Please post your low temp experiences from the Polar Vortex here

Dan Albrich said:
I remember someone posted a maintenance mode to force gas engine start (for normal conditions). It was complicated enough I wouldn't remember but it would be interesting to know if helpful in an emergency. i.e. print out the procedure and throw in the glove box.
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Here's the secret procedure for starting the engine to perform emissions testing.
 
Dan Albrich said:
I remember someone posted a maintenance mode to force gas engine start (for normal conditions). It was complicated enough I wouldn't remember but it would be interesting to know if helpful in an emergency. i.e. print out the procedure and throw in the glove box.
Click to expand...
I have a lot of the wisdom that I've gleaned from this forum on my iPhone in case I need to reference it in the field.
 
Rajiv Vaidyanathan said:
My gas engine was on almost all the time in the extreme cold (it would come on as soon as I hit the "START" button), but then, as I mentioned in another thread, at the recommendation of @MNSteve , I stopped putting my climate on AUTO and just turned the fan down low (keeping the temp at 69F) and now the gas engine stays off as long as I have battery power. Try turning down the fan to a much lower setting and see if you can avoid turning on the gas engine.
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YES, my experience is much the same. In Upstate NY we have had morning temps hovering 10 degrees each direction from 0 (F) this week. A couple of days, the engine started up immediately, a couple of days the motor started. Following the advice referenced above, I made sure that the AUTO setting on the climate control was off before shutting it down at night. The next morning's temps double digit below 0, the motor started.

Last night we had dinner at our son's and I didn't think to shut the AUTO off on the climate control, get out about 4 hours later, right around 0 degrees, and what do you know, the engine revved up and persistent efforts to shut the AUTO off on the climate control were met with failure. Engine ran for about three miles.

Oh, the total range indicated on a full charge has varied between 25 and 29 miles for the past few weeks. I have only owned the car for three weeks so more to learn.
 
10sqmiles said:
...Following the advice referenced above, I made sure that the AUTO setting on the climate control was off before shutting it down at night. The next morning's temps double digit below 0, the motor started.
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I wonder if this is a communication issue - I keep Climate OFF (i.e. regardless of the Auto setting) by using the [fan image] ON/OFF button unless I'm cold while driving; preconditioning makes a big difference in making the cabin comfy even when the outside temp is hovering around 0 F.
 
10sqmiles said:
the engine revved up and persistent efforts to shut the AUTO off on the climate control were met with failure. Engine ran for about three miles.
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Once the Clarity's engine starts, it stays on at least long enough to warm up its oil. A non-recommended way to turn off the engine before it warms up is to pull over and turn the car off and on. It makes sense that the engineers wouldn't want the engine to start, run for just a few seconds, shut off--and do that over and over without adequate oil circulation.
 
Rajiv Vaidyanathan said:
Charging the car has become painfully slow.

Under normal conditions, my car fully charges in about 2.5 hours on my Siemens 32A Level 2 charger at home. I normally set the car to start charging at about 2 AM.

Last couple of days, I've been surprised to find the charge at about 78-85% when I get in at about 7:30 or 7:40 am. It took me a while to realize that it is now taking 6+ hours to fully charge.
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Yes I've noted the same on the really cold days even with the garaged car. Normally when I plug in on the Level 2 charger it goes right to 30 amps and 7.12 kw of power but on the cold days it will pull just 1-3 kw. Still charges faster than level 1 but on those days maybe just override the night charging and just start immediately.
 
Agree! Charging on arrival seems to benefit from warmer battery - at least initially - sometimes I drop from 6+ kW to 2-3 kW after an hour, making me think that charging doesn't generate much heat.

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