New owner with cabin preconditioning questions

I recently got a good deal on a used 2012 i-MIEV with decent range. I can't tell, from what I've read in the manual and on this forum, if my activation of cabin pre-heating from the remote is doing what it should. When running the heater from the battery on the road, of course, it's not hard at all to heat the car (at some cost to range, of course). But when plugged into L1 charging and pre-heating from the remote, it really doesn't generate much heat at all. It also doesn't seem to blow the fan very much. In fact, running the defroster from the remote does a much better job of pre-heating the car, at least while it's still fall.

Is this normal behavior? I've read some posts here, from 10 years ago, indicating that maybe it heats better or faster if I'm using L2 charging, is that true? That wasn't on my list to install until next spring, but I might try to get it done before winter if it means that I can start my morning commute in a pre-heated car.

Hello and welcome to the forum

Did you try below, ( set fan speed and temp to max before you leave the car) ?

oakvilleblake said:

Thanks everyone for your input.

I think this morning we figured out the remote.

What you helped me realize is that there is another crucial ingredient we were missing. I was under the impression from the manual that it didn't matter how the physical dials (fan speed, temp) were set b/c the remote had it's own setting, but I learned from your comments that that's not the case. I'll bet that's been most of our problem, since we are typically driving with the settings quite low (so it's just not enough on a cold morning to do the trick).

Thanks again.

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yahshoor, welcome to the forum.

Yes, using Remote and L1 to pre-heat the car is slow, simply because of the limited power available using 120vac. As you noticed, using the defroster setting works better. You might give yourself 15-20 minutes to preheat the car and see how that works out,

Don't forget to leave the seat heater switch ON as it will pre-warm the seat as you pre-heat the car. The seat heater energy consumption is minimal and I usually leave mine ON throughout the winter.

I never tried playing with the heater control settings when using the Remote, so do let us know how those turn out when pre-heating.

BTW, it's always fun to know where in the world someone is located, as we occasionally find other i-MiEV owners close to us. You might consider updating your profile (which will show your location by your username whenever you post), the procedure described here: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3196

I'm not sure if you came across any of my posts, but I found that using the HEAT setting for 5 minutes, and them switching to Defrost was the most effective for me. This keeps the fan speed low while the coolant is heated, and then defrost can more effectively heat the cabin with a higher fan speed and hot coolant. This does require about 30 minutes of preconditioning to get the car interior warm enough to hold the heat for a bit.

The HEAT setting turns on the heated seat(s) if the switch for each seat is on (2012 was driver only, newer had both front seats heated) and the fan to the floor on low. Defrost puts air to the windshield on high and also enables the rear defroster.

Many thanks, folks. I didn't find any of this previously; I picked poor search terms. It does work as expected, I just needed to leave the right settings on in the car when I plugged in.

So, this frosty morning in Portland, I attempted to preheat as per usual - ten minutes of heater, followed by thirty minutes of defrost - but it didn't work at all. Furthermore, it took three tries to start the car and get it into Ready mode. The first two tries, I just got a ding and a 12v battery warning. This afternoon, I took the tester to the battery and found it at 13.04 volts. Not the 13.4 volts I had expected.

Should I disconnect the 12v battery and test again? Take it inside to charge it on the trickle charger? Install a battery heater? I expect that the reason that I wasn't able to precondition the cabin was that my battery needs to be replaced (it has a 12/19 sticker on it)m or maybe that the extreme (lol, 0C or -1C) cold was keeping my battery from cranking out the amps necessary to start? I guess I'm asking you folks which thread I should read next.

edit: to fix embarassing typo

yahshoor said:

So, this frosty morning in Portland, I attempted to preheat as per usual - ten minutes of heater, followed by thirty minutes of defrost - but it didn't work at all. Furthermore, it took three tries to start the car and get it into Ready mode. The first two tries, I just got a ding and a 12v battery warning. This afternoon, I took the tester to the battery and found it at 13.04 volts. Not the 13.4 volts I had expected.

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You do realize that the J1772 plug needs to plugged into the car from a live EVSE? I don't understand why it would take two tries to get your car going, especially after you had just run the heater/defrost which I believe also actuates the 12 dc-dc converter... ah, but the heater/defroster didn't work either.

Need to be careful of the conditions under which you are testing the 12v battery: leave the hood unlatched and in the morning before doing anything measure the battery across the terminals. Hopefully you read >12.5v. The reading you saw was probably shortly after the car had been running, as the dc-dc kicks up the voltage to 14.4vdc at around 65°F as soon as you start the car or whenever it is charging. As soon as you turn off the car (or unplug a charger) it slowly decays down to an ideal of around 12.65v at 70°F. Again, as measured across the battery and NOT the 12v outlet inside the car. As soon as you open the car door the incandescent interior lights put enough of a load on the battery to start drawing it down to below 12.5vdc unless it is quite new.

yahshoor said:

Should I disconnect the 12v battery and test again? Take it inside to charge it on the trickle charger? Install a battery heater? I expect that the reason that I wasn't able to precondition the cabin was that my battery needs to be replaced (it has a 12/19 sticker on it)m or maybe that the extreme (lol, 0C or -1C) cold was keeping my battery from cranking out the amps necessary to start? I guess I'm asking you folks which thread I should read next.

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The battery 'starting' current is negligible compared to turning a starter on an infernal combustion engine. It's usually enough to get the car into READY, at which time the dc-dc takes over. For peace of mind, can you run an extension cord out to the car and put a small float charger across it overnight? It's too much trouble to remove the battery regularly, IMO.

What I have done with every 12v battery in all my cars is added a fused wire pigtail with Anderson connector on the end, and use that for plugging in a smart float charger whenever I leave the car alone for more than a couple of days.

Oh, and you might check the calibration of your voltmeter - many of the cheaper ones can be off as much as 1/2-volt.

Finally, one of a number of threads about the 12v battery: https://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=27166

Going through this learning curve with my 16 y/o daughter right now. She's already sacrificed a sideview mirror and wheel cover to the Mailbox Gods, and is figuring out the remote functions with mixed success. :lol:
Preheating on L2 is much more effective than L1. I've never had trouble starting up EVen in the dead of winter after the car was plugged in overnight. If the starting battery is 6+ years old and starting to act weak with the onset of winter, I'd go ahead with a replacement.
Best o Luck!
Jay