New PHEV Owner

[IndyPHEV]

Hello all! I'm new here and new to the PHEV as it's only been on sale here in the USA since January. I have a loaner SEL from the dealer and plan to purchase a GT spec tomorrow. The PHEV hasn't done exceedingly well here in the States since its launch but I've read numerous reviews from your side of the pond and I'm confident in this purchase. I've been a Subaru driver for 20 years and it's bittersweet switching to the Triple Diamond.

My question: Where is the temperature gauge? In the demo car this weekend I tried the battery charge feature and the car began to smell warm, with a hint of coolant smell. I'm assuming since the car has 22 miles on it that it's just baking off some new car coatings. But it would be nice to track engine temperature somewhere. I've read the manual and cycled through all the displays and apps on the screen. Thanks!

 

[Sumpy]

Hello from across the pond, my 2015 pre-facelift doesn't have a rev counter and I don't think Mitsubishi has added one since, having said that you don't need it as the car controls the ICE. It was a feature that I did miss initially and did think about how to retro fit one, but I don't miss it now and it was just a hang-over from previous "normal" cars. The burning smell has been commented on before on this forum and doesn't seem to be a problem and the consensus seems to be that it was some kind of corrosion preventative spray burning off the exhaust. I'm sure another forum member will be along to let you know about an app that will give you all sorts of engine data, but I will leave someone else who knows about that stuff to fill you in with the details, anyway welcome to the forum and enjoy what is a very interesting car.

Oops, bit of a senior moment there and got carried away about rev counters but I think the general aim of my initial wandering off topic stands, as the car does control the ICE revs and therefore the engine temperature (when I was younger and my brain was far sharper than it is now (and it wasn't sharp to start with), I would have been finding every bit of information that the car could provide, now I'm just content to get to my destination in comfort).

 

[NightPHEVer]

Temperature gauge? I believe there's a warning that will come up if the engine gets too hot, probably WARNING! words in front of you on the dash and yet another bing or bong.

I know what you mean though, I had Jeep Cherokee XJ for around 15 years and I regularly enjoyed looking at the engine temperature gauge. It did move a little bit sometimes. At year 15 of my ownership when things really did go wrong (probably head gasket or porous head) the temperature gauge shot up into the red very rapidly indeed, and a loud buzzer sounded. That buzzer had waited nearly 20 years to buzz!

Burning smells are to be expected on new cars. Probably a coolant splillage or coating. The only non-new-car smell that PHEVs are noted for is sometimes a burning rubber smell when the 'charge' button is pressed or when straining up a long hill in the 'save' position. Mine has just started giving off this smell after 15,000 miles. Nobody seems entirely sure what the cause of this is though. My petrol-only Smart car gives off a burning rubber smell which is suspected to be rear tyre rubber splatter on exhaust silencer. I don't think the PHEV is tyre splatter though. Most likely an electrical cause. This rubber smell is discussed elsewhere on this forum.

 

[maby]

I don't remember the last time I had a car with a temperature gauge - they seem to have disappeared from production cars a long time ago.

The PHEV does smell hot after running on Charge mode for any length of time. The strength of the smell does reduce with age, but ours at about three and a half years old with 45,000 miles on the clock still smells alarmingly hot after ten or fifteen minutes running on Charge. On the plus side, nobody has ever reported it catching fire!

 

[IndyPHEV]

Thanks, everyone! Now if I can get the MyMitsubishi Connect app to recognize my VIN#, I'll be all set!

 

[NightPHEVer]

I don't remember the last time I had a car with a temperature gauge - they seem to have disappeared from production cars a long time ago.

My ten year old Smart has a temperature gauge. Digital LCD black on greenish background. Bars that vertically increase - the fuel gauge works on the same principle. If I drive up a very steep hill on a very hot day it will go above average position by one 'bar' so I put the heater on full blast to cool it a bit more. I used to have to do this on my Hillman Imp in the 1970s - perhaps something to do with rear mounted engines.

I always look at the temperature gauge in the Smart though, it reassures me that all is well (it's actually a three cylinder Mitsubishi engine!). But if it wasn't there I guess I wouldn't.
Don't know if the newer Smart 453 has one any more though.

 

[jaapv]

Hello all! I'm new here and new to the PHEV as it's only been on sale here in the USA since January. I have a loaner SEL from the dealer and plan to purchase a GT spec tomorrow. The PHEV hasn't done exceedingly well here in the States since its launch but I've read numerous reviews from your side of the pond and I'm confident in this purchase. I've been a Subaru driver for 20 years and it's bittersweet switching to the Triple Diamond.

My question: Where is the temperature gauge? In the demo car this weekend I tried the battery charge feature and the car began to smell warm, with a hint of coolant smell. I'm assuming since the car has 22 miles on it that it's just baking off some new car coatings. But it would be nice to track engine temperature somewhere. I've read the manual and cycled through all the displays and apps on the screen. Thanks!

When running on charge for longer periods it will smell burning anyway, because of dirt and coatings burning off the exhaust. It will diminish over time, but never go away completely.

 

[maby]

Hello all! I'm new here and new to the PHEV as it's only been on sale here in the USA since January. I have a loaner SEL from the dealer and plan to purchase a GT spec tomorrow. The PHEV hasn't done exceedingly well here in the States since its launch but I've read numerous reviews from your side of the pond and I'm confident in this purchase. I've been a Subaru driver for 20 years and it's bittersweet switching to the Triple Diamond.

My question: Where is the temperature gauge? In the demo car this weekend I tried the battery charge feature and the car began to smell warm, with a hint of coolant smell. I'm assuming since the car has 22 miles on it that it's just baking off some new car coatings. But it would be nice to track engine temperature somewhere. I've read the manual and cycled through all the displays and apps on the screen. Thanks!

When running on charge for longer periods it will smell burning anyway, because of dirt and coatings burning off the exhaust. It will diminish over time, but never go away completely.

I am not sure that this is a reasonable explanation - the exhaust on a conventional car stops smelling soon after it is delivered - why should a PHEV take years? Our PHEV has effectively been run as a petrol car for the last three and a half years, but it still smells "hot" when running on charge for any significant time. Our exhaust must have seen a run-time equivalent to a conventional car that is a couple of years old, if not more.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Because the exhaust on a regular car is running all the time the car is running, any debris never has a chance to settle. With the PHEV, it may be days or weeks between the exhaust getting hot, so anything that has fallen on it will then be burned off all at once.

 

[maby]

Because the exhaust on a regular car is running all the time the car is running, any debris never has a chance to settle. With the PHEV, it may be days or weeks between the exhaust getting hot, so anything that has fallen on it will then be burned off all at once.

You didn't fully read my post - my PHEV runs almost exclusively as a petrol car - it is three and a half years old with 45,000 miles on the clock and still smells hot after ten or fifteen minutes in "Charge" mode. I bet that yours can run for an hour along the motorway - effectively running as a petrol car - and not smell like it's about to catch fire when you stop...

 

[jaapv]

Yes, but even in charge or save mode it will not run on ICE all the time, the engine will shut down in between, giving the exhaust time to cool off. So it will only get as hot as a regular car when running at high power for an extended period of time.

 

[maby]

Yes, but even in charge or save mode it will not run on ICE all the time, the engine will shut down in between, giving the exhaust time to cool off. So it will only get as hot as a regular car when running at high power for an extended period of time.

The majority of my driving is relatively high speed motorway trips of a hundred miles or more - the engine is running continuously.