Quote:
Originally Posted by Everest
Well it does, and I also have a friend who has an 05 FEH and his does the same thing. I am guessing that when I have the defrost on the ICE has to run the a/c compressor. But from what I have read and past experience with other vehiciles the compressor will not turn on below freezing. The way I found this out was after coming off the interstate and it was about 10f, I tuned the knob to defrost thinking it would keep the ICE running, but to my surprise it turned off.
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Interesting.... yes I do know if its cold enough the compressor won't come on (thats what others have said and I have no reason to doubt that). I was just under the impression from other posts that the ECU wasn't smart enough to know the engine didn't have to be running and if its in defrost she'd just lock the engine on. Looks like its smarter than I'd been led to believe. Cool (learned something new)... doesn't solve your issue though.
I've had temps around 17-20F at the coldest so far in my 4WD 06. I still have regen at those temps and my engine will still go into EV.... It just takes about twice as long for it to warm up enough for that to happen. It does kick on frequently to warm itself back up.
On its face I wouldn't think what you are talking about would help you get to EV much faster. As I understand it when its cold in almost all cars the radiator is bypassed anyway in the beginning and little coolant goes through it until the engine heats up. It might help keep the engine warm once it gets there though.
However that being said.. there is another guy on this list that puts cardboard or something to block his radiator and keep the heat in and he swears by it... and this would seem to be doing the same thing (with more panache than cardboard
however)