Broken defrost in a snowstorm

[AaarghT]

Took my 1 month old R1T up to the Sierra Nevada weekend before last as a bit of a test run. The route to our cabin is about 150 miles from our house, with 8k of elevation gain. We left our house in the evening where it was about 50 degrees, and it was high 20s with light snow showers at our destination.

The good news is that the range on our DM was great - with the cold and elevation we still had 140 miles of range on arrival. The bad news is that with about an hour left of the drive, the windshield started fogging up. We turned on defog, defrost, auto temp, manual temp, manual vent selection, and nothing worked. There was NO air coming out near the windshield. The road we were on has no cell coverage and very few places where you can safely pull over, so we ended up rolling down the windows for airflow to clear the fog (fortunately we always drive that route with plenty of blankets). Ice started to build on the windshield from the falling snow, but we were able to reach our destination before it got too bad.

I called support and did the normal resets, and everything started working normally. Support called it a “glitch”. Problem is, the next day, on the way home, it happened again. Things started out fine, then the windshield started fogging up (no snow this time). We were able to pull off the road this time, and spent some time trying every HVAC combo we could, but despite hearing the fan, no air could be felt coming from ANY vent. We did a full reset to no avail, and drove home the next 2 hours with the windows down. Called support again to report, and set up a service escalation. The next morning, HVAC worked fine again.

Heard from support today that they “can’t reproduce” and “must be a software thing” so my car is ready to take home.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? As far as sierra storms go, this was nothing. How can I trust this adventure vehicle?

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[cgaiii]

Have found that if the vehicle thinks your SOC at destination will be very low, it will disable the fan. You will still get some convection heat but that is it. Had this happen a couple of times. Also happens if there is a low SOC. There needs to be a manual override. Not sure that matches your situation, but we also ran into another owner that had the same problem when we both had to skip a charge because of a power outage in Roanoke.

 

[AaarghT]

Have found that if the vehicle thinks your SOC at destination will be very low, it will disable the fan. You will still get some convection heat but that is it. Had this happen a couple of times. Also happens if there is a low SOC. There needs to be a manual override. Not sure that matches your situation, but we also ran into another owner that had the same problem when we both had to skip a charge because of a power outage in Roanoke.

Very interesting, and concerning. While I had well over 100 miles of remaining charge at destination estimated in both instances, it is one of the few times I’ve used the vehicle nav. I can possibly understand nerfing comfort controls for the sake of range, but disabling defog/defrost is just flat out dangerous!

 

[AaarghT]

Heard back from support escalation: “System is operating as designed at this time.”

I have very serious concerns with an engineering design that disables airflow toward the windshield when defog or defrost is on.

 

[emoore]

Did you try stopping the Nav? I've never had an issue with defrost working but I don't use the nav much.

 

[SSteveEV]

Huh, that's a puzzle. Different from my HVAC complaints but more dangerous. Mine is just comfort, never unable to turn on fans.
Please keep us posted!

 

[AaarghT]

Did you try stopping the Nav? I've never had an issue with defrost working but I don't use the nav much.

Thanks for the thought. On the second occurrence I did a hard reset, which I believe stopped the nav (but am not sure.)

Your question, however, did make me realize that both times this happened, I had been driving for 1+ hours and the cabin was quite comfortable/warm before I tried turning on the defrost. Typically, I start the drive with defog or defrost until the windshield is clear (which works fine), and then don’t use it again. Perhaps that’s the difference for this failure scenario ?

 

[evaughan3]

Drove my R1T today 200 miles. Virtually no airflow through any vent (floor, vents and defogger) despite fan on high and 45 degrees outside. Checked that nothing was blocking the air filter and verified that the damper behind the air filter was opening. Vehicle reboot didn’t help either.

Called service and they were of zero help. All they said was it need to be taken in for service and if they deem I am the cause of the problem, I will be charged for the repairs…

 

[AaarghT]

Sounds remarkably similar to my experience. I too heard the fan running but no airflow. Neither a hard or soft reset resolved the issue, but leaving the car off for 20 minutes did (“sleep cycle”?)

I regret not taking a video, and highly recommend you do. Use a tissue to demonstrate the lack of airflow despite the settings. This is a safety hazard that Rivian needs to take seriously.

 

[VSG]

Drove my R1T today 200 miles. Virtually no airflow through any vent (floor, vents and defogger) despite fan on high and 45 degrees outside. Checked that nothing was blocking the air filter and verified that the damper behind the air filter was opening. Vehicle reboot didn’t help either.

Called service and they were of zero help. All they said was it need to be taken in for service and if they deem I am the cause of the problem, I will be charged for the repairs…

OK, so your HVAC is broken. Not sure what you expected from service, since it seems you've checked most things? Pretty much all they could do over the phone is walk you through some things like a reset then tell you to bring it in if those simple things don't fix the problem.

"if they deem I am the cause of the problem, I will be charged for the repairs" is what literally every service department for every car I've ever owned has told me when I make an appointment for something that might be under warranty. It sets clear expectations - just because you have a new vehicle doesn't mean every single repair is covered under warranty, and they want to be sure you know that so there's no problem later.

In this case it's hard to see how you could have done something to cause the problem. It's probably a disconnected duct, if I had to guess. But I guarantee you they've had people demand that actual damage like broken tie rods etc. be fixed under warranty when it's clearly not a defective part or defective assembly.

 

[evaughan3]

Sounds remarkably similar to my experience. I too heard the fan running but no airflow. Neither a hard or soft reset resolved the issue, but leaving the car off for 20 minutes did (“sleep cycle”?)

I regret not taking a video, and highly recommend you do. Use a tissue to demonstrate the lack of airflow despite the settings. This is a safety hazard that Rivian needs to take seriously.

Leaning towards a frozen evaporator since it self resolved by sitting for an hour. It was also extremely humid today and just above freezing outside.

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