2016 Explorer Remote Start Climate Behavior

[Spoondog]

Hi all,

I have a 2016 Explorer Sport with factory included remote start. I always leave the climate settings in auto mode for remote start. When I remote start it in the hot summers here (100F+), the climate control on the remote start is useless. It does not cool worth a damn. The front vents are barely blowing, and the rear vents are complete dead. The air conditioned seat is on. When I jump in and press the start button, everything comes back to life to the settings before I shut it down.

What I expect when I remote start it when the inside temp of the car is well over 100F and the outside temp is over 100F, is that the back vents and the dashboard vents would be blowing full speed to cool the car down. That is not happening. Why do I expect this? Because that's what my 2014 Explorer Sport used to do!!!!

This 2016 Sport is at the dealer for its 3rd visit on this issue. They can't figure it out. Last time it was there, they shotgun'd the problem and started replacing a bunch of components associated with the remote start and the climate control system. That was in the winter when the remote start system was not heating the car well.

This time, I suggested they replace the inside and outside temp sensors too.

But what I really want to know is, for the 2016 Explorer Sport with remote start, what is the exact behavior of the climate control system supposed to be when it super hot outside? The manual is vague. The Ford website is vague. Ford won't give me a number for their engineering dept to answer this simple question. The dude at the dealership goes out to the lot to try and compare with other models. To me, that's not acceptable. Why can't one simply get the answer directly from Ford on exactly how they designed the car to behave?!?

The manual states that the set point for the remote start is 22C. So I did a test. I set the system to 22C and shut off the car. After it gets hot in the sun, then I remote start it. The front vents are just blowing ever so slightly. The car is really hot inside. After several minutes, the vents are still blowing really slowly. Then! When I press the start button (remember I set the temp to 22C when I turned it off which is supposed to be the set point for auto climate control for remote start), it starts blowing like crazy! The car realizes, "oh, I need to make it 22C in here". But it didn't realize that during remote start.

Can anyone on here tell me how their 2016 Explorer with remote start behaves regarding the climate control in the hot summer? In auto mode, do the back vents blow?

Thanks very much!

 

[cwescapexlt4x4]

The A/C system doesn't work the same with the remote start vs when you have started the vehicle yourself (pushing the button) but as you may/may not know, in the menus on the left-side of your menus is an option for the remote start climate control.
Rear vents, I am not sure but will check next time.
When you start the car (as you know) the system will be fully engaged.

 

[Spoondog]

The A/C system doesn't work the same with the remote start vs when you have started the vehicle yourself (pushing the button) but as you may/may not know, in the menus on the left-side of your menus is an option for the remote start climate control.
Rear vents, I am not sure but will check next time.
When you start the car (as you know) the system will be fully engaged.

Hi Chris,

Yep, that's why I specified that I keep it in auto climate mode for remote start. The 2014 Sport was great. All vents (front and back) would be blowing a hurricane in that car during remote start in the summer time. The way this 2016 Sport behaves has to be busted.

As a matter of fact, with the 2014 Sport, it was funny when my cold-natured mom would come visit us and we would go somewhere. She would complain and shout to turn off the air conditioning in the back as we were all loading into the car. Once I pressed the start button, the back A/C would shut down and go back to the setting it was on when the car was shut off, which in that case, was off.

 

[cwescapexlt4x4]

mine works the same way, gentle breeze vs hurricane but does work to pre-cool the cabin.

 

[Spoondog]

mine works the same way, gentle breeze vs hurricane but does work to pre-cool the cabin.

Man, that would imply that the 2016 Sport is a "downgrade" vs. the 2014 with respect to climate control behavior during remote start. When I go pick it up, I'll be checking the behavior of their 2019s they have on the lot. Because if Ford went all "green" on me with that remote start climate control behavior, I'm not interested. :-(

That's a bummer if that's really the way it was designed from the factory.

 

[peterk9]

Man, that would imply that the 2016 Sport is a "downgrade" vs. the 2014 with respect to climate control behavior during remote start. When I go pick it up, I'll be checking the behavior of their 2019s they have on the lot. Because if Ford went all "green" on me with that remote start climate control behavior, I'm not interested. :-(

That's a bummer if that's really the way it was designed from the factory.

