BYD Seal tips, tricks and help

[macahoom]

18 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Should the HUD show navigation options like next turn etc?

 

I'm pretty sure it doesn't. 

 

It does show details when using a phone and the detail is in 3D. Is the 3D effect normal for HUD?

 

The speed limit can also be displayed if I remember correctly. I have that turned off.

[macahoom]

This guy has some interesting, helpful Seal tid-bits in his videos. His voice is rather odd!

 

In this video he demonstrates holding the voice activation button, but it doesn't work for me. Anyone know why?

 

https://youtu.be/X7Tw_F_SEH4?si=uy6FvWjp-u_8UU_0

[Andrew Dwyer]

17 minutes ago, macahoom said:

This guy has some interesting, helpful Seal tid-bits in his videos. His voice is rather odd!

 

In this video he demonstrates holding the voice activation button, but it doesn't work for me. Anyone know why?

 

https://youtu.be/X7Tw_F_SEH4?si=uy6FvWjp-u_8UU_0

Was going to try this out today, I think you have to be connected via Android Auto ( Google Assistant) or CarPlay ( Siri ) for it to work.

 

Yes, a very unusual accent, in the video ( if that is him ) doesn’t help me recognise his accent at all.

[macahoom]

1 minute ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I think you have to be connected via Android Auto or CarPlay for it to work.

 

Thanks.

 

I am either too stupid, too old or too lazy to work out what Android Auto and CarPlay are. I have Googled them but, as always seems to be the case with all things computer-related, the writer seems to think the reader already knows basic computer stuff/jargon. Can be quite annoying for me sometimes.

 

I need an Android Auto and a CarPlay for dummies!

[macahoom]

3 minutes ago, macahoom said:

 

Thanks.

 

I am either too stupid, too old or too lazy to work out what Android Auto and CarPlay are. I have Googled them but, as always seems to be the case with all things computer-related, the writer seems to think the reader already knows basic computer stuff/jargon. Can be quite annoying for me sometimes.

 

I need an Android Auto and a CarPlay for dummies!

 

Probably too lazy more than anything.

 

As much as I love what I can do and achieve with my MacBook Pro, I also hate it with a passion!

[Andrew Dwyer]

2 minutes ago, macahoom said:

 

Thanks.

 

I am either too stupid, too old or too lazy to work out what Android Auto and CarPlay are. I have Googled them but, as always seems to be the case with all things computer-related, the writer seems to think the reader already knows basic computer stuff/jargon. Can be quite annoying for me sometimes.

 

I need an Android Auto and a CarPlay for dummies!

Can only speak for iPhone/Carplay.
If you connect your phone via the usb connection you should get a message asking if you want to use CarPlay, which means certain apps from your phone be available on the Information screen, very good for Google Maps or your music.

 

Likewise for Android devices, although I believe they don’t need the cable ( wireless ) and you can open from the app on Info screen, swipe left from the Home Screen.

[Bandersnatch]

8 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Can only speak for iPhone/Carplay.
If you connect your phone via the usb connection you should get a message asking if you want to use CarPlay

 

This is my 4th car with Apple CarPlay, in fact I moved from android to apple purely because Android Auto wasn't supported in Thailand at the time.

 

In the Seal I plug in the phone which sits on the drivers wireless charging pad (wireless charging disabled) and select the Apple CarPlay App - I don't get a notification now, but I seem to remember getting notifications a couple of months ago. 

[Gweiloman]

23 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Was going to try this out today, I think you have to be connected via Android Auto ( Google Assistant) or CarPlay ( Siri ) for it to work.

 

Yes, a very unusual accent, in the video ( if that is him ) doesn’t help me recognise his accent at all.

He is most likely a Singaporean or Malaysian Chinese. I know that accent well. His car is right hand drive as well which means SEA or UK or Australia/NZ. Looking at the supermarket carpark, I would say most likely Singapore or Malaysia.

 

The voice hold activation works well for me in my Dolphin. First you have to have Android Auto connected of course. Google assistant and home are native to Android Auto. Press and hold the voice command button for a couple of seconds and then just ask Google anything.

[macahoom]

On 3/6/2024 at 8:04 AM, macahoom said:

This guy has some interesting, helpful Seal tid-bits in his videos. His voice is rather odd!

 

In this video he demonstrates holding the voice activation button, but it doesn't work for me. Anyone know why?

 

https://youtu.be/X7Tw_F_SEH4?si=uy6FvWjp-u_8UU_0

 

One thing that I learnt from his video: Using the voice command, I can ask for the window(s) to be opened by, for example, 10%, or whatever percentage I want.

 

"Open the driver's window 30%." Pretty neat!

