Remote Start and Front Defroster

[BulaienS]

I’d like to know why the front defroster on my 2020 RAM 1500 does not automatically turn on when the factory-installed remote start is used and the temperature is 40 F or below. The rear defrost turns on but not the front. I’ve not seen my rear window frost up but always see my front window doing so. In the winter (I live in Wisconsin) or the fall when the expected temp is below 40F I have to select the front defroster before turning off the engine. 9 times out of 10, I forget to do so then I have to restart the truck again just to turn on the front defroster before turning the truck off again so that the front defroster will be on when I use the remote start. I would think there can be a Uconnect software/hardware update for us to select either to turn on or off the front defroster automatically. The dealer called Chrysler with no help in this regard. They only say the temp is dependent on the interior temp, but the interior has been well below 40F when I’ve used the remote start so apparently, that is not an answer to what I’m concerned with.

 

[corneileous]

Do you have your hvac set to auto?


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[mtnrider]

I've never seen a front defroster come on automatically, only the rear window and mirrors because those are heating elements vs. directing air with the HVAC system.

You are going to have to select it before shutdown if you want it on at first start. There is nothing wrong with your system, that's just the way it is designed.

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[corneileous]

You are going to have to select it before shutdown if you want it on at first start. There is nothing wrong with your system, that's just the way it is designed.

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Are you sure? I guess I don’t pay enough attention to mine very much because there’s only been a couple of times where I’ve remote started my truck and when I eventually got into it to drive off where there was hot air blowing on the windshield... my HVAC is always in auto so the only time really that I can think of where I’ve noticed when it automatically turns the top defrost on is what the temperature is below freezing and there have been times where it’ll be about 40°, 45° and the windshield will still be fogged over with my hot air just coming out the air vents or normally does and I have to manually put it on defrost just to clear the fog on the window.

As far as what actually makes the decision for the system to put it self in auto defrost or not, I don’t know but whatever the case, if I go out there after I remote started my truck and the air is blowing out the dash vents facing me and I’ve got fog on my window, just a simple press of the defrost button quickly takes care of the fog on the inside of the window. Or, I can just hit the wiper switch to clear out the condensation on the outside of the windshield and simply put my system back in auto mode.

Maybe some people just expect their automatic system to be a little bit too automatic.


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[BulaienS]

Do you have your hvac set to auto?


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If I select Front Defroster the Auto HVAC turns off. If I do put the system into auto HVAC then the Front Defroster does not turn on when remote start is used.

 

[BulaienS]

Are you sure? I guess I don’t pay enough attention to mine very much because there’s only been a couple of times where I’ve remote started my truck and when I eventually got into it to drive off where there was hot air blowing on the windshield... my HVAC is always in auto so the only time really that I can think of where I’ve noticed when it automatically turns the top defrost on is what the temperature is below freezing and there have been times where it’ll be about 40°, 45° and the windshield will still be fogged over with my hot air just coming out the air vents or normally does and I have to manually put it on defrost just to clear the fog on the window.

As far as what actually makes the decision for the system to put it self in auto defrost or not, I don’t know but whatever the case, if I go out there after I remote started my truck and the air is blowing out the dash vents facing me and I’ve got fog on my window, just a simple press of the defrost button quickly takes care of the fog on the inside of the window. Or, I can just hit the wiper switch to clear out the condensation on the outside of the windshield and simply put my system back in auto mode.

Maybe some people just expect their automatic system to be a little bit too automatic.


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That is what I'm saying. The design could have taken this into account but it does not.

 

[corneileous]

If I select Front Defroster the Auto HVAC turns off. If I do put the system into auto HVAC then the Front Defroster does not turn on when remote start is used.

Does it not ever turn on when in auto? I guess you could have a bad humidity sensor because like I was saying, my auto-defrost doesn’t turn on every time. Now if it’s cold enough it will but if it’s a not so cooler night, it won’t.


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[BulaienS]

Does it not ever turn on when in auto? I guess you could have a bad humidity sensor because like I was saying, my auto-defrost doesn’t turn on every time. Now if it’s cold enough it will but if it’s a not so cooler night, it won’t.


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It never turns on when using the remote unless I select the front defroster to be on before I turn off the truck for the night. Other than that it works perfectly. It's not a malfunction just a shortfall in having a practical design.

 

[corneileous]

It never turns on when using the remote unless I select the front defroster to be on before I turn off the truck for the night. Other than that it works perfectly. It's not a malfunction just a shortfall in having a practical design.

Hmm. You might have something wrong with it because like I said, mine works, but I’m assuming it only works like that when it’s supposed to. There’s been times where it’s gotten cold enough to frost the windows on the outside and when I’ve went to get in my truck after remote starting it, the defrost is on and I didn’t take the system out of auto.

How long are you letting your truck idle with the remote start before you get in it and drive it?


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[BulaienS]

Hmm. You might have something wrong with it because like I said, mine works, but I’m assuming it only works like that when it’s supposed to. There’s been times where it’s gotten cold enough to frost the windows on the outside and when I’ve went to get in my truck after remote starting it, the defrost is on and I didn’t take the system out of auto.

How long are you letting your truck idle with the remote start before you get in it and drive it?


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Really. Well, I'll have to try this again to verify. But really though, in my case, the defroster was still not on after a long run time. It seems to me if you let the regular heating system run long enough it will defrost the windshield without turning on the front defroster. But in your case, you said the defroster was on. Thank you for giving me hope that it really does work properly, I will let you know. Just got to wait for some really cold weather to verify. Thanks.

 

[Ricks Ram]

Really. Well, I'll have to try this again to verify. But really though, in my case, the defroster was still not on after a long run time. It seems to me if you let the regular heating system run long enough it will defrost the windshield without turning on the front defroster. But in your case, you said the defroster was on. Thank you for giving me hope that it really does work properly, I will let you know. Just got to wait for some really cold weather to verify. Thanks.

