Heat Pump running while car is off but charging

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rt84vhf

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
Messages
24
Location
OH
Hello,

I drove my 2016 SV yesterday on a short drive, about 5 miles. I then drove the car home, put it back in the garage and plugged it in (L2). I went in the house, and just a couple minutes later I noticed a sound coming from the garage. The heat pump in the car was running. I checked the cabin, and the car was off, the HVAC was off, and the fan wasn't running. I checked on it again about 15 minutes later, and it was off. The LEDs indicated normal charging the entire time.

This is the second time this has happened. This time it was about 20F outside. Last time it was closer to 5F. Any idea why this happens? Is it heating electronics for charging?
 
Did you have any climate control timers set? It'd all be found on the nav system and IIRC, when you power down, it'll also tell you.

Also, right after you power down, if you press the upper left button in the cluster of 4 on the left a few times, you should be able to cycle thru your timers.
 
No, I've never used a climate control timer. It never says anything related to that on power down.

I've used the remote climate control from the phone app before, and when I do, the orange light above AUTO is lit. This time nothing in the cabin was lit, except the standard blue charge LEDs.

If I recall, the battery temp was three bars the entire time I drove and when I came back.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Are you sure it wasn't just the coolant pumps?

Positive. I’ve investigated the coolant pump before because I can hear it when the car is charging if I’m really quiet and I’m standing next to the car. I definitely can’t hear that from inside the house. This was the heat pump - it had that distinct heat pump ‘whir-whir-whir’ and was quite loud.

I’ll keep an eye on it and try to get a video if it does it again. It was definitely strange. It’s been a very cold winter, so I figured it was something temperature related.
 
rt84vhf said:
No, I've never used a climate control timer. It never says anything related to that on power down.
Just because you haven't used it doesn't mean someone else didn't enable 1 or more climate control timers.
 
cwerdna said:
rt84vhf said:
No, I've never used a climate control timer. It never says anything related to that on power down.
Just because you haven't used it doesn't mean someone else didn't enable 1 or more climate control timers.

Very true, so I just walked out to the car and checked the center console to be sure. No charge timers, and no climate control timers. Every day shows OFF.
 
I had some extra time today so I dug through the service manual to see what I could find. In the HVAC manual, I found a page describing ‘Deicing’ operation that I think explains what I saw. Apparently in certain conditions the HVAC system runs the compressor to help eliminate ice on the condenser. Part of it says:

During normal charge mode or rapid charge mode, VCM turns the A/C relay ON and transmits deice permis-
sion signal (permission).


That makes me think that’s what I saw. It has been quite a cold winter so I wouldn’t be surprised if things began icing up.
 
Correct. It was deice procedure. Starts a minute later. Runs heat pump at 600W for around 5 minutes.
Then stops. Then purges the outside condenser (dripping water) with fans.
 
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