Warm up time for diesels

[citroenzx]

I have a 1.9 standard TDI and have done about 76k miles from new. From the start the heater took a fairly long time to produce much hot air, and on complaining about this to the dealer, and asking if the thermostat could be changed, I was told that it was a characteristic of the PD engine. I have heard others comment on this also. My car is a 2001 model. I was wondering how quickly other members cars heaters warm up.
I should mention that the temperature gauge takes about 10 minutes of normal running to come up to the straight up and down "normal" position and once there, it never varies however hard or lightly the car is driven. Also, once showing normal on the temperature gauge the heater output is good.
Do the more modern models heat up more quickly than this?

[wac]

My Furby vRS usually warms up on these cold mornings after being driven for around 5-10 mins depending on speed. Driving at 50mph, you should reach working oil temperature in 5 mins. Town driving, it might take about 10 mins, sometimes more if I'm idling a lot as the TDI doesn't warm up through idling.

[devonutopia]

I believe all the PD diesels take a fair time to warm up. The dealer is right. It just takes some time for the engine to warm up, perhaps because it's cast iron. I went from pd100 to pd130 in the same chassis and noticed no extra speed in warm up times between the old and new setup.

You should find "some" heat starts coming out though before the needle hits vertical on the gauge. The gauge is useless as a measure though. I've fitted a water temp gauge whihc is only about 4" away from the oem sender, and I've seen temps from a constant 65 degC up to over 100 degC, and the gauge has been rock steady. I think it's a "lazy" gauge if that's the correct terminology?

[anonymouse]

Originally Posted by citroenzx

I have a 1.9 standard TDI and have done about 76k miles from new.

Will probably be due for a change.
This was highlighted for me on our old car (Cavalier 1.7TD) - gradual (unnoticed really) decline in heating performance until the icy weather hit and it was taking soooo long to get good heat (full teeth chattering job driving anywhere). Changed the thermostat and - ah, paradise Warm air within a few minutes.

[national]

Originally Posted by anonymouse

Will probably be due for a change.
This was highlighted for me on our old car (Cavalier 1.7TD) - gradual (unnoticed really) decline in heating performance until the icy weather hit and it was taking soooo long to get good heat (full teeth chattering job driving anywhere). Changed the thermostat and - ah, paradise Warm air within a few minutes.

What! the car or the thermostat?

National

[anonymouse]

Originally Posted by national

What! the car or the thermostat?

The thermostat

You pinching my lines now

[GnatG]

The wife's 1.9TDi takes about 10 minutes to warm up (both cabin and engine), whereas my petrol 1.4 polo warms up in 3 minutes! Used to drive a golf TDi which also took a bit of time to warm up. IMHO it warms up faster with the Aircon on. There's 2 solutions to this - if you have an Elegance spec then whack the seat heaters on (although backseat passengers will need to keep their gloves on!). Otherwise, there are some companies out there that make pre-heaters which will warm up the car even if it hasn't been started (you even get remote control operation to start the pre-heater without leaving the house). More at: Preheaters

I have a contact at that company and will ask for a bit more info on suitability for Fabia diesel.

[Skodaboy1983]

Mine takes about 10 minutes to warm up from the time I leave my house to where I pick my girlfriend up, by that time the heater is roasting.

David

[Davy-B]

Diesel engines take longer to warm up than petrol engines. 5-10 minutes to come up to full operating temerature is about right. As Jason pointed out, some heat will come through much sooner.

[Skodaboy1983]

What I tend to do in my fabia is point the air to the windscreen first thing and then gradually wait till it warms up when I switch it to the cabin and then hit the recirculation button to pump more hot air into the cabin.

Once I feel the cabin is warm enough I turn the heater down.

David

[Lee_]

There is a VAG standard on the characteristics of the coolant temperature gauge.

Done to ensure that the majority of the time its sits right in the middle. So take its reading with a pinch of salt unless it is indicating an extremity of the scale.

[cjb]

Diesels take a while to warm up, but the PD130 in the Fabia is *far* quicker than the VE-pumped 110 I had in an Audi A3.

[juicey]

seem to remember you can get an engine pre-warm kit, I can find the link on google if you are interested. It's like a mini heater.

[Tom_vRS]

There are all sorts of pre-heaters available, from ones you plug into a mains socket, to remote contolled diesel powered ones from the likes of Webasto.

None are cheap though, and may be tricky to fit.

[Quentin]

Thanks to all for your comments and experiences - it sounds as though my car might benefit from a thermostat change. The comments regarding pre-heaters bring to mind one of the major dissappointments I had when I first got the car. Before buying, I looked at a road test report in Diesel Car which mentioned a factory fitted (I thought standard) pre-heater. The article didn't go into details but merely commented that the car was very quick to produce hot air to demist or de-ice the windows on starting from cold. The car they tested had some sort of electric heater - again I am not sure whether it was an electric element in the demister vents or whether it was an electric element in the car heater heat exchanger. Suffice to say that my car wasn't fitted with this device and when I asked the Skoda dealer if it was available as an after-market add on, he said that it was only availble as a factory fitted option but only in cold countries - not GB.
Has anyone got one of these - Skoda might have started fitting them on later up-market models.

[mac67]

Originally Posted by juicey

seem to remember you can get an engine pre-warm kit, I can find the link on google if you are interested. It's like a mini heater.

Think i'll get one of those for SWMBO, it takes nearly all night to get her warmed up!

[anonymouse]

Originally Posted by mac67

Think i'll get one of those for SWMBO, it takes nearly all night to get her warmed up!

Group Buy anyone ?

[mac67]

Originally Posted by anonymouse

Group Buy anyone ?

[TomH]

I agree about the 10 minutes to warm up, and not warming up at all if you are idling! 50mph plus and it is much quicker to warm up.

Originally Posted by Lee_

There is a VAG standard on the characteristics of the coolant temperature gauge.

Done to ensure that the majority of the time its sits right in the middle. So take its reading with a pinch of salt unless it is indicating an extremity of the scale.

I agree with this too, it is in the middle ALL the time, I think so unless there is something really wrong it will not go up I suppose not to worry you. Much different to my old Peugeot 306 where the gauge would exceed 90 if charging up a long hill on a hot day or stuck in traffic until the fans came in, and drop right down to about 70 if you are going down a long hill on overrun! I also knew immediately when there was a problem as the gauge didn't behave as normal and started rising and rising, and I was able to stop before any proper overheating damage was done (water pump failure).

[Td-eye]

Originally Posted by Tom_vRS

None are cheap though, and may be tricky to fit.

Did mine for under £70 all in and about a couple of hours to fit.

See HERE

P.S. Works a treat !