Go Times

[Russael]

After your tip I first checked to see if Remote start was enabled. Confirmed Remote start enabled on. Then checked temperature settings under remote start .....it is set to last setting used. I have only been using the heater with the go times to warm the cabin before departure. During all my previous trip I have kept the climate off and just put up with slowly getting cold.

Then I tested (with the Energi plugged in) the remote start. It did turn the EV on, but the climate was off. If I did remote start the vehile on(keys on desk) it still would not explain the cabin being heated.

Thanks for your advice though, I appreciate all the help.

 

When your cabin was being heated, were any of your parking lights on?  If they weren't, then it was a 'go time' cycle.  If they were, then it was remote start.

 

Still, it sounds bizarre that the car just randomly started preconditioning itself (at least that's the impression I got from your first recent post).

 

Still... very odd.  I've got nuthin. :)

 

For edwarj3, that's really weird.  The only thing that comes to mind is maybe a timezone mismatch between the car and MFM.

Edited November 21, 2013 at 12:10 PM by Russael

[Spartyof83]

Update...

 

I've had my car at the dealer here in Livonia, MI for two days. They have confirmed that they too cannot get the go times to work. Everything has been updated and now we have the boys from Dearborn coming out to take a look. I knew I wasn't crazy. 

[Russael]

Update...

 

I've had my car at the dealer here in Livonia, MI for two days. They have confirmed that they too cannot get the go times to work. Everything has been updated and now we have the boys from Dearborn coming out to take a look. I knew I wasn't crazy. 

 

Wow, you're close to me.  Didn't think anybody else in MI was on the boards.  Nice thing is the Ford Engineers aren't far away so they can investigate anything without much travel. :)

[Spartyof83]

After spending three days in the dealer for the "Go Time" dilemma, it was determined it was a software problem. The engineer who came from Dearborn told my dealer that certain Energi models left the factory without being updated in this capacity. Apparently, mine was one of them. It took the engineer over three hours of experimentation to determine this. At least now I know I am not insane. The go times now work as intended when the car is plugged in. 

For those of you who cannot get go times to work under any circumstances, please let your dealer know of my experience. It's a software problem!

[SteveEnergi]

Thanks for keeping us updated.  It might be helpful if we had your car's build date, so others may compare their date to yours.

 

Steve

[Spartyof83]

My car was built in Feb of 2013. 

[edwarj3]

I just called the dealer and will be bringing it in on 12/2.  Did your go times work for charging?   Mine will charge correctly if I set a go time that requires it to charge outside of the value charge times but i've never got the heat to work.

[http]

After spending three days in the dealer for the "Go Time" dilemma, it was determined it was a software problem. The engineer who came from Dearborn told my dealer that certain Energi models left the factory without being updated in this capacity. Apparently, mine was one of them. It took the engineer over three hours of experimentation to determine this. At least now I know I am not insane. The go times now work as intended when the car is plugged in. 

 

For those of you who cannot get go times to work under any circumstances, please let your dealer know of my experience. It's a software problem!

 

As a software guy, this report is very interesting.  Apparently, this was a known issue with a specific version of the software.  It's not surprising that different cars in the same model line may have different versions of software as they leave the factory, but it should not take an engineer 3 hours to figure out what version of software is installed in your car.  This tells me that not only does Ford write dodgy software, but their configuration management processes need work too.

 

What should have happened is that the tech should have listened to your problem, pulled the software version from your car (may need an ODB scanner, but there should be an easy way to do this) and have been able to relate your problem to the known issues associated with that code release.

[jeff_h]

After spending three days in the dealer for the "Go Time" dilemma, it was determined it was a software problem. The engineer who came from Dearborn told my dealer that certain Energi models left the factory without being updated in this capacity. Apparently, mine was one of them. It took the engineer over three hours of experimentation to determine this. At least now I know I am not insane. The go times now work as intended when the car is plugged in. 

 

For those of you who cannot get go times to work under any circumstances, please let your dealer know of my experience. It's a software problem!

