My heater takes an absolute age to get hot. What could be causing this and how can i fix it?

Does it take ages also for the temp gauge to get to 90ish? It is prob the thermostat is stuck open and you need a new one.

where abouts is the thermostat as the temp gauge hardly moves

A simple search in this section could reveal many other topics that answered your question.

One of them is here: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/256994-not-so-hot-inside/ but there are other too.

As an aside note, the topic title should be a hint for the problems you have. The car make, type, year, etc. should go in your profile.

Hi, on yours the thermostat should be located on the right hand side (when looking in the engine bay) of the cylinder head. You'll need to disconnect the hose and remove the retaining bolts from the casing to access the unit. You may find the thermostat unit clipped into the housing & fitting new is the reversal of removal, taking care not to break the retaining clip. You will need a new gasket when re-securing the housing. Once reassembled just refill your system with the appropriate grade/concentration of anti freeze.

Hope that helps

id agree sounds like the thermostat is stuck open, time for a replacement...

thermostat is your problem i took mine out when i had a 1.3 so it would run richer and go that bit quicker but heater took ages to warm up and on motorways the temp would drop making ecu think car was cold

Replaced mine the other week on a 1.6 for the same reason. Was a PITA taking about a million tubes off and having to drain the coolant simultaneously obviously. To my surprise there wasn't even one there - a little bit of the plastic housing had snapped. Presumably they broke it getting it out, and just never bothered to fit a new one to it.

It's lovely now though and if it's on full, it literally burns my hand when I'm driving.

^ The Fun was surprisingly straightforward