Electric Drive not working correctly Fault

[Massimo 2323]

Has anyone, meaning eHybrid or Gte, had the “Electric Drive Not Working Correctly” yellow warning error?
It appeared on mine a few nights ago when i switched on the ignition. The car seemed to lose power. So i stopped, turned off the car for 5 minutes and since then the error has not reappeared. I called VW and was told if it pops up again call assistance..

 

[Maturedriver]

My GTE sometimes throws up a warning message then the next time I use the car the message does not appear. A few days ago, as I was parking, a message came up saying that the back left tail light had a fault. Strangely as I looked the ‘left’ changed to ‘right’. I counted all the LEDs, both left and right, and they were all present and correct. Needless to say the next time I used the car the message/s did not appear. Witchcraft ?

 

[Massimo 2323]

Just yesterday I also got that back left/right taillight error. This is the 5th time...
Does your Gte do the rattling sound when the engine starts up?

Also here is the courtesy light on the side mirror.. from a golf ball it turn into a waterfall effect...

 

[Maturedriver]

Have to say I rarely hear the engine running when cold. When I leave to go on a journey, in hybrid mode, the engine only fires up after several hundred yards up the road and then it doesn’t make much more noise than when running on electric. I recall that a while ago it did fire up when cold and it did rattle somewhat. I was rather concerned so after a mile I stopped the car, got out, and listened. The rattle had gone. Some engines will rattle at start up because not enough oil has reached the valve gear. Not ideal.

I have only just realised that the courtesy light represented a golf ball so if it changed shape I might not even notice.
.

 

[Massimo 2323]

There is actually a tpi with a software update that should sort out this problem. The same software update for the engine running longer intermittant message.

 

[AndyCYM]

I haven't had that fault in my Ehybrid (yet).

Does anyone else find that electric power is restricted in cold weather, indicated by the line line on the left of the rev counter / power guage stopping short of the vertical, like this?

 

[Maturedriver]

This is quite normal. In real world driving it doesn’t make much difference to performance because with electric drive maximum torque is developed from 1rpm. I guess you might not be able to reach 80mph in electric only mode though .

 

[Massimo 2323]

I haven't had that fault in my Ehybrid (yet).

Does anyone else find that electric power is restricted in cold weather, indicated by the line line on the left of the rev counter / power guage stopping short of the vertical, like this?

Happens on mine too and with even less power..

 

[AndyCYM]

Thanks for confirming that it's not just mine. Agreed, doesn't make much difference to driving, but can make the engine cut in when you don't want it to. I think it's governed by the temperature of the battery rather than air temperature.

 

[AndyCYM]

Realised today that you get full battery power regardless of temperature if the car has been plugged in. Maybe charging keeps the battery warm.

 

[Maturedriver]

Happens on mine too and with even less power..
View attachment 270660

I think today I had even less power than you did. One of the worst ranges I’ve ever seen although I was using the heater (loosing 4 miles of range) and driving in Sport mode which provides more regenerative braking (due to icy roads) but no coasting. Sorry about all the dust on the screen.

 

[AndyCYM]

I think today I had even less power than you did. One of the worst ranges I’ve ever seen although I was using the heater (loosing 4 miles of range) and driving in Sport mode which provides more regenerative braking (due to icy roads) but no coasting. Sorry about all the dust on the screen.

View attachment 271163

It seems to be completely inconsistent, and I was wrong about full power being available if the car was plugged in. My electric range is only around 20-25 miles at the moment.

 

[m4in]

If i recall correctly, it does mention power restriction in the manual in regards to temperature.

20-25 miles does sound about right for the weather - some EVs experience a loss of more than 50% in range currently (Corsa E with 220ish miles range dropped to around 90). Charging shouldn't impact that, the battery will cool within 20 minutes to ambient.

If you're charging from a box, you could try charging from 20% to 80%, unplug and immediately set off - you should get a better result in regards to power for a bit, but if i'm not entirely mistaken, the Golf doesn't condition the battery. Means that over a drive, the battery will potentially/likely cool down again (unlike higher spec EVs that do heat the battery).

It's just an inherent issue with physics - cold batteries don't work as well.

 

[Maturedriver]

In over two years of ownership the electric only range extremes on similar roads and speeds are as follow :-
Summer - 35 miles. 21C. Air conditioning off for half the journey. Gearbox in D with recuperation in Automatic.
Winter - 24 miles. Between 0 and 4C. Heating on. Gearbox in S (therefore no coasting). Driving with paddles.

 

[m4in]

Yeah that does sound about right. Range (and potentially power) should start improving above 7-8 degrees, if we take normal EV batteries as example.