 

I guess I'll be checking for new TSBs a bit more often until I see the one about 'Go Times Not Working' -- as http already noted above, once they get things straight on which cars have which software versions and what specific patches are needed to go into fixing it, sounds like we'll see a TSB on a software fix.

[SteveEnergi]

My car was built in Feb of 2013. 

 

Can you provide the exact date because all of the cars in your vehicles batch may be affected.  Here's the website for finding the building date:

 

http://www.etis.ford.com/

 

Click on the "vehicle" tab and enter your VIN.

 

I'm now questioning my "go times", because this morning it seemed pretty cool in my garaged car.  It definitely didn't feel like 72. For testing, I set my "go time" temperature to 85 degrees for tomorrow morning.

 

My build date is: 19.02.2013

 

Thanks,

Steve

[edwarj3]

According to that website my build date was 20.02.2013.

[Spartyof83]

Mine was built on 08.02.2013 and it had the software that wouldn't work. The dealer was puzzled that no one could get the go times to work but once the Ford Engineer determined it was software related, they fixed it and as of today, it seemingly is working fine. 

[zimm25]

I'm still trying to figure out my Go Time heating issue.  If it's 40+ degrees outside, I can remote start my car (parked outside) and within 5-10 minutes the car is warm and I have only observed the ICE running once.  If, it's below 40 and I park in the garage and set a Go Time to 72 degrees.  The car blower is on, but there is absolutely no heat.  Is there an issue with my car or myfordmobile account?  There's so much technology here, I can't figure out if it's the way that I'm using it, the way it's programmed, or an error.  Any ideas are much appreciated.  

[Spartyof83]

I was told by the Ford Engineer who fixed my go time issue that we shouldn't expect more than a 15 degree temperature difference between the ambient air and the heater/a/c unit when it's plugged in. Remember this is supplemental not the main source of heating or cooling. That said, if your blower engages at a designated go time, you should be getting some temperature variance. Make sure your settings are correct and see if you have similar ones on MFM

[Ekpsych]

Two new points?

My car was built on Feb 15, 2013. Thanks for the website!!

My go time function does NOT work. Fan works on low but there is NO change in temp. Charge is noticeably reduced during this operation.

I am using the 120 volt charger that came with the car. Perhaps the go time function does not get enough juice from the 120 volt unit to power up the heater??

Am I correct that the heater operation works by using an electric pump to circulate coolant through an electric heater coil  and then to a heater core which has an electric fan blowing either outside or recirc inside air over it to the passenger compartment.?

When the ICE runs and heats up  the computer shunts the coolant from the electric heater coil to the engine block for engine cooling and heater operation?

[zimm25]

15 degrees seems pretty low.  Today I remote started my car (23 degrees - parked outside) 5 minutes before leaving and the car was warm with hot air blowing out.  ICE never started.  The battery said 97% remaining when I pulled out of my driveway.  It would seem to me that the car is quite capable of warming up the cabin beyond 15 degrees without the ICE.  It has to be the way Go Time is configured.  If I plug-in a litle vornado space heater in my powder bathroom, it will make that room hot in 5 minutes.  The car does the same with remote start, but not Go Time settings.

 

My brother, an aerospace mechanical engineer, would tell me there's a lot more to it - which is probably, and unfortunately, true.

[SteveEnergi]

After thinking my "go times" were working because the car has been cool in the morning, I now doubt mine are working properly.  My temp this morning was set to 85 degrees for the "go time".  I was plugged into the 240v charger. 

 

When I got in the car, it felt the same as the previous day cool but not cold.  No fans were blowing and the climate was registering 71 degrees, the temperature that it was set last evening when I parked the car.

 

I guess I need to make an appointment.

[Russael]

I've noticed that setting a go time temp of 85 does nothing.  I restored mine to 72 and my car is usually pretty close to that when I climb in.  Today was about 26 when I got in and the fans were still whirring away, but at least it was warm to not freeze my derriere off.  A few times when I did set for 85, it seemed colder than when setting it to 72.

 

For some weird reason, my go time didn't work at all yesterday morning... came out and saw the charge light on my Leviton was out and knew that it was skipped for some reason.  I remote started the car and let it warm up for about 10 minutes (ICE did not start, even though it was around 20 yesterday), and it was nice 'n toasty by the time I departed.

