Smoke / Steam from V60 PHEV

[NSR]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone had come across this issue where I've driven the car for literally two minutes and parked up with a whole load of smoke or steam coming out from underneath the car. It had been raining but while the roads were a little wet, I hadn't driven through any puddles. By the time I got my phone out to film it, it the phenomenon had all but disappeared; I was unable to trace the source as can be seen from the video linked below.

Further to this, I drove for another five minutes before parking up and had noticed a rapid clicking / ticking noise that appeared to be coming from the HV coolant area of the right-hand (UK far-side) rear of the car. Again, link below.

The car has recently (end of Sept last year) had a replacement compressor fitted (yes it was ouch and had just missed the recall) so I don't know if this could be related?

This is a 2015 V60 D6 that was apparently registered in June 2015, albeit VoC says it's a 2016 model. I note this as the car was previously on a private plate and the dealerships seem to have a bit of trouble finding it from the regisration alone.

Any help and insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

Smoke / Steam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Nt-EmhGyg
Clicking Noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjN8cs4bkw

[NSR]

Hi

Thanks for the pm, unfortunately I cannot reply as 'Sorry, you can only send messages to the Administrators group until you have 30 posts.'

When you say D5, do you still mean hybrid? Is this normal behaviour as I've not really noticed it previously. Do you have any insights of the steam / smoke that was coming out from under the car? Without a thermal camera, it's not something I want to be touching around in case I burn myself or there's risk of electric shock.

I have a decent elm327 adapter that gives me a lot more info than the usual cheap ones from Ebay. Using it with Car Scanner, all I have is the usual P299 (I think - cannot check right now as in the office) which indicates a low pressure turbo warning? Sometimes when I power on the ignition the engine starts and won't go into EV mode unless I switch off and back on again. I don't know if this is normal behaviour but it's annoying; as well as logging this even it also clears the 'auto reset trip' option within 'my car'

Thanks for the further insights, I'll look into it over the weekend if I can.

[Bungle1976]

I suspect this is the fuel fired heater, it kicks in when you use the car in low temperatures as of course with the D6 you won't necessarily have the engine running to provide heat. Normally the exhaust is a little cleaner than that, on mine you can barely see it but you can smell it, I have seen them smoke a lot when they fail to light first time and get a build up of fuel before firing up. The ticking sounds like the standard fuel pump for these type of heaters though I haven't noticed it on my one I have heard it on other vehicles in the past.

[SwissXC90]

+1 for possible fuel powered heater

My 2009 XC90 D5 diesel has one
Sometimes - and only sometimes - it smokes a lot.
You'd think the car was on fire when it happens!
And when it happens, if you roll to a stop you can see the smoke rising from around the engine bay.

On my D5 XC90 the fuel powered preheater exhaust is under the front left-hand bumper, you can hear the fans kicking in to exhaust the combustion chamber before it fires up, and once running starts to sound like a mini jet engine. And it blows out hot exhaust as well, of course.

The 2016 V90s have them, see here:
https://www.volvocars.com/uk/support...-driven-heater

The manual says the heater is the right hand wheel housing, which will be front wheel housing, likely behind the front bumper.

To confirm if yours has one, look for the sticker on the fuel filler cap. The 3 x wavy arrows pointing up (indicating heat rising) means the car is fitted with the fuel-powered heater.

[SwissXC90]

And one more thing: it does use fuel, and thus when pre-heating it will affect the displayed fuel economy, as you get 0 MPG when pre-heating a parked car.

My pre-heater was magic last week when I was on holiday and some days measured colder than -30°C on the vehicle bonnet.
Every day was below freezing.
I reached out the window with my remote and started my pre-heater with my remote control 30min before we left, then the engine coolant had warmed up by 70°C (!!) from -20°C to +50°C.

And for those that wonder how I can remote start my pre-heater on an ancient MY2009 XC90: I have the CFE+ Canbus Function Extender installed, and one of its functions is start of the pre-heater using the existing remote control.
I use it a lot in Winter.

[NSR]

Hi

Thanks for all the feedback relating to this, it's much appreciated and also quite a relief that there are potentially no issues.

The additional fuel operated heater has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I apparently do have one as I've seen the the upward facing wavy arrows on the driver display during pre-conditioning. However, the manual states that this can be operated with the PCC holding in the (approach) light button but for me it just switches on the approach lights. It also suggests that it can be operated without being plugged into the HV charger, alas mine requires it; whether this is is because of current climate (-5C) I don't know. Yes, it can sound like a jet and had often wondered what that was.

I've also seen the section about the heater generating smoke, especially with short journeys.... this definitely fits the scenario I experienced. While the manual doesn't say which RH wheel arch the smoke can be observed from, from personal experience as well as other people, this works suggest that this is from the front. That being the case, why does the clicking sound come from the rear wheel arch, does the system extend down the side of the car? This is why I thought it was coming from the expansion tank of the hybrid battery's cooling system. Obviously this is where the fuel tank is, but if this is the source if the ignition, is it a good idea to have it so close to the fuel storage? I know there's a fundamental difference in flammability between diesel and petrol but still it's ignition. Furthermore, the manual suggests disabling this auxiliary heater for short journeys to avoid such smoke.... duly noted!

[Bungle1976]

I think all the d6 carshave the fuel fired heater. The ability to preheat the car while not plugged in and from the key remote is/was an option, the previous owner of my car paid to have it retrofitted by the dealer. It needs an extra ECU and some programming.

[piotrek]

Clicking sound in the back is the fuel pump (in the fuel tank), activated to deliver fuel to the aux fuel heater.

White smoke from fuel heater often occurs right after start at moderate to low fuel level.

[NSR]

Well it's currently with the dealer to address a recall and I've tacked on these issues as well as the video link so that it can investigated if required. From what you are all are saying then it's probably going to be fine but no harm in mentioning it I guess.

Re. the PCC activation of the aux heater, having keyless drive then it would surprise me that this would be a further optional extra as I can also manually activate the pre-conditioning via the VoC app - unless it's not plugged in. I get that an additional ECU may be required for receiving and processing the signal from the PCC but if there's already keyless drive as well as VoC functionality? I'd like to know more what this car has / hasn't got, I'll try and remember to ask when I pick it up.

Anyway, the remote aux heater start is not that much of a deal to me as I only really use pre-condition whilst plugged in to ensure that the electrical system is ready, particularly the 12V battery so that it's topped up without using the HV battery or at least the HV battery can also be topped up at the same time, rather than putting an additional strain on the HV battery whilst driving. I guess this is what Volvo means regarding reducing wear when pre-conditioning.