They have 2019 models on the lot?? Production doesn't start until September 10th. I think you probably meant 2018.
I haven't used the remote start for cooling but for heating it doesn't go full blast until you get in and hit the start/stop button so I'm guessing the A/C works the same way.

Peter

 

[Odrapnew]

I know my 14 is like a hurricane, as Spoondog refers to it, when I remote start in the summer. I would hope they'd keep that feature to cool it down quicker.

As for being more "green", I would think it would be the opposite if its a low fan speed. You'd have to run it longer to get it cooled down.

 

[thefranchise713]

I've observed the same shortcoming with the remote start in the heat. I think Quiet Start is getting set in the ABD but there is no way to turn it off from the IPC.

 

[Spoondog]

Yes, I meant 2018 models rather than 2019 models. Regardless, based on the feedback here, it certainly sounds like a change in behavior was made somewhere between 2014 and 2016. It will be interesting to see what the dealership says in a day or so. If they do some back saying that this is "by design", then that's a serious bummer.

The sad thing is that the only reason I have this 2016 is because the 2014 had a serious manufacturing flaw that the dealer could not fix and Ford Motor Company paid a few thousand dollars towards getting me into the 2016.

 

[Spoondog]

The dealer called me today saying there is nothing they can do!!! All they friggin did was compare to other 2016s they had on the lot. I'm certain this car did not have "Quiet Mode" enabled when I bought it and then one summer, this behavior came along. I seem to recall in between taking it in for some other wonky behavior and they updated the software.

They seriously just told me that they cannot adjust any of the settings such as "Quiet Mode". I'm pretty certain they didn't even call FMC. I think I'm done with this dealer. Grrrrrr!

 

[peterk9]

I'll try mine tomorrow and see how it works but according to the other posts in this thread referring to later models, it sees to be working as designed. Also, I'm not aware of anyone actually seeing this "Quiet Mode" in the settings when they used Forscan so perhaps the dealer is correct in saying it can't be adjusted assuming it is even there.

Peter

 

[Spoondog]

I went out to the lot with one of the new car salesmen and we looked at the 2018 Sport and Platinums that they had on the lot. It's the same dopey behavior. The salesman and I were laughing at how ridiculous it was that they would neuter a feature that is so desirable in the hot Texas summer. After we parted, he was heading straight over to their used lot to find a 2014 to see how it should be done right.

I'm going to check out this 2016 of mine with FORScan this weekend and see if it can be adjusted. If not, I'm going to seriously consider flipping it rather than putting new tires on it. It's got less than 23k miles on it, so I should be able to get good value on it.

 

[cwescapexlt4x4]

Yes I double checked in the Sam's Club parking lot as the rear is not blowing overheard with the remote start but certainly comes to life when pressing start. If my 13 had remote start I'd have a solid unit/experience to compare against.

 

[Spoondog]

That is a bummer. I wonder if that's some sort of EPA appeasement garbage. The 2014 definitely does not behave like that, and in climate auto mode with "Quiet Mode" disabled, on a hot day, those back vents will be blowing like a hurricane during remote start. No idea about the 2015 because I never owned one.

 

[peterk9]

Neither the 2014 nor the 2015 Owner's Manuals have the term "Quiet Start" in them. Previous model years did. The 2016 and 2017 Manuals reference the term but there is no setting for it despite what the Manual says.

Peter

 

[jmr061]

If someone that has IDS and a 16+ Explorer can start a new session and export it and send it to me I would like to look at something in regards to quiet start.

 

[jmr061]

BTW Quiet Start is a select-able feature in IDS in the 17 (and probably 18) but is not in the 16. The dealer should be able to access it.

 

[Spoondog]

Is IDS the software that Ford provides to the dealers to make settings modifications?

I dorked around with this car using FORScan and I have a couple of questions I was hoping a 2014 owner could answer. When Quiet Mode is disabled and climate is set to auto and seats+wheel are set to auto, what are the values in the HVAC module at addresses 733-01-01 and 733-07-01?

I'm curious how those compare to my 2016.

Thanks!

 

[jmr061]

Yes IDS is the Ford software.

 

[jmr061]

@Spoondog, I sent you a PM as well.