - in effect, it's as if you got in the car and started it yourself, then got out and left it for a bit.

As Whiterdesign mentioned earlier, if you've ticked the options in Sensus to automatically activate heated windscreen/seats/etc when cold, then they'll come on, too. To be honest, that's good enough for me, I wasn't expecting it to have the parking heater (although would have been nice!).

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:44 am
by Boomer
AlexK, thanks. It's all beginning to make sense (at least for me).

Likewise can't immediately find the piece in the manual about last used settings. Sure I read that as well.

But (for others) all the automatic options can be found by searching for "automatic start" in the pdf or the Volvo manual app.

Likewise I'm happy with this functionality as don't mind getting into a "cold" car, but getting a head start on de-icing windows/mirrors is the real boon.