Choked by charging

[rgilyead]

Just come back from a road trip to Cornwall and back. Stuck in traffic in a hilly area, I rashly decided to try the "Charge" button for the first time. The car immediately filled with exhaust fumes through the air vents and I could see the fumes billowing out from under the bonnet. A scary moment. Had to switch it straight off again and open the sunroof and all the windows. Won't be doing that again in a hurry.

 

[gwatpe]

The fumes would not have been exhaust fumes, unless the engine systems were faulty.

My PHEV has no unusual smells when the ICE runs. After a long run with heavy ICE operation The ICE and radiators are hot, but this is normal.

The PHEV is not designed for EV ONLY operation and some ICE operation to remove road or even new car deposits from parts that may become hot in normal operation is part of expected system operations.

Unless there are problems, the smells will go away with time.

 

[simonrh]

There have always been reports of nasty burning rubber smell on new PHEVs when using "charge" I believe. Not sure anyone ever found out why but yours sounds like the most extreme case!

 

[greendwarf]

Not surprising - you wouldn't sit in traffic with your foot on the accelerator revving, rather than idling, and expect to not smell the engine :shock:

 

[karl]

I got this the first few times I played with "charge". Some highway driving on empty battery fixed that...

 

[Neverfuel]

Got the same thing after I had been running charge on the A1 and got off to fill up with petrol it was just the lubricants from the manufacturing process burning off as it was the first time the engine had been run for a long period. It was fine after that.

 

[outofyorkshire]

After reading reports of smells on here I too made sure a few long runs with save pressed were used to burn off anything...
Never had a problem with any smells so assume my strategy worked :lol:

 

[rgilyead]

I don't understand the comments about sitting with your foot on the accelerator. As far as I understand it, the ICE runs when the control system decides that additional charge is required i.e. it is not under driver control and can run at any time and at a computer controlled speed. Pressing the "Charge" button simply forces the control system to run the ICE longer to increase stored charge. I don't see why that would suddenly cause excessive exhaust. As I was moving slowly in a queue there was no additional load on the engine and the ICE would not have been driving the front wheels only the generator.

 

[greendwarf]

I don't understand the comments about sitting with your foot on the accelerator. As far as I understand it, the ICE runs when the control system decides that additional charge is required i.e. it is not under driver control and can run at any time and at a computer controlled speed. Pressing the "Charge" button simply forces the control system to run the ICE longer to increase stored charge. I don't see why that would suddenly cause excessive exhaust. As I was moving slowly in a queue there was no additional load on the engine and the ICE would not have been driving the front wheels only the generator.

The point is that the ICE doesn't have a "tick over" mode and when it starts it is running much faster than a normal ICE - perhaps I should have used the manual choke analogy but these days most of you children won't have experienced this and wouldn't have a clue what I'm talking about :lol:

 

[rgilyead]

I don't understand the comments about sitting with your foot on the accelerator. As far as I understand it, the ICE runs when the control system decides that additional charge is required i.e. it is not under driver control and can run at any time and at a computer controlled speed. Pressing the "Charge" button simply forces the control system to run the ICE longer to increase stored charge. I don't see why that would suddenly cause excessive exhaust. As I was moving slowly in a queue there was no additional load on the engine and the ICE would not have been driving the front wheels only the generator.

The point is that the ICE doesn't have a "tick over" mode and when it starts it is running much faster than a normal ICE - perhaps I should have used the manual choke analogy but these days most of you children won't have experienced this and wouldn't have a clue what I'm talking about :lol:

Well I am not much of a child anymore as I am now retired and have driven several cars with a manual choke in the past. Still doesn't answer the question of why using the "Charge" button is any different from the ICE running normally under computer control. Isn't the speed of the engine the same whether it is running to charge the batteries normally or when the "Charge" button is pressed? Why woul it be any different?

 

[maby]

...

Well I am not much of a child anymore as I am now retired and have driven several cars with a manual choke in the past. Still doesn't answer the question of why using the "Charge" button is any different from the ICE running normally under computer control. Isn't the speed of the engine the same whether it is running to charge the batteries normally or when the "Charge" button is pressed? Why woul it be any different?

I think the point that greendwarf is making is that in any conventional car, you would not be stationary with the engine at anything more than a tickover. In the PHEV in Charge mode, this is not true - you could easily be sitting stationary for long periods with the engine running at a couple of thousand rpm - hence producing additional heat. Also, it will be producing exhaust fumes and, if the wind is in the wrong direction, these could be carried round to the climate control air intake.

