Thanks kc135r, good to know. I am guessing however that the heating system in this '09 is much more efficient than my older '00 Silverado was. It could take 20 miles to get warm at highway speeds when it was in the 20's (F). This truck (interior) warms fast. Can you tell me when you do a remote start in cold weather, the system demands heat but the ICE doesn't run continuously, is it just residual heat that is within the loop? The radiator and the additional coolant reservoirs don't appear to have any insulation. This is an aluminum block, it will lose it's heat fast compared to my old chevy, how do they get it to retain this heat? Like I mentioned before, the Prius pumps a portion of the coolant into a thermos when you shut down and pumps the retained warm coolant back to the system when you start back up. It could retain that for several hours. This truck seems to retain it for a longer period of time than I would expect as well. Thank you so much for your knowledge and helpful insight!

 

I don't know much about the heating system, but I have noticed that here in cold weather (Chicago) when you auto start the truck in the cold, the heat will not start blowing until the truck gets some heat to the engine block. However, when there is some heat, the cabin fan will blow at it's highest setting during remote start. If you put the key in, sometimes the cabin heat fan will turn off and will not blow again for a few more minutes, and the fan won't be at the highest setting when it does start again.

It's as if the cabin fan will blow at lower coolant temp readings on remote start compared to when the key is in. This makes sense because it is getting any heat it can into the cabin on remote start, but wants to blow comfortable (hot) air when you are in the truck.

One thing I really like is how it turns on the seat heaters, and mirror and rear defrosters with the remote start. Really nice built in features!

 

Hi Jet 1 I thought our fuel gauge system was a potentiometer type? Today in the aircraft industry we have an electric eye that eliminates this problem.

 

I took it in because it was parked on a hill. when I started it the guage dropped to zero and the no fuel warning came on ( 1/4 tank of fuel) i knew that it was sitting on 1/4 when I stopped it so drove to the dealership. of course by the time I got there it was back to normal so we went and found a hill and duplicated it (nose lower than the tail) and sure enough it came back. they told me it was a normal float issue.

 

Going back to the MPG, 2 days into little warmer weather, I increased my MPG from high 16s to 18.5 .

 

One thing I really like is how it turns on the seat heaters, and mirror and rear defrosters with the remote start. Really nice built in features![/quote]

T pole,
regarding the above statment, how do you turn on the seat heater and defrost on using remote start?
Or do you need to have them running before turning the vehicle off the night before?

Thanks

 

The seat warmers/defrosters are automatic in my truck (or course, it's been below freezing for weeks here). They just come on when I remote start the truck. Once the key is in, they go back off. I haven't tried it when it was warmer out. I don't know if it's outside temp related (below a certain temp, come on, else do not).

 

I'm not sure all of that was offered on the trucks. Seat heaters were an option that I did not want due to the seat bottom being much firmer than without them. We don't really need it much here anyway. The heated rear view mirrors, I am not sure about on the trucks. I haven't seen it listed as an option or as a standard. Some of the items were available on the SUV's were not available as factory options on the trucks but you could ordert as a dealer option were running boards, rear view camera, rear entertainment. The running boards could be added but the camera was only available as an add-on and you had to use the rear view mirror screen, not the NAV screen.

The mpg's are such a variable and influenced by outside forces, it is hard to determine from tank to tank just what had the most effect on your mileage. The wind, that I mentioned previous, has a pronouned effect and if you drive into the wind then with it, you can see that on the DIC. The outside temperature certainly contributes and is there all winter but if your OAT (outside temperature) rises about the 50-60F (10-15C) range, it will have little impact on your mileage. I find that my varied driving habits have a more pronounced effect than any other condition. And, even when I think I am driving the same, too many variables to be the same every time.

 

On my 09 Tahoe Hybrid, there was only 2 options available. DVD and Sunroof and every one of them in stock in Chicagoland at the time I bought mine came with both - in fact the only color was black! Nothing like having all that choice across 20 or so units ....

 

I think it's from the outside air temp. In the summer, it will turn on the A/C even if you didn't have it on when you got out.

If it's not very cold out (I'm guessing 40-50 F) the seat heaters/defrosters won't come on. And as stated above, when you put the key in, these features turn off.