S80 D3 2011 - Auxiliary Heating?

[Carman15]

Hi

New Volvo owner and I am surprised my car seems to take a while to provide heat into the cabin.

I know diesels take a while to get warm and Volvo in their wisdom decided not to provide a coolant temperature gauge so I have checked the engine with my elm diagnostic and it does warm up reasonably quickly. So the thermostat appears ok.

In other diesel cars Ii have owned, some have had a Webasto heater to help get warm sooner and later ones have had electric (ceramic?) heaters that give cabin warmth nearly straight away irrespective of engine temperature. I expected something similar from Volvo but my car at least seems not to have such a device.

Is this the case or does my car have a problem?

[FreshAir]

There is something called 'Electric additional heater' in my 2014 manual.

It is fed by a beefy 100A fuse.

If there is one on my car, I can't say I have ever noticed to be honest. Maybe it is something only fitted in cold climates?

[Carman15]

Hi FreshAir

There is nothing in my 2011 handbook about electrical heating.

I'm sure you are correct about additional heaters being fitted for cold climates such as Sweden where they have things like engine block heaters that are powered from mains electricity and are left plugged in when the car is not in use.

Perhaps I am being nesh in wanting something to warm the car more quickly - at least the seat heating works very well.

In the past I had a Jaguar XF diesel that had electric heaters as standard and the car was able to give warm air just a couple of minutes following a cold start. The system worked very intelligently, the ecu monitored the electrical load and placed electric heaters in circuit to use the balance of alternator output. So, if there was little electrical load there was a large amount of warm air available but if you had the lights on, wipers etc there was less available.

[Black dog]

I have a 2011 d3 V70 and I'm sure it has one as it blows Luke warm air by the time it gets to the end of our street.

[Tatsfield]

Quote from my Owners Manual:

Cars with certain petrol engines ² have an elec-
tric additional heater integrated into the car's
climate control system.
In a semi-cold ¹ climate zone diesel-driven cars
have an electric additional heater instead of a
fuel-driven version.
The heater cannot be controlled manually but
is instead activated automatically after the
engine has been started in outside tempera-
tures below 14 °C and is switched off after the
set passenger compartment temperature has
been reached

¹ An authorised Volvo dealer has information regarding the geographical areas concerned.
² An authorised Volvo dealer has information regarding the engines concerned

[simboc2004]

My 2011 D3 V70 warms up nice and quickly - if I use the screen clear function then it interrupts the interior warming, however the moment I switch that off the interior heats really fast. Do you have your car set to Auto Climate? And what temperature do you have set? I always leave mine on 21C and it works really well. It might be worth vacuuming the interior air sampling sensors/ports as they can become blocked with dust/fluff.

[apersson850]

Our cars, an XC70 D5 2012 and one XC70 D4 2016, both have diesel driven auxiliary heaters. There were standard issue in Sweden. As an option, you could get them with timers and/or remote control via Volvo on Call. But at least they run as auxiliary heating while driving, if it's so cold that the diesel engine can't keep the temperature up by itself.

As Tatsfield wrote above, further south they instead had an electric heater in the car, to supplement the heating from the engine.
That's completely different from the extra electrical heater you connect to the mains supply. That's a pre-heater only. The other one is a supplemental heater when driving only.
And the diesel driven one can be both.

[simboc2004]

The sensor ports are, I think, the triple slots at bottom right on the instrument centre console, as well as in the front and centre overhead light clusters... please tell me if there are more I have missed!

[Carman15]

Thanks everyone for your input and information.

I have the system set on auto and 22C.

If the rain ever stops I will try Simboc's suggestion and get the hoover out and attack the sensors and see if that gives any improvement.

Checked my handbook today to see if there was a fuse that might control an electrical heater but nothing is listed.

[apersson850]

Originally Posted by simboc2004

The sensor ports are, I think, the triple slots at bottom right on the instrument centre console, as well as in the front and centre overhead light clusters... please tell me if there are more I have missed!

There are no temperature sensors in the overhead lamps in these models.

The CCM has access to these sensors:

• Cabin temperature (center console).
• Evaporator temperature (in air duct).
• Air quality sensor (if car has clean air interior zone package).
• Moisture sensor (if fitted - in internal mirror).

From the ECM it also gets information about

• AC circuit pressure.
• Ambient temperature (from sensor in external mirror).
• Coolant temperature (from sensor in radiator).

From the CEM it gets information about

• Sunlight intensity (from combined light sensor/alarm status below windscreen).

Temperature sensor in the dome light was back in the time of the 700/900 series with ECC.
What you select as desired temperature has nothing to do with how fast that level is reached. You'll get 22°C at the same time, regardless of whether you set it to 22° or 27°.