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, Gweiloman said:

He is most likely a Singaporean or Malaysian Chinese. I know that accent well. His car is right hand drive as well which means SEA or UK or Australia/NZ. Looking at the supermarket carpark, I would say most likely Singapore or Malaysia.

 

The voice hold activation works well for me in my Dolphin. First you have to have Android Auto connected of course. Google assistant and home are native to Android Auto. Press and hold the voice command button for a couple of seconds and then just ask Google anything.

He has mentioned he is in Australia a few times but you are probably right about his accent.

[Andrew Dwyer]

Regarding bringing up Siri for iPhone users, might be similar for Android users but I believe they also have wireless option.

 

Only the usb A port ( RH side )will bring up Siri or CarPlay, holding the microphone button on the steering wheel for a couple of seconds brings up Siri, a short press brings up the BYD Assistant.You can then ask questions, weather or distance etc but neither are very useful for the price of cheese !!

 

 

Using the usb C port ( LH side ) does give faster charging speeds though.

Holding the microphone button using usb C opens up Bluetooth settings only.

 

 

I have 2 usb cables permanently installed, one white and one black ………. one for faster charging and the other for CarPlay which since installing apps I rarely use.

[Gweiloman]

3 hours ago, macahoom said:

 

One thing that I learnt from his video: Using the voice command, I can ask for the window(s) to be opened by, for example, 10%, or whatever percentage I want.

 

"Open the driver's window 30%." Pretty neat!

When I tell BYD to open the windows 20%, they barely crack open, not even below the wind deflectors I have installed. When I ask for 30%, she doesn’t understand me. When I ask for 40%, I sometimes get reprimanded for driving too fast before being asked to reconfirm. 50 or 60% is the same opening width as 40%. 
 

A bit more work needs to be done by BYD lol.

[mistral53]

Couple of questions:

 

1. Do the retaining holes of the driver side floor mat fit and clip into place? in my case, the floor mat holes are too small and cant clip into the pins, so the mat constantly moves.

2. Do your cars make a 'farting noise' around 150km/h? I read this in a few forums on FB, so it seems to be pretty common. Cant believe in this day and age this could happen, although one guess is that the airflow is so maxed out to get to the cd 0.219, it probably takes next to nothing to lose the optimized air flow somewhere....... my guess is the leading edge of the roof glass.

3. Do you follow the charging instructions per manual? always to 100%? and 10 to 100% every couple months? Because I charge from solar, I prefer to charge just for a few hours every day, but maybe that is not ideal.........

[Pib]

15 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

 

3. Do you follow the charging instructions per manual? always to 100%? and 10 to 100% every couple months? Because I charge from solar, I prefer to charge just for a few hours every day, but maybe that is not ideal.........

The primary purpose to charge to 100% is to ensure all the individual batteries comprising the traction battery pack are balanced as the "top balancing" method is used to balance all the individual batteries.  Top balancing occurs in the 99 to 100% area.

 

The primary reason to charge from 10% or below to 100% at least every 3 to 6 months is this recalibrates the charge/range indicator.   

 

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

29 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

Couple of questions:

 

1. Do the retaining holes of the driver side floor mat fit and clip into place? in my case, the floor mat holes are too small and cant clip into the pins, so the mat constantly moves.

 

3. Do you follow the charging instructions per manual? always to 100%? and 10 to 100% every couple months? Because I charge from solar, I prefer to charge just for a few hours every day, but maybe that is not ideal.........

1. My mats  fit well on the pins , a good tight fit , the passenger side tends to slide forward all the time so i put some of that 3M double sided clear tape on the edge, so far so good but will try Velcro if it fails.

 

2. Not driven above 130 !

 

3. I don’t always to 100% but usually do as charge o/night (TOU meter ), I have a once a month trip of around 450 km so will aim to let it get down to around 15% on arrival back home and then charge to 100%

[JBChiangRai]

I charge to 100% about once a month, most of the time I charge from about 25% to 85%.

 

I have charged once from 9% to 100% (2 nights ago).

 

My drivers carpet fits fine.  The only farting noise I occasionally hear is me.

 

First service today (completely free).

 

I told the Salesman that all the stickers on their cars are incorrect, they do not have Lithium Ion batteries.

[JBChiangRai]

I mentioned before that when I floor the throttle at low speed it stutters a couple of times before it gives me full power.

 

I figured out what it is, it's the ESC.  turning it off I get full power straight away but the back tyres lose traction and the car starts to go sideways.  Driving a fast car without ESC is far too risky for me.

