Setting the scene:  Outside temperature -11 degrees, some neighbours with 'premium' German brands scraping their cars like chumps, I walk outside, the Latmobile (titanium MK5) is basically a block of ice with 4 tyres, I get in, start her up turn on both heated screens, and set the climate to MAX (and the wee window logo), walk back into the house, smug level maximum, knowing that in about 5 minuets the ice block will be a (very dirty) car again......

Imagine my surprise, to walk back outside and find the rear window nice and clear, but the front screen still heavily frozen (I had to scrape it like a peasant :-) ), not even warm to the touch and worse still no heating fan activity at all in the car.  I turned her off, got out, locked and then unlocked and turned her back on again (thinking a reboot would help as it used to on my Ghia Focus when the Auto wipers wouldn't work).   I then thought perhaps the engine wasn't warm enough for the blowers to pump air into the car though if you set MAX, it blows regardless at the windows (wouldn't explain the lack of heated front screen though).   

As I had to go in the car, went out on a very cold 10 minute drive, got to my destination, did my thing, back to the car, and as soon as I press the START button, the ventilation systems were on and very warm indeed.

I'm hoping this isn't the start of something, I think if this happens again its a dealer visit.  She was just there for a parking brake software upgrade recall as well.

Anybody else experienced this at all?

Is your battery fully charged ? I'm having same issues with heated screen not working sometimes. I've been told if the battery is weak or not fully charged this can happen as the screen draws a large amount of power.

Is your stop start working if fitted. ? Another symptom of a failing battery is the stop start never comes on. Even in winter if the battery is fully charged it should start stop if the correct conditions are met.

 

 

I know, I've been there : it's a weak battery

Weak Battery......hmm....never thought of that, she's not had a big run for a wee while now.  The start/stop hasn't been very regular, I had put it down to the cold, but more I think about it more i think its the battery now.  Would that affect the interior fans though?

Thanks for the replies!

I can confirm that my heated screen and stop-start work fine now after a battery change