[garthoid]

The past two days have provided two problems.

1. Magical windscreen crack. No stone. Nothing to "interact" with the windscreen. It "appeared".

2. No heat. Heat might be considered important as we live in Canada and today it is -24C (-11F for those in the US). I suppose this could now apply to Texas now but whatever. Suddenly no heat.

I bought this vehicle used a year and a half ago and now and we have been getting use to its quirks and smiled every time we passed a gas station. But now I fear I have a lemon as the new windscreen is setting me back $700+ (OK, I have insurance so that's a $200 deductible) and now a heating system.

Or is the heat think just another software quirk? Wondering if there is a sadistic programmer somewhere that wrote:

if (<20C) then
turn off heat
endif

Tell me I am wrong please.

 

[Rick CH]

Sorry to hear about these issues, the windshield one is something that can happen in any car, and some models (I think a recent generation of Prius was one) see more of the spontaneous crack than others.

The first thing to check are the coolant levels under the hood. I can't remember which one leads to the HVAC loop, but it could be low and/or has an air bubble preventing the coolant flow and heating/cooling from happening. There was definitely at least one member of the Canadian Bolt owners group on Facebook who had the HVAC fail and needed a repair, so you're not the only one.

 

[XJ12]

Tell me I am wrong please.

check fuse 60 under the hood maybe? welcome to the forum.

 

[desiv]

I had a mystery cracked windshield on a Kia Rio I had years ago. The dealer was hinting to me that cracks happen and it was probably a rock and that's not covered, etc.. But they didn't have a windshield shop and contracted with a windshield repair place. When I took it there, I was sure I was going to get the same line. The guy took out a credit card, ran it along the edge of the window towards the crack line. When the credit card stopped, he said "Look at that. See how one side is higher than the other? That's a manufacturing/install problem. Not a rock that caused that" And it was replaced at no charge to me.

 

[garthoid]

I had a mystery cracked windshield on a Kia Rio I had years ago. The dealer was hinting to me that cracks happen and it was probably a rock and that's not covered, etc.. But they didn't have a windshield shop and contracted with a windshield repair place. When I took it there, I was sure I was going to get the same line. The guy took out a credit card, ran it along the edge of the window towards the crack line. When the credit card stopped, he said "Look at that. See how one side is higher than the other? That's a manufacturing/install problem. Not a rock that caused that" And it was replaced at no charge to me.

As my Bolt is second hand and a 2017 I doubt I have the grace of a warranty. And I loath entering a dealership. Hoping that the replacement is better quality and I trust the shop doing the install. But it is good to know this and thanks for sharing the story.

 

[garthoid]

Heat mystery solved with another magic mystery. Hitting the "auto" button on the heat dial appears to reset it so now it works. The software, I guess written by a car company, has a mind of its own that is sometimes unfathomable to mere mortals. I got this "auto" tidbit from a search here so kudos to this forum.

But my bleating is more fear of the next break.

 

[garthoid]

welcome to the forum.

Thank you.

 

[GJETSON]

Heat mystery solved with another magic mystery. Hitting the "auto" button on the heat dial appears to reset it so now it works. The software, I guess written by a car company, has a mind of its own that is sometimes unfathomable to mere mortals. I got this "auto" tidbit from a search here so kudos to this forum.

Been on this forum every day for three and a half years. I have never heard of this. Please share a link to where you saw it.

Thanks

 

[garthoid]

Been on this forum every day for three and a half years. I have never heard of this. Please share a link to where you saw it.

Thanks

New Bolt - No Heat

OK, living in SoCal it took a few weeks to notice this but last night driving the Bolt home it was a little chilly and we couldn't get warm. I cranked the heater up to MAX temperature and not a bit of heat comes out. Thinking I was doing something wrong I re-read the manual, looked up posts here...

www.chevybolt.org

 

[GJETSON]

New Bolt - No Heat

OK, living in SoCal it took a few weeks to notice this but last night driving the Bolt home it was a little chilly and we couldn't get warm. I cranked the heater up to MAX temperature and not a bit of heat comes out. Thinking I was doing something wrong I re-read the manual, looked up posts here...

www.chevybolt.org

Thanks for the link. I had to laugh. I was all over posting in there. Great getting old, you make so many new friends...over and over.

But I just read every post again, and no mention of the hitting the auto button trick!?

 

[garthoid]

Thanks for the link. I had to laugh. I was all over posting in there. Great getting old, you make so many new friends...over and over.

But I just read every post again, and no mention of the hitting the auto button trick!?

Did you see post #2 which states:

#2

• Feb 18, 2018
Yes, the heater is electric. Did you hit the "Auto" button on the heat adjustment knob? I found that I can get the settings all jacked up and hitting the "Auto" button rights all my wrongs.

 

[GJETSON]

Did you see post #2 which states:

Slid right over that one That is bizarre. Another crazy reboot secret for the list.

 

[MikeyBolt]

I know this is dumb, but you are aware of the "Heat" button, right? There's a "Heat" and "AC" icon and you have to press "Heat" to activate it, else no temperature setting will turn on the heat if that icon is off.

Mike

 

[garthoid]

Slid right over that one That is bizarre. Another crazy reboot secret for the list.

As one "car aficionado" friend told me: "Its car companies trying to do software". There are many quirks and personalities associated with the on board software of this "Device". Its going to take some getting use to.

For example, the mobile app. I can remotely precondition my car using bluetooth with an iPad. However that functionality was removed from Android. Why? I dealt with Chevrolet support and gave up. No reason given.

I know this is dumb, but you are aware of the "Heat" button, right? There's a "Heat" and "AC" icon and you have to press "Heat" to activate it, else no temperature setting will turn on the heat if that icon is off.

Mike

Thanks Mike. But yes. We are very familiar with it and have been using it successfully all winter. But thanks for the suggestion. We will keep an eye on it. Winter gloves and console buttons often d ont work well together.

 

[Sean Nelson]

Been on this forum every day for three and a half years. I have never heard of this. Please share a link to where you saw it.

The infotainment system has its share of bugs, and it wouldn't surprise me if enough random button pushes on the HVAC controls might confuse it. The "Auto" button probably acts as a kind of master reset by putting everything into "auto" mode, which is a known state.

 

[garthoid]

The infotainment system has its share of bugs, and it wouldn't surprise me if enough random button pushes on the HVAC controls might confuse it. The "Auto" button probably acts as a kind of master reset by putting everything into "auto" mode, which is a known state.

I have had a few moments with the "infotainment" system. While researching for my issues (heat is working, windscreen replaced) I learned how to reboot the infotainment system by pressing home and Fastforward together. This comes in handy when the system locks or does not start. I wonder if there is a way to get updates.

While I am here I will add that I talked with service that replaced the windscreen. This is a company that I have dealt with in the past over the years. He explained that it might be that the EV windscreens are thinner to save on weight. The replacement should not suffer the same fate.