[I'm a BeliEVer]

Bit of a worrying incident with my 4+ I'd like to put out there in case anyone has experienced something similar.

I had my mum over on Christmas day and was taking her home on a short drive of less than 5 miles. My Niro is so new, I haven't had to charge it at home, and it had only just hit 300 miles, having just topped up at public charge stations once or twice. The day before I had charged for the first time for a few hours at home, and I had it on charge before taking my mum home. Also preconditioned for the first time using the UVO app very briefly before departure.

So I unplugged, and we set off. Within a mile of my home, I had a warning message pop up on the instrument cluster panel saying "Check Electric Vehicle System". The car was driving completely normally, apart from the message and a yellow icon being lit on the instrument panel. I had the dilemma then of do I stop, turn around or carry on? Given that it was Christmas day, and I could have been stranded with my mum at 4 deg C if I stopped, and could have potentially waited some considerable time waiting for recovery if stuck, I carried on driving although I switched off the heating, seat warmers and steering wheel heating.

The message disappeared but another message saying I should book the car into a dealer to be inspected appeared, and the yellow icon remained on throughout. I had a nervous drive for the remaining 15 minutes until I got my mum safely home, and then immediately turned round and came home without shutting the car down.

At home I powered down, then powered up again to see if the warning was still there. It was not.

Yesterday I moved it out of the driveway and back in and no warning, then today I took it for a round trip spin of about 30 miles including a short section on the motorway, no issues again.

So my worry now is, am I seeing signs of an underlying intermittent fault, or could this have just been a software glitch?

My home charger is a very old Rolec unit, that I have had about 7 years. I used to have a Gen 1 Leaf, and very occasionally I would get a warning light when a charge failed that would stay on for the duration of the drive but disappear when the car was powered down and back up again.

I wonder if the combination of the car being on charge, preheating, all systems on when driving (i.e. heat pump, seat warmers, steering wheel), a cold day, my ancient charger and the software on this new model of car all conspired to flag an issue that might not really be an issue?

Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

[prawlin]

Dunno but check this thread.....

Check EV system warning

Anyone had this? Popped up last night. Not long after setting off, light throttle, it was fairly cold. Car appeared to drive normally, but I didn’t check for reduced power. Didn’t return after restarting the car.

www.speakev.com

Hope it’s just a one off glitch. I would keep using it and see how it goes, see if any particular usage pattern causes it to reappear ?
Peter

 

[I'm a BeliEVer]

Thanks Peter I hadn't seen that should have searched for it first. That is slightly more worrying as following the other thread it seems that at least 3 other Niro owners have had the same problem and it does fit with my experience

Odd Heater fault

Has anyone else encountered this behaviour on their car (2020 '4' model in my case): If, whilst the car in motion, I either press the heater switch (the climate control one) or the heater is turned on automatically by the climate control, the 'Check EV Electrical System' warning light is...

www.speakev.com

 

[Ireallywantanirophev]

Does it happen when you have the heating on?

 

[idiotzoo]

I’ve had the same issue in very similar circumstances. I think there’s either a heating system or software fault. Mine’s having a visit to the dealer to be checked on the 7th.

it seems the yellow/amber warning is a bit generic. A red light is a “stop driving now”.

 

[I'm a BeliEVer]

on?

Only happened once so far, and yes it happened just after I turned the heating on

 

[I'm a BeliEVer]

I’ve had the same issue in very similar circumstances. I think there’s either a heating system or software fault. Mine’s having a visit to the dealer to be checked on the 7th.

it seems the yellow/amber warning is a bit generic. A red light is a “stop driving now”.

The generic warning on my old Leaf when it rarely came up never concerned me too much. I think this warning, advising me to have it inspected at the dealer was more informative in some ways but slightly more worrying at the same time!

Did you get that message too?

 

[greatcapp]

Only happened once so far, and yes it happened just after I turned the heating on

Yeh, I had the exact same thing on my 4 MY20 a week after I bought it. Several people on the UK E Niro Facebook group had also had it (all seemed to be heating related). One of them did take the car to the dealership, who couldn't find a fault. Everyone else, me included, didn't bother. I've not used the heating since, and not seen the error since, but I do keep meaning to try the heating again to see if the same thing happens.

 

[Ireallywantanirophev]

It'll be interesting to see if this only happens in certain areas? If possible, please check if when your heating is on, the warning comes on as you pass a certain point in a road?

 

[KiwiME]

Only happened once so far, and yes it happened just after I turned the heating on

This rings a bell as being reported once in Kona land. At the time I thought it might be a change in the electrical isolation of the traction battery when the compressor is switched in. All you can do is see if it happens again.

 

[Edd Beesley]

but I do keep meaning to try the heating again to see if the same thing happens.

Just curious, does this mean you generally drive around with the climate control system just turned off? Did you do that in your previous cars?

 

[greatcapp]

Just curious, does this mean you generally drive around with the climate control system just turned off? Did you do that in your previous cars?