 

There are 2 issues here, first the ESC looks to be a single channel device, ie when a wheel breaks traction it cuts the power to all wheels, if it was multi-channel then it would control each wheel independently usually by breaking the wheel that loses traction, hopefully it will come with a software update.

 

Secondly, the car needs bigger & better rear tyres.  The Continentals are a good compromise but they aren't sufficiently grippy.  I don't know how much wider you can go, on a previous high performance EV the rear tyres appear to be much wider and much more expensive (circa 25k THB ea), but I can't find the specs.

[JBChiangRai]

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

I mentioned before that when I floor the throttle at low speed it stutters a couple of times before it gives me full power.

 

I figured out what it is, it's the ESC.  turning it off I get full power straight away but the back tyres lose traction and the car starts to go sideways.  Driving a fast car without ESC is far too risky for me.

 

There are 2 issues here, first the ESC looks to be a single channel device, ie when a wheel breaks traction it cuts the power to all wheels, if it was multi-channel then it would control each wheel independently usually by breaking the wheel that loses traction, hopefully it will come with a software update.

 

Secondly, the car needs bigger & better rear tyres.  The Continentals are a good compromise but they aren't sufficiently grippy.  I don't know how much wider you can go, on a previous high performance EV the rear tyres appear to be much wider and much more expensive (circa 25k THB ea), but I can't find the specs.

 

On second thought, it's likely both wheels were losing transaction and it is a multi-channel ESC

 

The answer here is to feed in power slowly.

[Pib]

Does the stuttering only happen when the car is accelerating on road surface that is possibly preventing one or more tires from getting good/grippy traction "but" never happens when all four wheels are on good/grippy road surface?    Like stuttering occurring when on a dirt/gravel road, kinda slick road, maybe two wheels on one car side being on grippy pavement but the wheels on the other side being on not-so-grippy road surface, etc.   

 

I know it might be hard to remember exactly what the road surface conditions were when the stuttering occurred.   Maybe do some more testing under different road conditions.    Note: car stuttering when racing between stop lights on the way to Big C should not be one of the testing scenarios as the BYD super fine print specifically says that can void your warranty.  😉

[JBChiangRai]

5 minutes ago, Pib said:

Does the stuttering only happen when the car is accelerating on road surface that is possibly preventing one or more tires from getting good/grippy traction "but" never happens when all four wheels are on good/grippy road surface?    Like stuttering occurring when on a dirt/gravel road, kinda slick road, maybe two wheels on one car side being on grippy pavement but the wheels on the other side being on not-so-grippy road surface, etc.   

 

I know it might be hard to remember exactly what the road surface conditions were when the stuttering occurred.   Maybe do some more testing under different road conditions.    Note: car stuttering when racing between stop lights on the way to Big C should not be one of the testing scenarios as the BYD super fine print specifically says that can void your warranty.  😉

 

Roads are clean and dry, it's just the tyres lose grip some of the time.

 

The car has more power than the tyres can handle on a greasy road (no rain here for months).  Sometimes it's ok.

 

What does the superfine print say?  i can't drive it spiritedly?

 

[mistral53]

3 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

I mentioned before that when I floor the throttle at low speed it stutters a couple of times before it gives me full power.

 

I figured out what it is, it's the ESC.  turning it off I get full power straight away but the back tyres lose traction and the car starts to go sideways.  Driving a fast car without ESC is far too risky for me.

 

There are 2 issues here, first the ESC looks to be a single channel device, ie when a wheel breaks traction it cuts the power to all wheels, if it was multi-channel then it would control each wheel independently usually by breaking the wheel that loses traction, hopefully it will come with a software update.

 

Secondly, the car needs bigger & better rear tyres.  The Continentals are a good compromise but they aren't sufficiently grippy.  I don't know how much wider you can go, on a previous high performance EV the rear tyres appear to be much wider and much more expensive (circa 25k THB ea), but I can't find the specs.

I agree - the car is way 'under-tired', but I suppose the focus was on maximizing the driving range. On FB are lots of wheel-tire upgrade comments, the bigger combos are around 255's on 20 inch wheels. However, the loss of range penalty is massive. Moreover, the wheels I have seen on most of the upgrades are probably not adequate for the heavy car - there is a reason the OEM wheels weigh a ton!

 

I plan on consulting a local tire expert on whether the OEM wheels will accommodate a 245 tire - its not much, but every bit counts. I think the OEM wheels are 8" wide, and the 245 is ideal on 9" - if the wheels are 8.5", I would try the 245's.

 

As for the traction control cutting in so hard - the trade off would be a softer take off, but I suppose with that solution everybody would complain the car is not snappy enough.........lol

I take it you have the iTAC turned on? Have you experimented with iTAC off?

