My 2010 Fabia Sport 1.9 tdi takes an eternity to warm up this weather , I have to drive 18-20 miles before the car feels warm enough and TBH I would have thought a new car with a modern climate control would be warm in 3-4 miles maximum .

I can't tell if its at the correct running temperature as it has no gauge only a warning light , do the fabia's with climate control take longer to heat up than the models with only the manual heating system .

There is no difference with climate control. Diesels take ages to warm up, particularly in this freezing weather.

There is no difference with climate control. Diesels take ages to warm up, particularly in this freezing weather.

Thanks for that Mike and Merry Christmas

It shouldn't take that long though Steven...so suspect a sticking thermostat, or a low coolant level meaning the heater matrix may be deprived of hot coolant. Alternatively, the heater controls may be out of synch. You should have near full 'hot air' in a couple of miles even in freezing conditions. My 1.4TDI gives plenty of hot air in less than a mile and near full hot air in approx 2miles or so. Most modern diesel warm up fast now.

Edited 25 December, 201015 yr by Estate Man

My Mk1 vRS took at least 10mins driving to start producing noticeable warm air in the winter.

It shouldn't take that long though Steven...so suspect a sticking thermostat, or a low coolant level meaning the heater matrix may be deprived of hot coolant. Alternatively, the heater controls may be out of synch. You should have near full 'hot air' in a couple of miles even in freezing conditions. My 1.4TDI gives plenty of hot air in less than a mile and near full hot air in approx 2miles or so. Most modern diesel warm up fast now.

The Fabia has only covered 6,900 miles from new and has just had its first service last week at a VW dealership but I shall book it into my local Skoda garage to check out the climatic system because as you say perhaps the display is out of sync with the actual true temperature

Yeah Mike, Mk1 did tend to be a bit slower for various reasons.

If 18-20 miles to get heat something is not right.

I have Audi A4 19.tdi (Fabia 1.6 tdi on order) with climate control. I get heat through in 7-8 minutes although some days when well below zero the temperature gauge has not reached it's normal dead centre on gauge position by the end of my 12 mile run to / from work. Running some days only 50-60 mph rather than 70-75 mph on the 7 miles that are dual carriageway and 15-20 mph rather than 30-40mph on town roads can not help of course.

If 18-20 miles to get heat something is not right.

I have Audi A4 19.tdi (Fabia 1.6 tdi on order) with climate control. I get heat through in 7-8 minutes although some days when well below zero the temperature gauge has not reached it's normal dead centre on gauge position by the end of my 12 mile run to / from work. Running some days only 50-60 mph rather than 70-75 mph on the 7 miles that are dual carriageway and 15-20 mph rather than 30-40mph on town roads can not help of course.

The car is not garaged and some nights we have had - 12 after driving 2-3 miles the air through the vents is only just warm , after 10-12 miles there is heat but the car should be nice and warm but its not .

It takes 18 -20 miles before the temperature has reached an acceptable level and that's driving A roads at 50mph even then you have to keep the climate control setting at HI .

If you compare the heating to my diesel CRV its CRAP as the Honda is cooking in 10 miles and you can sit in your shirt sleeves when its -10 outside

Modern diesels are very thermally efficient.

If its cold outside and I leave my car ticking over after a good run and up to temperature the needle will drop from 90 degrees down to around 60 degrees as the interior heating is demanding more heat than the engine can produce.

Very little heat after 20 miles at 50mph? Something isn't right.

Saying that what I considor warm is very different to others, I often get complaints from passengers that my car is too hot!

You are so right Silver. If you start a diesel car and leave it to warm up, it doesn't! Even after 15mins the engine will be at stone cold level. It needs to do work to get heated up. Mine gets work straight away and doesn't sit in traffic in the mornings, and so it warms up very quickly, plenty of heat. My neighbour who goes the other direction to me in the mornings sits in traffic and he takes ages to warm up, but not 18-20 miles!

After reading all the replies I am beginning to think that the problem is perhaps that the digital display is not in synch with the actual temperature and when set at HIGH it only perhaps in real terms only 25 degrees so thats why the car takes an eternity to get to a comfortable inside temperature .

The coolant is fine and the car is not 1 year old until 10th january 2011 and has only covered 7000 miles so it can go to Skoda ASAP they can check it out .

In this weather mine is taking about 10 minutes for any warm air to come through. Having said that, I do live on the ridge between 2 valleys and it's a long drop down in any of 3 directions so the engine doesn't start working straight away.

The time taken for a diesel to warm up was one of the factors I took into account when I down sized from a Octavia diesel to a 1.2 TSI 105 Fabia

I now do much shorter runs and a diesel would not have been very efficient.

Add to that the re gen issues that others have raised

My Fabia is now up to operating temperature in about 2 to 3 miles even with the outside temp at -5 C

The time taken for a diesel to warm up was one of the factors I took into account when I down sized from a Octavia diesel to a 1.2 TSI 105 Fabia

I now do much shorter runs and a diesel would not have been very efficient.

Add to that the re gen issues that others have raised

My Fabia is now up to operating temperature in about 2 to 3 miles even with the outside temp at -5 C

How can the diesel not be efficient when the Fabia TSI you drive now is up to operating temperature in 2 to 3 miles. Surely this must be wasted energy?

How can the diesel not be efficient when the Fabia TSI you drive now is up to operating temperature in 2 to 3 miles. Surely this must be wasted energy?

The Octavia I had took upwards of 8 miles to get to operating temperature and that was when the outside temperature was only just under freezing

The Fabia will get up to operating temperature much more quickly

I dont disagree that when a diesel does get to operating temperature it is more efficient

For the type of driving I now do the diesel would only get to operating temperature at the end of the run.

Our Octy VRS CR takes quite a while to get warm in this cold weather, much, much longer than our Fabia VRS TSI. Diesel engines are much more thermaly efficient & our dealer warned us of this. He suggested putting the air on recirc. until the temp starts to climb & this does help...but the best option is to turn the climate control off (presuming no misting issues) or turn the temp down to low...freeze until the engine is 50% warm & then turn up the heating to your desired setting. This will speed your engines warming up massively...you've just got to grit your teeth..and be prepared to take an ear bashing from SWMBO...tip, don't mention that it will improve your mpg..this tends to go down rather badly...in my case the words 'Tight', 'Northern' & 'Git' tend to be used!