 

I believe the heater is actually greater than 5KW, so when you remote start the car, not only is it consuming 3.3kw from the wall, but it's also using some juice from the battery as well to heat the cabin as quickly as possible.  I've noticed my battery under 100% a couple times when I used that.

 

In all honesty, I also am baffled that even at 3.3kw for a go time, the cabin isn't lava by the time I actually leave.  Sometimes its under temp.  I have a 1500 watt space heater that can warm up a small 13x14 bedroom from 60 degrees to 75 in 10 minutes.  Why can't 3.3kw warm up a car cabin from 20 degrees to 70 in 15 minutes?  Of course, the space heater is direct where the car is indirect.  Still, it's twice as much power and a significantly smaller space...  It certainly heats it fast at full power.

 

But for those of you trying to use the 120v charger to precondition... I don't think you're going to see much of a dent in ambient temp inside the cabin.  You're reduced to about 1300 watts with that and it seems to have difficulty even at 3300 watts.  Can't wait to see what happens when it's 0 outside.  Larryh will experience that before I do though. :)

[murphy]

In my early experiments with GO times last April I found that if the car overshoots the set temperature it appears to use the air conditioner to bring it back down.  I only did the test once and should probably test it again to be sure.

[Russael]

Mine has done that while using remote start and has done it a few using Go Times, but since the ambient temperature is so much lower now, I haven't had the A/C kick on for a few months.

[larryh]

The heater has to heat up a lot more than the 100 cu feet of air in the cabin.  It heats the coolant which is in contact with the cold engine which will take quite a bit of energy to warm.  Maybe they should have had the heater heat the air directly rather than via the coolant. 

[Russael]

The electric element may heat up engine coolant, but it isn't circulating that through the engine.  After preconditioning, my engine block was still stone cold and so was the coolant reservoir, so all it's doing is circulating it through the radiator in the car.  I have no idea how much coolant it needs to heat and circulate while it's closed loop... I'd guess a gallon or two, maybe 3.  3300 watts is a LOT of energy to heat so little liquid, giving a bit of that to run the blowers.

 

I have a 300 watt aquarium heater for a 125 gallon tank and my house, at night, sits at 60 degrees or so, and it keeps up a 79 degree temp no problem.

 

I thought it'd make sense to heat the engine too so it wouldn't stay in a cold cycle for very long if it needed to run (which is why I questioned why you have an engine block heater in another thread).

 

If anybody has one of those oil filled electric space heaters, how long does it take at 1500 watts make it too hot to touch?

[larryh]

The heater warms the car much better using remote start than it does with GO times.  It doesn't seem to blow as hot air with GO times as it does with remote start.   In addition, with remote start, the air from the heater stays quite warm.  With GO times, the heat gradually fades.  The heater is blowing only slightly warm air by the time the GO times arrives.   The car seems to be rather stingy with consuming power for GO times. 

Edited November 26, 2013 at 11:36 PM by larryh

[SteveEnergi]

So I'm not sure if I can confirm if my "go times" are functioning.  Last evening I ran numerous tests adjusting my "go time" and coming out to see if anything was happing in the car.  I couldn't tell.  As mentioned earlier, or in another thread, I did check my charger and it was showing "charging" on the display but the blue circle rings weren't illuminated so maybe preconditioning was occurring.  This morning the same thing was indicated where the 240v charger was indicating "charging" and no blue circle ring because the car was already fully charged.  The climate inside the car was "cool".  Keep in mind, my car is garaged, so the temperature difference may feel minimal compared with keeping the car outside in the cold.

 

At this point, I have no idea if my "go times" actually "kick off".  I think it would be nice if the "power screen" showed "preconditioning" or if MyFord mobile had a message that "preconditioning started" or something like that.  It shows "accidental unplug" which is a pretty useless message.

 

Steve

[Spartyof83]

Steve, if go times are functioning, you will hear a noticeable fan "whirring" noise in the vehicle. You cannot miss that. No noise=no preconditioning going on.