Remember when you have the truck set on Auto Temp Control the system won't start to blow hard until the engine reaches a certain temperature so it's not just blowing cold air.

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[corneileous]

Remember when you have the truck set on Auto Temp Control the system won't start to blow hard until the engine reaches a certain temperature so it's not just blowing cold air.

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That’s a really good point. Matter of fact, I just recently found that out the other day when I went to go somewhere one morning, I only let my truck idle for about two or three minutes- which is rare, I normally let it idle almost the full ten minutes but that day, I thought it was kinda odd that the blower wasn’t on and then it finally occurred to me that maybe the reason it was doing that was because it would just be blowing a bunch of cold air until the coolant started to warm up....


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[corneileous]

Really. Well, I'll have to try this again to verify. But really though, in my case, the defroster was still not on after a long run time. It seems to me if you let the regular heating system run long enough it will defrost the windshield without turning on the front defroster. But in your case, you said the defroster was on. Thank you for giving me hope that it really does work properly, I will let you know. Just got to wait for some really cold weather to verify. Thanks.

Yeah, and like I said, it’s kind of cold outside but not cold enough to have any frost anywhere and if the only thing that’s on the windshield is just condensation, there really is no purpose for the defroster to come on in the first place… because for one, like I said, turning the wipers on quickly clears all that away. Sure, if you idled the truck for twenty minutes it would probably dry the windows out from the inside but only 5 or 6 minutes of idling probably isn’t going to be enough time to dry the outside of the windows from the inside.


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[mtnrider]

It was 27 this morning and tons of moisture on the inside and ice on the outside of my window and my window defrost did not come on with remote start, only the rear and mirrors. Now I don't leave my HVAC system in "Auto" but I'll try it tomorrow. Like I said, never seen the front window come on automatically though.


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[Ricks Ram]

It was 27 this morning and tons of moisture on the inside and ice on the outside of my window and my window defrost did not come on with remote start, only the rear and mirrors. Now I don't leave my HVAC system in "Auto" but I'll try it tomorrow. Like I said, never seen the front window come on automatically though.


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It 100% won't do it if you don't have the truck in auto. It's just going to revert to whatever setting you had the truck on when you turned it off. It will not turn on automatically from the off position and defrost your window. You would need to leave the truck actually on defrost with a fan speed selected if you wanted the windshield defrost to come on with remote start in the manual mode. If you set the truck to auto it should do it automatically but won't start to actually circulate air until the coolant starts to get to operating temperature so give it some time. Once the truck warms up and the system is working if you press the auto button the system will revert to manual mode but the actual HVAC setting will not change. You can then see the little icon that shows air direction and see if it was actually on defrost.

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[mtnrider]

It 100% won't do it if you don't have the truck in auto. It's just going to revert to whatever setting you had the truck on when you turned it off. It will not turn on automatically from the off position and defrost your window. You would need to leave the truck actually on defrost with a fan speed selected if you wanted the windshield defrost to come on with remote start in the manual mode. If you set the truck to auto it should do it automatically but won't start to actually circulate air until the coolant starts to get to operating temperature so give it some time. Once the truck warms up and the system is working if you press the auto button the system will revert to manual mode but the actual HVAC setting will not change. You can then see the little icon that shows air direction and see if it was actually on defrost.

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Well I guess that is why I have never seen it come on automatically, I never run my system on Auto. And being a diesel, if it doesn't come on until it is warm I may never see it just on remote start because it's going to take a while to get up to temp.


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[corneileous]

Well I guess that is why I have never seen it come on automatically, I never run my system on Auto. And being a diesel, if it doesn't come on until it is warm I may never see it just on remote start because it's going to take a while to get up to temp.


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I was going to point that out that it is actually kind of pointless for you to post your experience if you don’t ever put your HVAC system in auto but I didn’t wanna run the risk of stepping on anybody’s toes… LOL. But then again, being that you have a diesel, you’re right, your truck’s gonna take a whole lot longer to warm up so unless you plug it in every night when it’s cold or unless they made the diesels to where they would idle at a higher rpm for longer than the standard ten minutes of remote start time for everything else then getting your system to work like ours is probably not gonna be all that possible unless you bypass the remote start and actually walk out there and start your truck manually.


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[Ramagain]

My 13 diesel with recently added auto HVAC on has always started with the defrost operating when the temps are this low. It's on low speed but it is directing air towards the windshield. The side view mirrors have also come on in remote start. In addition to these functions it will not switch to any other mode until the coolant is above 170 deg. All I can do is control the speed. I can select anything I want, but the air will direct to the windshield until the temps come up, then it automatically changes to whatever selection that I previously attempted to set it to.

 

[BulaienS]

That’s a really good point. Matter of fact, I just recently found that out the other day when I went to go somewhere one morning, I only let my truck idle for about two or three minutes- which is rare, I normally let it idle almost the full ten minutes but that day, I thought it was kinda odd that the blower wasn’t on and then it finally occurred to me that maybe the reason it was doing that was because it would just be blowing a bunch of cold air until the coolant started to warm up....


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This is the answer I was looking for. The key is the engine has to be at operating temperature before the front defroster blower really kicks in and blows hard. Thank you Ricks Ram, Corneileous and Ramagain!

 

[BulaienS]

Remember when you have the truck set on Auto Temp Control the system won't start to blow hard until the engine reaches a certain temperature so it's not just blowing cold air.

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This is the answer I was looking for. The key is the engine has to be at operating temperature before the front defroster blower really kicks in and blows hard. Thank you Ricks Ram, Corneileous and Ramagain!