One pedal driving is really fun. And that service warning is hilarious. I'll bet VW dealers just loved it.
One pedal driving is really fun. And that service warning is hilarious. I'll bet VW dealers just loved it.
Leave it to Volkswagen to make sure you can still get a check engine light even with no engine. 
Late last year my fun money account had finally recovered enough from the car purchase and related expenses to splurge for a new personalized plate for the car. "MX5 DNA" just wasn't appropriate anymore. I got it ordered and it finally came in this week.
Old plate:
Wait a minute. What is that hanging down from the bumper above the plate?
It turns out to be some pieces of masking tape that used to completely cover the license plate lights. Oops. And they are painted body color. I'm guessing a PO had the rear bumper cover repainted because of wear and tear or crash damage and the body shop was too lazy to remove the lights and doubly too lazy to remove the tape afterwards. Easy enough fix though. And wouldn't you know it, the lights are LEDs, like the rest of the the low voltage lighting in the car. Better for range I suppose.
Much better, other than the whole car being dirty. Now I can finally put the new hotness on:
I had also considered "BLU LYN" in recognition of the blue accent line in the grill and headlights. Like the GTIs red line, but blue, you know, for a "green" car. Lol. Ultimately I decided against it because of the adjacent, politically-charged, blue line movement. I do what I can to support our public servants but didn't want to potentially flounder with my personalized plate. So GLF CRT it is. Because electric. And Golf.
I also did a small house project to enable me to charge the car while parked outside without exposing the charger to theft. I looked into a few options and decided on adding a ¾" aluminum threshold underneath the garage door with a 1" section missing in the corner.
I just open the garage door, plug in the car, carefully route the cable, and close the garage door. It works well and is basically non-contacting to the cable. And now Mrs. ShawneeCreek can park in the garage.
One last update. At the beginning of this I said that I bought this car to #1 save money on gas for the commuter car and #2 to have a chance to play with electric cars. Well..... there was a super secret #3, that I can finally share with you all.
About a week before my gas station epiphany we learned that Mrs. ShawneeCreek was pregnant with our first child! We've been wanting this for 7 years now. Needless to say, me having a car with a usable back seat seemed wise. We had our 20 week ultrasound this week, as pictured above. Baby is healthy and well and is a boy! We are excited and I look forward to my new adventures as a dad with our son.
- Sean
Oh man, now you've totally derailed the car discussion. Congrats on what appears to be some sort of three-eyed alien. And now we'll find out how many boxes of diapers you can put in an eGolf!
GLF CRT is much better than "blue lynn", which is how I read your alternate.
Congratulations! Golfs are great family haulers. My 6'2" son even liked the back seat.
In reply to ShawneeCreek :
Super Duper!! 
That's the best update! Being a parent is the hardest and best thing you'll ever experience. Congratulations
This is the best news I have heard in a long time. I can't think of better people to become parents.
Congratulations on the baby!! They change your whole life and are the best thing ever!
I'm joining you in e Golf ownership as I pick up my 2017 next week!
Well, that's not right. The headlights are supposed to be at about the same level. I noticed that the ground on the passenger side seemed overly bright while driving to the gym this morning. I pulled up the the garage door when I got back to confirm it. My e-Golf has auto-leveling headlights. On ignition start they sweep down to their lowest level and then back up to where they need to be.
Well, now the passenger side is at it's lowest point and doesn't move during the startup cycle. Looks like I need to find the diagnostic procedures for the system. I'm hoping it's something simple like a blown fuse or a loose connector, but it could be the control module, sensor, motor, gearbox, or even the wiring. To be determined...
- Sean
In reply to ShawneeCreek :
Oh man, I hope it turns out to be something minor!
In reply to Loweguy5 :
Luckily, it seems to be something that is easily fixable. Driving home from work on Monday I started thinking through my troubleshooting plan. I learned long ago that if I am experiencing issues with an electrical system more complex than a switch with a relay the first thing to check is the health of the 12V battery. I once had a Saturn LW200 that inexplicably ran the cooling fan at max speed one day. Not overheating. Not hot outside. Just maximum "SAVE THE MOTOR" cooling fan speed. I went through three fan control modules from the junkyard before I thought to get the battery and alternator checked. Turns out the battery was going bad and the marginally low voltage was not making the fan control module happy. I replaced the battery and the car was happy again.
Monday afternoon I stopped at the local parts store and had them test the battery in the car. "It needs a charge," they said. Ok, thanks for the info. Get it into the garage, pop the hood, and break out the digital multimeter. Yep. Its only at 12.2V, a little low. Turn the car on and it goes up to 14.4V or so. So the DC-DC converter (effectively the alternator for an EV) is working ok. I still suspect the battery. Looking at it, it is branded Volkswagen. And wouldn't you know it, it has a 2013 (!) date code. Yeah, I'm not surprised a 10 year old battery might need replaced. Talking with a co-worker today, it seems EVs need a slightly different type of 12V battery for their use case. We're guessing that VW had a big batch of them made before production of the e-Golf started and then just used them until they ran out. That's the only way I can see a 2013 battery being used in my 2016 car.
I called my local VW dealer for a battery. "That will be $303 and we have to order it in." Ouch! Let me do some shopping around. Again, it's a special battery with only 350 CCA, compared to the 600-900 in an equivalent ICE car. But clearly the VW battery was up to the task. I looked around online and I could get it from VW's parts group from a slightly less local dealer for $265 shipped to my house. So that's on it's way.