I think the fan is set to its lowest setting, so it blows some air on the windscreen to prevent it misting up, but, yes, the heating is off. It's not how i've driven any of my previous cars, no. But none of my previous cars had a heated steering wheel (or indeed heated seats). It's only my hands that are ever cold, so with them on the wheel, I've not had the need to turn the heating back on yet. I'm sure I might in Jan/Feb though.I've only used the heated seats once too, just to see how it felt

 

[idiotzoo]

I saw comment somewhere about this being a fault with a three way valve, whether that’s air flow or something to do with the heat pump/ac I don’t know. Either way... it’s unacceptable to me for the car to throw random serious sounding errors so it’s going in and if nothing is found I’ll escalate to Kia.

 

[greatcapp]

I saw comment somewhere about this being a fault with a three way valve, whether that’s air flow or something to do with the heat pump/ac I don’t know. Either way... it’s unacceptable to me for the car to throw random serious sounding errors so it’s going in and if nothing is found I’ll escalate to Kia.

Will be interesting to see if they find anything. The only other person I know of that took theirs in, they ran diagnostics and couldn't find a fault.

 

[Nobby]

I've driven 9k miles in my July 2020 Niro 4. I jump in most mornings with the heater, heated seats and wheel switched on. I sometimes charge with an old Rolec too and I've never seen this error. It could be a strange combination of devices switched on in a certain order but it sounds like a fault to me. I'd continue driving and book it in with your dealership for a checkup (when possible!).

 

[jgwozdzicki]

Either way... it’s unacceptable to me for the car to throw random serious sounding errors so it’s going in and if nothing is found I’ll escalate to Kia.

I wouldn’t call it a random error in the sense the car just decides to throw it up. It’s more likely that as these cars are still so new thst there is going to be scenarios that haven’t been accounted for and will just throw up a generic error rather than something specific as it doesn’t have a code or been programmed for. And unless it’s a serious stop condition, the car will most likely clear the error on its next system check. I remember when my 4 threw a hissy fit at traffic lights and disabled all smart features due to something it didn’t like with the radar status. A “reboot” aka stop, turn off and on again, cleared the fault.

Ultimately unless it’s a severe error that says stop driving now, I’d just drive it and see how things go. I’m not saying it’s not annoying or disconcerting but things are built with so many fail safes these days due to the complexity of modern tech its very hard to actually break anything unintentionally.

 

[I'm a BeliEVer]

So here is the post that mentioned almost exactly what I observed (i.e. I turned on the heater whilst driving), and was diagnosed as a valve fault as mentioned above

Odd Heater fault

Has anyone else encountered this behaviour on their car (2020 '4' model in my case): If, whilst the car in motion, I either press the heater switch (the climate control one) or the heater is turned on automatically by the climate control, the 'Check EV Electrical System' warning light is...

www.speakev.com

 

[I'm a BeliEVer]

From the posts so far, if I could summarise:

1) There are mutiple people reporting similar issues, mostly quite recent which you might expect as the weather in the UK has finally dropped to normal winter levels
2) Possible issues with cars on a similar platform ie Kona
3) Some have only seen the issue once then not again

My inclination is to have it checked out, but I really think it's a bit much to lose it for 10 days while they check out/fix as per the poster on the other thread. This is a brand new car after all.

Something about this being a software issue rings true too. Kia wouldn't be the first manufacturer to release a product with half baked software and let the users work out the problems.

I have to confess I have not used the heater much in the month I've had the car, I'm still struggling to break away from the mentality of a 24Kwh Leaf driver who would just put on some gloves and a thicker coat!

 

[prawlin]

I think you should just stop fiddling with the heater 😬. Why turn it off, ever it looks after itself completely. (I can’t believe you can drive with it off at this time of year, brrrr 🥶, I couldn’t).

So my suggestion is, Set HVAC to full auto, touch nothing else except adjust the rotary temperature knob in small increments to find your preference (mine is 20 or 21°C). Then just leave it well alone, even when parking up or when starting up. It will thermostatically look after itself whilst ever the car is at ready state. The heat pump is very efficient. Yes heating will reduce miles a little bit but who cares when miles are so cheap anyway?

You have a whopping battery now so just relax in comfort and stop worrying .
There may be a fault, but if it doesn’t happen after trying this for a while, I would forget it and carry on. You have a long warranty ahead, so if it does turn out to be a fault there’s no rush to fix it is there?

IMHO, likely as not if you take it in to the stealership, they’ll keep it days and then find nothing wrong. Not worth the hassle I reckon.

Peter

 

[greatcapp]

So my suggestion is, Set HVAC to full auto, touch nothing else except adjust the rotary temperature knob in small increments to find your preference (mine is 20 or 21°C). Then just leave it well alone, even when parking up or when starting up. It will thermostatically look after itself whilst ever the car is at ready state.

Peter

I'm game for trying this.I've yet to study the heating system in detail. Is this done in the car via Infotainment system, rather than the UVO app?