[JBChiangRai]

I tried ITAC off, I couldn't tell the difference

[JBChiangRai]

3 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

I tried ITAC off, I couldn't tell the difference

 

I drove it some time with ITAC off, I see how it works now if you're cornering hard under power.

[JBChiangRai]

5 hours ago, mistral53 said:

I agree - the car is way 'under-tired', but I suppose the focus was on maximizing the driving range. On FB are lots of wheel-tire upgrade comments, the bigger combos are around 255's on 20 inch wheels. However, the loss of range penalty is massive. Moreover, the wheels I have seen on most of the upgrades are probably not adequate for the heavy car - there is a reason the OEM wheels weigh a ton!

 

I plan on consulting a local tire expert on whether the OEM wheels will accommodate a 245 tire - its not much, but every bit counts. I think the OEM wheels are 8" wide, and the 245 is ideal on 9" - if the wheels are 8.5", I would try the 245's.

 

As for the traction control cutting in so hard - the trade off would be a softer take off, but I suppose with that solution everybody would complain the car is not snappy enough.........lol

I take it you have the iTAC turned on? Have you experimented with iTAC off?

 

Thanks I have replaced the stock wheels with higher quality 19" wheels with 8.5" rims so I will try the 245's or 255's if the shop recommends them at replacement time.  In the meantime I will just have to drive a bit smoother at lower speed or put up with it.

 

Incidentally, my MG4 now given to my daughter does the same, sometimes a few times in a row, even flooring the throttle at 45kmhr the back skinny tyres couldn't get traction, I think the tyres are el cheapo brand.

 

 

[Bandersnatch]

I have a couple of videos on my channel of me doing 4 second 0-100km/h in the Seal AWD , no stutter or wheel spin. Everything about my car is stock. Roads were not wet or greasy.

[macahoom]

9 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

but the back tyres lose traction and the car starts to go sideways. 

 

I'm very surprised to hear this.

 

I have not experienced losing traction in my car on a dry road and I regularly floor it in sport mode.

 

I find the car surprisingly stable.

 

I haven't experimented on a wet road; I guess there would be wheel spin.

 

As for the stuttering, I think I have only experienced that twice in nearly five months.

[macahoom]

On 3/12/2024 at 4:06 PM, mistral53 said:

Couple of questions:

 

1. Do the retaining holes of the driver side floor mat fit and clip into place? in my case, the floor mat holes are too small and cant clip into the pins, so the mat constantly moves.

2. Do your cars make a 'farting noise' around 150km/h? I read this in a few forums on FB, so it seems to be pretty common. Cant believe in this day and age this could happen, although one guess is that the airflow is so maxed out to get to the cd 0.219, it probably takes next to nothing to lose the optimized air flow somewhere....... my guess is the leading edge of the roof glass.

3. Do you follow the charging instructions per manual? always to 100%? and 10 to 100% every couple months? Because I charge from solar, I prefer to charge just for a few hours every day, but maybe that is not ideal.........

 

No problems with the floor mats.

 

Have never had it at 150km/h.

 

So far, I have charged following the instructions in the manual. I intend to continue doing so.

 

 

[JBChiangRai]

3 hours ago, macahoom said:

 

I'm very surprised to hear this.

 

I have not experienced losing traction in my car on a dry road and I regularly floor it in sport mode.

 

I find the car surprisingly stable.

 

I haven't experimented on a wet road; I guess there would be wheel spin.

 

As for the stuttering, I think I have only experienced that twice in nearly five months.

 

Try turning off ESP and flooring it at low speed.

 

It's clear to me you're not driving like a teenager, you need to work on that.

[Andrew Dwyer]

2 questions for ya !!

 

Is there any safety mechanism present on the retracting door handles ?

Can you stop the handles retracting when selecting reverse and they only retract when hitting the desired speed, 15km ?

My daily routine is:

 

I enter the car and select reverse ( door handles retract ) reverse out and the little lady and 2 lead weights enter the car outside ( usually involves tapping on the window as i always forget to open the handles again ! ).

Now i have plenty of room in the carport to open the doors fully so it is feasible they could enter the car inside the carport especially if it is raining ( i don’t think it has rained here since i bought the car ).

 

Currently i check both wing mirrors ( one at a time, I am not Marty Feldman ) while selecting reverse but there will come a day when either of the impetuous teenagers will make a grab for the door handle.

 

Anyone ?

[JBChiangRai]

We are in the middle of the smoky season here in Chiang Rai.

 

My friend drove an Atto yesterday and we noticed the PM2.5 display showed varying PM2.5 inside the car.

 

On my Seal it seems to be nailed on 5, I have never seen it say anything other than 5, are yours any different?