Electronics overheating?

[MartinM]

I have a 2016 Leon Cupra ST290. Last summer, after being forced to park outside a supermarket in 35degC heat, after a long drive, my Nav system High started playing up. It wouldn’t connect my iPhone over CarPlay, wouldn’t even load the built-in satnav database. The next morning, it had recovered completely, and the fault didn’t recur, so I forgot about it.
This year, when the temperature was again in the high 30s, the drive mode selector would not work reliably. It remained stuck in the previous mode, or reverted to Comfort constantly. As soon as the temperature dropped, the problem seemed to go away.
Anyone else had similar issues with electronics behind the dash overheating? That large expanse of black plastic isn’t helping.
Dealer will charge me for standard diagnostics, and probably turn up nothing.

 

[mty12345]

It'll probably be going into self-protect mode due to the CPU temps. Could try putting the aircon on the coldest setting, through whatever vents are closest to the unit, not sure you can do much more than that. Seat should have incorporated better cooling

 

[andylong]

If the interior temps are sensible under dash temps should be too.
Exceptions might be units mounted close to the dash like some GPS sensors are or similar things in direct sunlight or if the car has been stood in the sun without ventilation.
Under bonnet temps will rise alot while stationary which could affect the things that reside there.
You can try reducing interior temps as far as they will to see if that affects reliability, but the difference between 20C and 30C isn't alot for electronic stuff.
Some countries have extended periods of plus 30 so I'd imagine this is taken into account.

 

[RUM4MO]

I feel under certain climatic conditions, it is better to buy a cheap hand towel or even a bath towel - and cover important areas of the dash board/steering wheel if the car is being left out in the summer sun.

After talking about it for years I've finally bought a couple of cheap hand towels to do that job, even if/when I've found the need to the reflective sunscreen, just things that maybe we need to consider with higher summer temperatures.

I had an issue once when parking my 1991 VX Cav GSI 2000 16V 4X4 in the open in France, we came back to the car and the steering lock or at least the ignition switch mech had got hot and was seized, that took quite a long time to gently free up, not something that you need to happen when abroad on holiday! So, next day I made sure that we had a towel in the car and used it to protect that area from getting too hot in sunlight. Once we got home I did buy and fit a new ignition lock barrel to avoid that happening again!

 

[DEAN0]

I feel under certain climatic conditions, it is better to buy a cheap hand towel or even a bath towel - and cover important areas of the dash board/steering wheel if the car is being left out in the summer sun.

After talking about it for years I've finally bought a couple of cheap hand towels to do that job, even if/when I've found the need to the reflective sunscreen, just things that maybe we need to consider with higher summer temperatures.

I had an issue once when parking my 1991 VX Cav GSI 2000 16V 4X4 in the open in France, we came back to the car and the steering lock or at least the ignition switch mech had got hot and was seized, that took quite a long time to gently free up, not something that you need to happen when abroad on holiday! So, next day I made sure that we had a towel in the car and used it to protect that area from getting too hot in sunlight. Once we got home I did buy and fit a new ignition lock barrel to avoid that happening again!

I use one of these if parking in the sun for long periods.
You can get them much cheaper online now.

Halfords Essential Large Silver Sunshade | Halfords UK

Shop the latest Keep your car cool for your journeys with this Halfords Essentials Large car sun shade. at Halfords UK

www.halfords.com

 

[Seriously?]

I feel under certain climatic conditions, it is better to buy a cheap hand towel or even a bath towel - and cover important areas of the dash board/steering wheel if the car is being left out in the summer sun.

After talking about it for years I've finally bought a couple of cheap hand towels to do that job, even if/when I've found the need to the reflective sunscreen, just things that maybe we need to consider with higher summer temperatures.

I learned this trick years ago having spent some time in Greece; a beach towel on the seats and over the steering wheel was almost compulsory if you didn't want to weld yourself to those bits when you got back into it after leaving it parked up for a while.

 

[andylong]

Yeah shields of that type are a good idea

 

[Walone]

I have a 2016 Leon Cupra ST290. Last summer, after being forced to park outside a supermarket in 35degC heat, after a long drive, my Nav system High started playing up. It wouldn’t connect my iPhone over CarPlay, wouldn’t even load the built-in satnav database. The next morning, it had recovered completely, and the fault didn’t recur, so I forgot about it.
This year, when the temperature was again in the high 30s, the drive mode selector would not work reliably. It remained stuck in the previous mode, or reverted to Comfort constantly. As soon as the temperature dropped, the problem seemed to go away.
Anyone else had similar issues with electronics behind the dash overheating? That large expanse of black plastic isn’t helping.
Dealer will charge me for standard diagnostics, and probably turn up nothing.

Although probably not the answer to your problem, but it might be an idea to do the 'mod' for cooling the glovebox. I've been meaning to do it on my car as I had it on my Mk6 Golf.

 

[martin j.]

I had the entertainment unit stop working a couple of times due to ‘excess heat’ it builds up in confined spaces and soon rises above cabin temps, had this happen to cars in the workshop when doing forced regens, now with wind deflectors fitted my windows are rarely full closed so there is a flow of air helping. My A&K (ipod alternative) will stop if it get’s too hot in the sun, couple of minutes in the shade=all good, you would think a car built and designed in a hotter country would be ok in ours but hey obviously not, wonder how many are having problems in southern Europe at the mo?

 

[SRGTD]

I’ve read that the infotainment / audio units in some makes of car have a cooling fan to disperse heat and minimise the risk of the unit overheating.

Don‘t know if VAG infotainment units have a fan though.

 

[Walone]

I’ve read that the infotainment / audio units in some makes of car have a cooling fan to disperse heat and minimise the risk of the unit overheating.

Don‘t know if VAG infotainment units have a fan though.

I'm fairly sure that my MIB2 High unit has a cooling fan.

 

[MartinM]

Many thanks for all the replies. The car goes into dealer next week. I will ask them to check infotainment cooling fan. I assumed there would be some cooling air flow, but no actual fan. Hence problems when car is stationary.
I agree, mainland Europe is a hot area. This would be more common if there was a definite design flaw.

 

[MartinM]

Eventually found this thread elsewhere on the forum https://www.seatcupra.net/forums/threads/my20-is-mib2-o-mib3.469265/page-2

It seems that the ventilation of both MIB2 std and high units is poor, though some cars (later models?) have a separate fan.
I don’t know if the drive mode selector always runs through the infotainment unit, or whether that functions simply as a display. I would expect it to be a separate module, but probably close by and also poorly ventilated.