Running just HVAC without radio?

[dj dannis]

Hello everyone,

Pardon my ignorance as I have only had limited time to play with a demo Volt... Still waiting for my Volt's arrival. And the Chevy site's 2012 Volt owners manual link is not pulling up the correct doc as of 4pm CDT.

One thing I noticed when playing with the Volt was that if I turned off the radio and just hit the Climate button (I think that's what it's called), the climate control options screen would come up, but the radio would kick on as well. I would assume there is a simple way to just run the HVAC without the radio on, am I correct? Again, sorry for the potentially dumb noob question.

Thanks fellow Volt owners for your input!

-Dan

[Rusty]

I would assume there is a simple way to just run the HVAC without the radio on, am I correct? Again, sorry for the potentially dumb noob question.

Welcome to Volt Complaint #1. Nope, it's not a dumb question. It's a dumb implementation.

Only way I've found to consistently get the radio to shut up is to turn it down. Mute works for a single drive duration, but it un-mutes when you start the car again.

And yes, nearly everybody's complained about it. And no, GM doesn't seem to be in a hurry to fix it, or even acknowledge that it's a stupid implementation.

[dj dannis]

Hmm, yeah this is kind of dumb IMO (no offense to anyone) as you would want to conserve as much energy as possible in such a scenario where you wanted climate comfort but no desire to listen to the radio... I would assume just a software fix GM...

Thanks for your reply.

-Dan

[Plrands]

What I've found that works for me when I don't want the radio to come on -- is to have AUX selected. It is still selected next time I start the car.

[ChrisC]

Yup, agree with all of the above. It's complaint #1, turn down the volume, select Aux, welcome to the club

You might want to check out my FAQ, linked below.

(hi guys!)

[stephent]

Is this only on the 2011 & 2012 w/ NAV models? I have the stock radio, it lets me hit climate to turn on the climate screen without turning on the radio. If I hit "source" or whatever, there's a popup saying something like "radio is powered off, press power to turn on".

[Bob_Livonia]

Simply turn the radio volume button down all the way and leave it there if you don't want the radio playing. The radio and speakers are used to produce various turn signal and warning chimes. The car simply would not be in FMVSS compliance with the radio unpowered. Of course, many other components could be added to do these functions, but they would add cost, consume power, and add mass with all the associated wiring harnesses.

The Bose sound system is high efficiency. Just relax and put on some soothing music and don't obsess about it!

[voltage692]

I am happy with the design. It's just not that hard to turn the volume down.

[Fulgerite]

It's not just the climate button that turns on the radio... So does the: Leaf Button, Front Defroster, Nav Button Dest Button, Info Button... And probably a few I left out.

Sometimes I want SILENCE. OFF means OFF!

GM needs to FIX this BUG.

[Fulgerite]

Greetings,

I love my new volt in many ways... But the touch controls and the radio are not among my favorite features.

For starters... The button layout on the center console looks like someone just loaded a bunch of random buttons into a shotgun and blasted away! The layout makes no sense. But I can live with that.

But the fact that you cannot turn off the stereo is driving me CRAZY. (Yes I know I can turn the volume down.) Why does the radio have an off button when most of the other NON-RELATED buttons turn the radio back ON? !!!

The radio OFF button should turn the radio OFF! And it needs to STAY OFF until I turn it back on! There is absolutely no reason that un-relared functions like the Leaf button, Climate button, Auto button, Nav button, Dest button... Should turn the radio back on.

OFF means OFF! Until I turn it back on.

This software BUG needs to be FIXED! NOW!