Cabin Heating Issues

Here in CT the mornings are getting a bit chilly (28-35 degrees at 7:15am), just a taste of what's to come this winter. I find that the cabin heat, turned to "HI" with medium fan, blows air that is noticeably cool to the touch for the entirety of my 35 minute commute.

I have the 2015 SEL, is anyone else in colder climes having this issue? Is it that my commute isn't long enough for the heater to really get going, or is the heat pump in the SEL so anemic as to not work well in even this mild morning chill?

The seat warmer helps, but sitting on my hands in order to stay warm in a car w/ this price tag seems silly. I know i can pre-condition but i do public charging, not home charging, and don't want to draw my range down even further ahead of my drive to work. And i figure if it doesn't warm up in 35 minutes of active driving, what good will pre-conditioning my car at idle for 15 mins do?

Any suggestions/insights...beyond "wear gloves" and "bundle up"...is appreciated.

Jeff
2015 Pacific Blue SEL

My 2015 SEL takes a minute or so to start generating heat, doesn't blast it but was quite noticeable early this year, even at sub-zero temps.

Coincidentally, today I'm taking it in for it's first warranty service, for a repeating (about 1-2 cycles, variable) heavy clicking sound which comes from dash for about 30 seconds after heating (but not cooling*) ventilation starts. I started noticing it a month or so ago on sub-70 mornings when I didn't turn the climate control off soon enough.

I'll update when the fix is in.
Update 1: The service rep. agreed with my suspicion that it's an air flow control gate that's working, but grumpy. Since they'd have to keep it for a few days to dismantle the dash, I decided to wait a few weeks to do the service.

* it immediately stops if I turn the temperature setting below ambient, whether A/C is on or not.

There is a known issue and a Service Bulletin regarding the heat pump system. If you have not had the car serviced for that issue before, take it in and they should be able to resolve the issue with settings and possibly firmware. Very few people here have reported hardware problems when the heat is not working in their SEL.

Just to add another wrinkle for those interested...

i pre-conditioning my car this morning for about 10 minutes, just to see what would happen. The heat was blasting nice and toasty for the first 10-15 minutes of my ride. At that point I was comfortable and turned the fan down a few notches and switched from the main vents to the floor.

A couple minutes later I noticed the car was getting cooler and so i turned the fan back up and switched back to the main vents. The air was that same cool temperature from before even though the temp setting was on "HI" for the entire drive.

I'm stopping by the dealership to pick up the lightning cable today and mentioned this issue to the sales red. I specifically asked about the heat pump TSB and will report back on what i hear from the dealer.

Yeah, there must be something wrong. I used my eGolf through the worst winter in Boston history last year and it was blowing hot air within my 10 minute commute.
In fact, I thought it was a big advantage to an EV as the waste heat heating of my previous ICE GTI didn't get time to warm up in my short commute.

Thanks for the support everyone, it was very helpful and ultimately successful. A description of my experience with VW is below. Generally positive overall.

While i was picking up my lightning cable, I requested the heat pump TSB be addressed on my eGolf. Initially the service person said there were no heat pump recalls listed. I corrected her and noted this was a TSB. She asked me what the issue was, I explained. It had the tone of a test, checking to see if i got the answer right. She then read the TSB aloud and they were virtually identical descriptions of the issue.

I had the software update applied on Thursday, it took about an hour. I'm happy to report my car was pumping strong heat on my way into work this morning. Had to turn it down about 5 minutes into the drive because it was so powerful (and it wasn't very cold this morning).

One minor point of irritation was that i asked what the other TSBs were. She wasn't willing to tell me. She said if i had another issue, to tell them and they'd check to see if there was a corresponding TSB. They don't address TSBs proactively, only if there is an issue and the customer brings it to their attention. Given how new the car is, i said it'd be difficult to know what is a TSB-type issue vs an idiosyncrasy of the first model year of the first VW electric vehicle. She said there was no way for her to access a list of TSBs for the vehicle...which sounds suspect.

Regardless, the issue i had was addressed and the resolution was quick, painless and effective. Can't ask for too much more than that.

Thanks again! This forum, and those who contribute to it, are a great resource helping to make the leap to electric not feel like such a leap.

EV Lessee
2015 eGolf SEL Pacific Blue
2013 Ford Fusion SE
1987 Schwinn Voyageur 2.0

When heat wasn't coming out as expected, could you hear the heat pump running anyway?

I *think* I have cold air being blown, but perhaps that is really just how warm it is suppose to get... I can hear the heat pump running, especially when sitting still. However, the air isn't very warm...

phr00t - Not sure i could hear the heat pump over the fan. That said, when put on "HI", my heater is now pumping out truly hot air as compared to the cool air i was getting before. If there is any question over whether there is heat coming out when it's on "HI" then i think you'd be well served by the software update.

The TSB did note "sporadic" issues, which was reflective of my experience. As i had mentioned, pre-conditioning seemed to get me 10 mins or so of hot air, but then right back to cool.

I'm glad i took it in. Resolved the only real issue i've had thus far...which feels good now that we're heading into late fall.

jmmurphy26 said:

One minor point of irritation was that i asked what the other TSBs were. She wasn't willing to tell me. She said if i had another issue, to tell them and they'd check to see if there was a corresponding TSB. They don't address TSBs proactively, only if there is an issue and the customer brings it to their attention. Given how new the car is, i said it'd be difficult to know what is a TSB-type issue vs an idiosyncrasy of the first model year of the first VW electric vehicle. She said there was no way for her to access a list of TSBs for the vehicle...which sounds suspect.

Click to expand...

That's pretty ridiculous. It sounds like a waste of our time and theirs - if the car is there in the shop, why not apply any and all TSBs that relate to it? Are they worried that applying a fix to a car that isn't experiencing the problem would *cause* a problem? In that case, I'd say it's not a robust fix..! There may be a TSB about a feature you haven't used yet and you might try it for the first time on the way home from this service call only to find out you need to turn around and book the car in again. What a stupid way to handle customer "service"... I can't wait for an affordable Tesla to come out then we won't have to put up with all this car dealer bull***t.

Just got back from the shop. They said my cabin heating was operating as expected, and I had all of the latest software for my system. They said the heat will not be that hot & it is a characteristic of the vehicle.

Not entirely sure how I feel about that result, but I didn't feel like pressing the issue. I'll spend more time using "MAX" heat mode if needed & see how it holds up when temperatures get colder.

I own a 2015 GTI and I have a very similar problem. It takes now exactly 15 mn to start generating some cabin heat. The other interesting thing that sometimes after I turn it off the heat still comes out out the vents... I am bringing it in next week. So according to this conversation there is a known problem with the Heat Pump.

O2015GTI said:

I own a 2015 GTI and I have a very similar problem. It takes now exactly 15 mn to start generating some cabin heat. The other interesting thing that sometimes after I turn it off the heat still comes out out the vents... I am bringing it in next week. So according to this conversation there is a known problem with the Heat Pump.

Click to expand...

None of the gasoline or diesel-powered VW's use a heat pump, except for maybe the hybrid models. An internal combustion engine produces far more waste heat than you need to heat the cabin even in the coldest winter conditions. A mini-radiator called a "heater core" resides in the lower part of the center dash, and some of the engine's coolant is circulated through this as the source of the heat.

Because all pure electrics and some hybrids don't have/use an engine to produce heat, they have to do so either via a heat pump, or a resistive heater.

If you walk into a dealer asking them to fix the heat pump on your GTI, they're going to tell you that you need to change the blinker fluid as well.