A 20 mile run at a steady 60 mph yesterday. Oil temp never over 88 and it dropped several degrees after I came into town and slowed down. Water temp also took a good 8/9 miles to reach 90 and stay there.

Andy

Hi TP

and it is possible to free-wheel the entire way, and sometimes if there's no traffic, on way beyond Libanus almost into Brecon.

Do you really mean freewheel, or do you merely take your foot off the loud pedal (ie decelerate)? I hope the latter, as freewheeling is most certainly not a good idea and actually uses fuel whilst the engine is ticking over, whereas decelerating cuts off the fuel entirely and is therefore more economical, and you are in gear should you need to accelerate suddenly for any reason.

Yes I do have a long sedate run down hill coming home (or climb going to work) from the steep and fairly straight climb up the dreaded Garrowby Hill.

Problem is though these cold engine runs upset the silly DPF, sending into very regular active regenerations; to many for my liking. Summer I hardly get a regen but in winter the car appears to spend half it's time going through these cycles. SUK say is normal but I'm not convinced as the old Pat Monster, although slightly more active in winter, did not behave like this at all and I'm not picking up much concern from other forum members in relation to their cars. Mind SUK have bumped my warranty up to 4 years (during my ownership only) to allay any concerns I might have. Now do I read that as they genuinely are not concerned or unsure themselves :wonder:

TP

Edited 20 January, 201313 yr by The Plumber

Yeti has her scarf from Heko and it took only a couple of minutes to fit, even in the dark by torch light

Quite a simple thing really consisting of one smoked perspex panel, two cad screws and a couple of cad brackets that hook over the lower horizontal grill rail. Only slight concern being that the screws have nothing to stop them coming loose such as a friction nut or washer; will have to monitor that along with engine/oil temps, which I hope will now go up a bit.

TP

Good luck!

(Was thinking if anyone knows how to secure screws, it is probably you )

Yeti has her scarf from Heko and it took only a couple of minutes to fit, even in the dark by torch light

Quite a simple thing really consisting of one smoked perspex panel, two cad screws and a couple of cad brackets that hook over the lower horizontal grill rail. Only slight concern being that the screws have nothing to stop them coming loose such as a friction nut or washer; will have to monitor that along with engine/oil temps, which I hope will now go up a bit.

TP

Be interested to hear how this affects the warm up time and temperatures.

Are these winter covers a good idea generally or could they lead to overheating eg if in slow-moving traffic over a long period? Sorry to be so ignorant!

Are these winter covers a good idea generally or could they lead to overheating eg if in slow-moving traffic over a long period? Sorry to be so ignorant!

I fitted one and put a review here http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/250857-superskoda-lower-grill-winter-cover/page__st__30 . reply no 41 if the link will not work, it has not been a problem so far and I feel it helps with warm up time, it just keeps the direct blast of air off the lower parts of the rads, air can still flow in via the top grill and be drawn in by the fans.

They would however be blocking off airflow to the intercooler and the rads.... Hmmm. I'm thinking maybe they aren't 100% good news possibly.

They would however be blocking off airflow to the intercooler and the rads.... Hmmm. I'm thinking maybe they aren't 100% good news possibly.

No they still have indirect airflow from the top

No they still have indirect airflow from the top

Causing uneven cooling of the rad cores. Probably not a problem given the ambient temperature at the moment but I think I'll give this idea a miss personally.

Well thoughts after one day running with the new scarf.

Air temps today indicated by the car, have been hovering just above or below freezing. The engine initial warm up time did not appear dramatically quicker than without the blank, although the oil temp did get into the mid 90's at times this morning and just over 100 on the steep hill climb on the way home, which is an improvement. Noticed the oil once at a higher temp appears to possible take a little longer to cool down then I remember from summer driving :wonder:

Other more obscure observations being the engine felt more free reving on the home run tonight, once the oil temp had settled in the low mid 90's following the hill climb and this morning I felt there were a number of engine related smells in the cabin I'm not normally aware of, although that could have been an outside influence. Radiator temps stayed steady at 90; only when very cold do I get the occasional fluctuating temp gauge, so will have to see if we have another real cold snap what if any effect the blank may have.

Oh re blocking the lower grill and it's effect on the radiator, then I'm not overly concerned, noticed some of the VAG greenline models have their grills blanked off for drag reduction and others like Ford have systems to close the grills for the same reason.

TP

Edited 24 January, 201313 yr by The Plumber

I ordered one of these bottom covers from Heko through Ebay; it came within five days, well packaged and the product itself well finished. I fitted it today (in the rain) and once I'd checked back on this thread and learned that the hooks go over the lower horizontal bar rather than the vertical bars, it turned out to be a very easy job, despite having to work blind once the cover has been offered up. I swapped the screws provided for stainless steel M4 screws with stainless plain washers.

I added a shakeproof M4 washer on each side to try to deal with the potential vibration problem the Plumber points out; I suppose a threadlock compound on the screws would be a suitable alternative, but I thought of that later. I'd prefer to use security hex screws or similar, in case of any light-fingered Yeti owners spotting my cover in a car park, but I didn't have any in M4.

It won't be very easy to do a proper comparison of how much more quickly, if at all, the engine comes up to temperature. I've been watching it on the school run over the past week, so I have a rough idea of 'before'. Now for the 'after' check, but the outside temperature has gone up quite a bit since then.

Edited 28 January, 201313 yr by Xenophon