Intermittent Heat -- Help

I posted this under another discussion "couple of issues" but wanted to give it a bit more attention so I can get some feedback.

We live in NYS about 1hr north of NYC. We have a 2019 Kona EV Limited. My wife drives the car mostly and mostly to work and back, about 25 miles each way.

We got the car in early September and as the weather started to cool, we noticed that the heat would not stay on for very long—after about 10-20 miles the heat would stop and the car would blow cold air (no matter how high the temperature is set). The heat works fine when you first start the car and is fine around town. But as soon as it is driven at least 10 miles or more, the heat stops coming out and only cold air blows. We have

We have tried varying the settings, changing into different drive modes, turning the temperature as high as it will go, manually turning on the heat, using auto climate control and re-circulation, toggling the button, you name it, but once the heat stops there is no way to get it to come back on until the car is shut down and re-started.

We finally took the car into a local Hyundai dealer and after two days they can't figure out what is wrong—they were able to re-create the problem by driving the car about 10 miles or so. They had to call Hyundai for ideas and Hyundai suggested draining anti-freeze to see if a bubble was interfering with something (no luck). At the end of the day they called to say that Hyundai then asked what the State of Charge was. When I dropped the car off, it had about 80 miles and maybe 4 white bars. Not sure how low it was when the dealer asked Hyundai, but they (Hyundai) said as the car loses its charge some systems like heat start to shut down. I don't yet know how low the dealer got the battery, but they wanted to charge overnight to see what happens with a full-charge.

Unless the battery is in the red, I hope that heat or AC doesn't start to shut down around 80 miles or so. We haven't paid close attention to the battery level and whether or not we have heat (it hasn't been that cold yet), but we also haven't let the battery go into the red either. It also seems that if this was the case, plenty of people would be complaining. And yet, I can't find much online about this.

I keep thinking it has to do with the temperature gauge/thermostat in the cabin--that perhaps the air reaches the target temperature and then is turning off the heat and then it stops working. They haven't checked that yet, but the dealer thought it was an interesting theory.

In any case, sorry for the long post, but is anyone else having anything like what I described? Any suggestions?

 

We have been in Eco mode, but we changed the setting for heat to normal, plus we've tried all the drive modes and no change in normal or sport. Once the heat is off it does not come back on.

 

I agree. Doesn't seem like the SOC should make a difference unless it's super low. And as I mentioned above, we have tried all drive modes and same thing happens in all of them.

 

This kind of explains how the heat is supposed to work (with and without the heat pump)—but obviously in my case not well:https://electricrevs.com/2018/12/20/exclusive-details-on-hyundais-new-battery-thermal-management-design/

Based on this article, I'm assuming the coolant they did drain was associated with the battery cooling and heating and not the typical radiator type cooling/heating.

No updates on where they stand in solving the problem

 

So still no car back. The dealer has tried everything Hyundai has suggested and nothing has really solved the problem. Without driving, the dealer said they could not measure a temperature hotter than 76 degrees coming out of the vent. According to Hyundai this temperature is normal as they said they have limited the amount/temp range of heat in the US in order to maximize miles. So the dealer was telling us that our no heat problem might be normal. The dealer pushed back with Hyundai so Hyundai asked the dealer to try another Kona EV on their lot. Hyundai said if the other Kona does the same thing then there is nothing wrong with our car. Our problem is that the heat completely stops after a number of miles. If the temp would stay at 76 degrees we could probably live with that. Last I heard was they were going to drive around another Kona EV. We shall see....

 

Our car is still at the dealer with no resolution. They drove another Kona EV and temp was warmer and heat didn’t stop working. They are now starting to give us a Hyundai corporate response that car was designed with a lower temperature heater to maximize mileage. They even tried telling us that the reason the other Kona EV they tested may have worked better is because it is newer — less miles on it. WE ONLY HAVE 2,000 MILES.

We could deal with the modest heat. But not with no heat at all which is what happens. They are saying we might have to take this up with Hyundai directly. Sounds like we may have a battle coming up.


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Stopped by again today. They do think it has something to do with the PTC cabin heater and yes they have no clue how to fix this car. What they told me this morning is that they tested it against another Kona EV on the lot using their computer. They could get the other Kona to get the heater to turn on/off with the computer, but could only get ours to turn on/off once and a while. So they were talking about having to replace the PTC heater, which they told us is located behind the dashboard, which would require them disassembling the dashboard in order to get to it. They were waiting to get permission from Hyundai to order the parts they needed. As first he said they could probably get the part in 1-2 days. This afternoon my wife stopped by to extend the loaner car and was told we might not get the car back for 3-4 more weeks. Not sure if this means the part isn't readily available or not. I had been pushing the theory that there was an issue with the temperature sensor from the start, but after a week and a half they are finally getting around to this idea--apparently they were going through a series of steps that Hyundai was directing them to try.

After hearing this, I called Hyundai Consumer affairs and opened a case on this issue. We leased our car and it is only 2 months only with maybe 2500 miles. I raised the issue that we have a lemon and want a new vehicle or some kind of monetary compensation since we are paying for a car we do not have and cannot drive--possibly for a total of 6 weeks. Was told they are looking into what can be done for us and that a case manager has been assigned and should reach out to us in two days.--Ugh.

We like the car and have enjoyed driving it. Also installed a home charger and we now have to buy gas for a basic Elantra courtesy car which isn't even close to the Kona EV in amenities. The saga continues