Pre-heating

[Hunter303]

Hi

I just thought I’d share something in the hope it might help others as I’m sure I’ve seen the question come up here whilst trying to find an answer.

I seemed unable to pre-heat the cabin of my MY20 XC60. Was getting confused with the terminology “preconditioning” and “parking climate” and couldn’t make sense of it. Running diagnostics on the VOC app showed preconditioning to be available, but Volvo customer support confirmed this is an error as this is only available on plug-in hybrid models (which mine isn’t) despite the app incorrectly reporting it’s a thing.

Whenever I tried to start “parking climate” from the VOC app it would always appear as though it’s starting, but I’d then get a message saying “issue encountered” and the cabin was stone cold upon entry.

However the fix is, seems really simple when I think about it, is that I need to simply remote start the engine THEN remote start parking climate, and hooray it works.

Volvo support said you shouldn’t have to start the engine first - great in theory, but it doesn’t work that way for me.

Anyway just thought I’d share in the hope it helps. The dealership I later spoke to also confirmed Volvo are working on a software update re the Sensus rebooting issue / DAB, and he thought they’d issue a recall once fixed as there have been so many reports of it.

Have a good Christmas all.

[Tresco85]

If you remote start the car why do you need to start the parking climate as well as the car should heat up and the seats will come on if programmed to.

[Hunter303]

That wasn’t happening for me; remote start of the engine worked and that would make the seats warm up, but the fans / heater wouldn’t come on so it was cold inside.

[Wabby]

Originally Posted by Hunter303

That wasn’t happening for me; remote start of the engine worked and that would make the seats warm up, but the fans / heater wouldn’t come on so it was cold inside.

I will try this this morning 👍👍

[Tresco85]

Originally Posted by Hunter303

That wasn’t happening for me; remote start of the engine worked and that would make the seats warm up, but the fans / heater wouldn’t come on so it was cold inside.

I don’t think the fans would come on anyway when the car is cold as it waits to heat up a bit before the fans will come on.

[vxf]

Originally Posted by Hunter303

Hi

I just thought I’d share something in the hope it might help others as I’m sure I’ve seen the question come up here whilst trying to find an answer.

I seemed unable to pre-heat the cabin of my MY20 XC60. Was getting confused with the terminology “preconditioning” and “parking climate” and couldn’t make sense of it. Running diagnostics on the VOC app showed preconditioning to be available, but Volvo customer support confirmed this is an error as this is only available on plug-in hybrid models (which mine isn’t) despite the app incorrectly reporting it’s a thing.

Whenever I tried to start “parking climate” from the VOC app it would always appear as though it’s starting, but I’d then get a message saying “issue encountered” and the cabin was stone cold upon entry.

However the fix is, seems really simple when I think about it, is that I need to simply remote start the engine THEN remote start parking climate, and hooray it works.

Volvo support said you shouldn’t have to start the engine first - great in theory, but it doesn’t work that way for me.

Anyway just thought I’d share in the hope it helps. The dealership I later spoke to also confirmed Volvo are working on a software update re the Sensus rebooting issue / DAB, and he thought they’d issue a recall once fixed as there have been so many reports of it.

Have a good Christmas all.

My understanding is that parking climate only works on T8s, and only when plugged. Or, at least, that is the case for my car.

Remote start does, eventually, warm up the car. But the heating does not come on immediately. I have lived in some cold places... and used it a lot. It takes a couple of minutes to start warming things up.

Now that I think about it... there are some options about climate when remote starting... but I think those are just about the heated wheel and heated seats. I don't think there is a temperature setting there. But you might want to double-check.

[Director76]

Originally Posted by vxf

My understanding is that parking climate only works on T8s, and only when plugged. Or, at least, that is the case for my car.

I understand that US (and other?) model T8s have an electric preheater, hence why it will only work plugged in. UK and European T8 models have a fuel (gasoline) fired auxiliary heater, which works plugged or unplugged
D76

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by Director76

UK and European T8 models have a fuel (gasoline) fired auxiliary heater, which works plugged or unplugged

The auxiliary fuel heater was also an option on all SPA XC90s for the first 2 or 3 model years. I have it on my D5 and consider it a 'must have' now.

[vinthop]

Hi
I have similar problem of remote starting; cannot warm up heater, on the D4 2018 Inscription pro xc60, tried setting the parking climate, but will have to use your methode to ascertain, I will try this out in the day time..
Thanks
Vinod

[Metr0man]

I have a 2016 XC90 T8 Inscription and have been regularly activating Parking Climate through the VOC app on recent cold mornings. Lovely to get into a warm car with hot seats and steering wheel. Car is plugged in. Recently I scheduled a mon-fri timer to remote start it and now it has stopped working. I get an error msg Parking Climate Service required. Worried about potential cost of this. The last problem I had, was with the battery charging unit not working. I thought it would be just a fuse but it cost me £2600 for a new unit. The service centre don’t fill me with confidence. They couldn’t advise what the likely cause of this new error might be as they had never heard of it before and “ needed to plug it into the diagnostics to see what came up and what the repair route was “. I’m guessing it’ll be a “new unit “. again but hoping it’s a software reboot or something. Anyone any ideas .?