This morning I got further confirmation that the battery is the likely culprit. When I turned the car on both headlights did their vertical sweep and then settled in at ride height. This morning was much warmer than Monday morning. So the battery likely had enough juice to make the adaptive front headlight control module happy. I'll report back once I get the new battery installed and run it for a week or two. Worst case, I will now have the troubleshooting starting point of a known good 12V battery.
- Sean
In reply to ShawneeCreek :
I'm sure sorry you had this trouble but I'm glad to be learning so much from you along the way. I had no idea the 12v battery is different than a "normal" one.
Thankfully my car doesn't have the fancy headlights (I was okay with an SE because starting in '17 they got cruise and faster charging). I'll keep an eye out for it acting out in other ways and will consider the battery early on in any troubleshooting. My car does not have a VW battery and it appears to be new (couldn't locate the date code) so hopefully it will last for a while.
Looking forward to hearing if the replacement battery ultimately solves your issue.
In reply to ShawneeCreek :
Is it a smaller size? Or is it more of a deep discharge type?
Up here in the arctic tundra we always put as much CCA's in a batteries as we can fit. Treat it like insurance cranking those ICE motors over in our -40f mornings.
Marine batteries have thicker plates So you can't get as many CCA's in the same size. Did VW just use a marine battery and told you it was " special"?
Good news! I got the new 12V battery installed and I haven't experienced any issues with the headlights since. Before I got it installed, the weather warmed up and the headlights worked fine. I'm moving forward with the assumption that the battery fixed it. I won't know for sure until next winter.
In fun news, I took the electric car to the gas station today. It felt weird. But I needed gas for the lawn mower.
I finally took some time to investigate the rear defroster not working. Some careful looking at the glass revealed several breaks in the lines. Here are the top three lines with the breaks indicated by the sticky notes:
Yeah... I really destroyed those when I pulled out the window tint. Ugh. I gave the $18 parts store repair kit a try. It worked great, right until I pulled off the masking tape and it peeled the repairs partially off the glass. At this point it would take me 10-20 hours of work to repair the defroster properly. I think I'm going to punt and just get the rear glass replaced for $400. Live and learn, I suppose.
Oh, a couple of weeks ago I crested 5,000 miles covered under my ownership. I treated the car to a tire rotation. One of the tires has a patch right in the middle. But everything else I could see looks good. Impressions and stories from those miles:
I'll be sure to let you know if anything else exciting happens. But I expect things to continue to be quiet and smooth.
- Sean
In reply to ShawneeCreek :
Glad to hear that the 12v battery replacement has worked out for you!
We are using the VW more than we originally anticipated. My wife works a split shift each day (26 miles round trip), and she drives the VW for one of the two trips each day. She drives her Wrangler the other trip.
I was very warm on a 2016 e Golf and would have bought it had it not been for the range. For my uses I'm appreciative to have the extra range. However if you aren't charging at all at home it sure sounds like yours is up to the job that you purchased it for.
We have added about 1200 miles since our purchase. I am really watching my tires as I've been reading that they have a tendency to eat them quickly.
My biggest surprise has been just what a pleasure it is to drive this car. VW really did a good job in putting together a car with a high-quality feel to it both in touch points and driving.
Great news to share: last week our Alexander William was born. After a short 6 day stay in the NICU he was discharged. Both he and Mrs. ShawneeCreek are healthy and well. I am so grateful and happy.
Naturally, the 20 mile ride home from the hospital was in the e-Golf. He fell quickly to sleep and seems to enjoy the ride.
We are gathering our rhythm with each other and I'm quite grateful for the 2 weeks of paternity leave.
As for the car, it worked great, even with the unusual twice daily trips to the NICU. I ended up having to charge between each trip, but it wasn't bad. I have the charger at home and there are two 65 kW fast chargers a mile from the hospital. It wasn't so much a "do I have somewhere to charge the car when I need it?" situation, and more of a "where can I charge the car with the least amount of cost, in a timeframe that works with my schedule?" This is how charging EVs should be. It will get there.
- Sean
Congratulations on the new project! It took you less time to go from order to delivery than it took for Tom to get his Maverick.
In reply to ShawneeCreek :
Congratulations!! He is a handsome gent. Future electric car guy there!
Congratulations!!!
Congratulations!
Keith Tanner said:Congratulations on the new project! It took you less time to go from order to delivery than it took for Tom to get his Maverick.
Hey now....
Update time!
Nothing major. The rear glass has been replaced, so I finally have a working rear defroster. That should come in handy in the coming months.
I parked next to a MachE at the store. Interesting size comparison. The MachE is bigger in every dimension. Definitely more SUV than compact hatchback.
And last week I exceeded my record lowest battery level: 8 miles of range with ~10% battery remaining. It was a pretty good "tank" though:
68 miles covered at an average of 5.1 mi/kWh. Nice! My long term average efficiency is up to 4.6 mi/kWh, and that's over the last 3,000 miles.
- Sean
What percentage of your use is highway (ie, sustained and fairly consistent speed) and how much is city?
Probably 40% city at speeds below 50 mph, 50% at a sustained country highway speed of 55 mph, and the remaining 10% at a sustained 70 mph interstate highway speed. In city driving I get 5.0 mi/kWh or so. It averages closer to 3.3 mi/kWh at interstate speeds. I'm definitely in a good use case for high efficiency driving.
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