 

[CJ1045]

Yep and as the car is still they build up. If your car is near new then the cause will be the burning off of the gunk on the outside of the exhaust. If your car is over 6 months old then there may be a problem

CJ

 

[Grigou]

Mine is 10 months and 14 000 km old, I drive often on motorways for long distances, but after every climbimg in the Alps, the car keep to smell a lot when we stop.

I'm not worried by that, but my wife doesn't like it at all !

 

[rgilyead]

...

Well I am not much of a child anymore as I am now retired and have driven several cars with a manual choke in the past. Still doesn't answer the question of why using the "Charge" button is any different from the ICE running normally under computer control. Isn't the speed of the engine the same whether it is running to charge the batteries normally or when the "Charge" button is pressed? Why woul it be any different?

I think the point that greendwarf is making is that in any conventional car, you would not be stationary with the engine at anything more than a tickover. In the PHEV in Charge mode, this is not true - you could easily be sitting stationary for long periods with the engine running at a couple of thousand rpm - hence producing additional heat. Also, it will be producing exhaust fumes and, if the wind is in the wrong direction, these could be carried round to the climate control air intake.

Yes but this could happen at ANY time since the ICE will run automatically whenever the charge is low. But nobody else has said they have had the same problem. I surely can't be the first PHEV driver to be caught in a queue with low charge.

 

[maby]

...

Well I am not much of a child anymore as I am now retired and have driven several cars with a manual choke in the past. Still doesn't answer the question of why using the "Charge" button is any different from the ICE running normally under computer control. Isn't the speed of the engine the same whether it is running to charge the batteries normally or when the "Charge" button is pressed? Why woul it be any different?

I think the point that greendwarf is making is that in any conventional car, you would not be stationary with the engine at anything more than a tickover. In the PHEV in Charge mode, this is not true - you could easily be sitting stationary for long periods with the engine running at a couple of thousand rpm - hence producing additional heat. Also, it will be producing exhaust fumes and, if the wind is in the wrong direction, these could be carried round to the climate control air intake.

Yes but this could happen at ANY time since the ICE will run automatically whenever the charge is low. But nobody else has said they have had the same problem. I surely can't be the first PHEV driver to be caught in a queue with low charge.

I suspect that relatively few people use the Charge button very much and the PHEV really has to be very low on charge to run the engine while stationary when in Normal or Save mode.

 

[jaapv]

The exhaust is positioned in such a way that it will pick up muck. After the initial smell when new the trick is to wash the underside of the car as well in the carwash.

 

[Grigou]

I suspect that relatively few people use the Charge button very much and the PHEV really has to be very low on charge to run the engine while stationary when in Normal or Save mode.

In long travel I use the Charge mode quite often because I want to made enough SOC to be able to drive further in EV in slow traffic, but I do that only in parallel mode.

I think too that Charge + (slow motion or idle) is not efficient.

 

[gwatpe]

I have noticed that on longer steep grades and low speed with close to maximum power needs, with an ambient temp of around 20C, the coolant temp on my PHEV reaches 100C. normal temperature is in the 86-88C. You may find as I have, that all sorts of new HOT smells emanate from under the bonnet and underside of the car when the PHEV is pushed hard. Not sure about driving in the same terrain in snow conditions.

I replicated the behavior on many occasions when driving on a particular road, with monitoring of the coolant with my OBD2 HUD, after first noticing the smells when we reached the top with windows down at slow speeds.

Keep the coolant at specified strength and replace if steeps grades may be encountered. Boiling of the coolant may occur in certain conditions if it is too old or diluted with too much water.

 

[gwatpe]

I suspect that relatively few people use the Charge button very much and the PHEV really has to be very low on charge to run the engine while stationary when in Normal or Save mode.

The PHEV when stationery, will run the engine in NORMAL mode, only when the battery remaining is around 1bar. The engine will cycle ON and OFF, about this battery level

The PHEV when stationery, will run the engine in SAVE mode, when the battery is depleted approx 1bar from the level when SAVE mode was enabled. The engine will cycle ON and OFF, about this SAVE level.

My PHEV with AC ON and stationery and SAVE mode selected with a full battery, will run the engine after approx 1 bar of battery capacity has been used. This may take some time. ICE turns OFF if NORMAL mode is selected.

The new car smells do take longer to go compared to a conventional ICE powered car. My PHEV still smells new on the inside. New leather smell mmmmmmm.

 

[greendwarf]

Still doesn't answer the question of why using the "Charge" button is any different from the ICE running normally under computer control. Isn't the speed of the engine the same whether it is running to charge the batteries normally or when the "Charge" button is pressed? Why woul it be any different?

Yes point taken but if you are stopped or moving slowly in traffic then the ICE will not be running most of the time, whilst in Charge mode it is continuous producing more fumes (and still at more revs than normal "tick over")