Hi I am new to this forum and have recently purchased a skoda octavia 1.6 diesel. I am rather surprised by the slow warm up time of the engine. I have had 2 petrol octavia's before this car and they would have warmed up much faster. This morning I drove in slow traffic for 7 miles over 20 minutes and the engine temperature only rose to 63C. The outside temp was 3.6C. The car has only 970 miles on the clock. Is this normal or should I be contacting my dealer.

If its really cold I can drive 20 miles and it doesn't get to 90 degrees.

Driving on boost will warm it up a lot quicker.

Gather more data before getting worried. Check if it gets warmer when driving at higher speeds and more demanding hilly conditions. Is your heater working OK?

As said many times, an efficient diesel does not produce much waste heat and so there may not be much surplus to dump via the radiator in cold weather.

In cold conditions like -5.5C last week, my temperature gauge dropped right back to cold in a long almost foot off loud pedal descent, after 5 miles. Then a gentle drive ,being aware of the icy conditions, did not get the gauge more than half way up to normal. Only after 20 miles into the trip, when I ascended a long hill, on the A6 that normal was reached.

Gather more data before getting worried. Check if it gets warmer when driving at higher speeds and more demanding hilly conditions. Is your heater working OK?

As said many times, an efficient diesel does not produce much waste heat and so there may not be much surplus to dump via the radiator in cold weather.

In cold conditions like -5.5C last week, my temperature gauge dropped right back to cold in a long almost foot off loud pedal descent, after 5 miles. Then a gentle drive ,being aware of the icy conditions, did not get the gauge more than half way up to normal. Only after 20 miles into the trip, when I ascended a long hill, on the A6 that normal was reached.

+1 on that...Mine takes a good 7 miles over the pennines before its up to temp. Modern diesels use SO little fuel at low loads, they become like air pumps. And the 1.6CR is very efficient!

Hi I am new to this forum and have recently purchased a skoda octavia 1.6 diesel. I am rather surprised by the slow warm up time of the engine. I have had 2 petrol octavia's before this car and they would have warmed up much faster. This morning I drove in slow traffic for 7 miles over 20 minutes and the engine temperature only rose to 63C. The outside temp was 3.6C. The car has only 970 miles on the clock. Is this normal or should I be contacting my dealer.

Pretty normal for a small efficient diesel these days - at that speed in traffic it's generating very little heat.

When it was very sub-zero I could drive 22 miles to work and it would still not quite be up to temperature.

I blanked off the lower grille on my Bravo and that helped a lot.

Amen to what all the others are saying about our wonderful efficient diesels working as air pumps. They burn so little fuel that the heat generated by compression on the up-stroke is more or less cancelled out by the cooling effect of the expansion on the down-stroke. All you've got then is warmth from a smidgen of burnt oil and some friction.

Amen to what all the others are saying about our wonderful efficient diesels working as air pumps. They burn so little fuel that the heat generated by compression on the up-stroke is more or less cancelled out by the cooling effect of the expansion on the down-stroke. All you've got then is warmth from a smidgen of burnt oil and some friction.

Good explanation!

Thank you all for your prompt and informative replies.

Its a diesel, its efficient, end of topic!

It is a royal pain in the rear though for cabin heat. I have taken to leaving heating off with just seat on. When coolant is up to 90 turn the heating on and then watch the coolant gauge plummet if its around or below freezing. Why they can't put a ceramic heater in like other countries I do not know.

Where I live I don´t get negative temperatures, do get almost 0ºC.

Only after 10 km or so, depends how hard I drive , do see the temp near the normal ,90ºC.

I do find putting the setting to max hot and fan 1 or 2 , after a coulple of Kms some heat is felt.

I myself like to drive with the drivers side window just a tad opened, and no high temp. inside car.

With this zero constipations

Edited 26 January, 201214 yr by alberg

Have had 1.6 TDI for 18 months now and it sounds normal to me regarding attaining higher temperature gradually in cold condition.

Heated seats are sort of essential to warm up the body as diesels take so long to warm up.

Small diesel and petrol will be the order of the day soon ie only two or three cylinder with the cabin heating being electric so the little engine will run much closer to flat out for the first few miles and heat up much quicker whilst it warm the car and charges the hybrid batteries etc.

What is even worse is that the exhaust is also not working properly with the exhaust gas not heating up the catalitic convertor and the emissions really bad which the lab test do not show.

Mostly the wrong technology for a lot of the driving we do unfortunately.

As said above - Its completely normal.

An efficient diesel will never warm up at idle - no wasted heat.

In sub zero I can do 20 motorway miles at 65mpg before my needle gets half way. - Any heat is coming to me via the climate control and not warming the engine.

If you want heat in the mornings you need a petrol as there is no ceramic heater option.

Turn all the lights ON(headlights, fog lights, main beams, rear fog). Also turn on electric mirrors, rear defogger and both electric seats, I mean full electric load. Mind you dont turn ON the climate control. Higher electrical load increases fuel consumption which results in more hear and cuts down warm up time without damaging you engine. Some times the time difference goes upto more than five minutes.

Which perveresly or ironically would be the effect a supplementary electric heater would have, both providing direct heat plus working the engine harder thus hastening warm up, BUT at the cost of fuel efficiency.

Hence not fitted.

Sometimes you have to compromise and an auxiliary device such as the one below is worth the investment.

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280736911177?clk_rvr_id=310813802568

.....or put some extra layers on!

Sometimes you have to compromise and an auxiliary device such as the one below is worth the investment.

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280736911177?clk_rvr_id=310813802568

.....or put some extra layers on!

300W, wow thats 25 amps. Some serious cables and a direct to battery connection via a fuse I hope.

300W, wow thats 25 amps. Some serious cables and a direct to battery connection via a fuse I hope.

I have one of these the wire on that gets very hot!

Alan