Hi,

 

I'm looking into replacing our Octavia II (1,9 TDI) and possibly go for a Octavia III with 1,2 TSI. Here where I live its not uncommon with subzero temperature in winter, even not much below zero usually.

 

The car is parked outdoors.

 

The Octavia II is fitted with a auxiliary heater and that was very useful as the diesel heats up very slowly indeed, especially as the usual speed around here is only 30-40 MPH.

 

Now I am wondering if it is worth the extra money for an aux heater for 1,2 TSI as well for these reasons:

 

• Smaller engine should heat up faster.
• Petrol engine should heat up faster than diesel
• I've read something about a sort of 2 circuit cooling cycle in the TSI where even the exhaust heat is utilized to heat up the engine extra quickly.

 

Therefore I'm wondering if the 1,2 TSI gives heat (e.g. to defrost the windows) quickly also without aux heater assuming temperatures just few degrees under zero?

 

Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

If I lived in Norway I'd go for the aux heating.  

 

A friend who lives not far from Oslo has his set up to come on 10 minutes before he gets in the car so it's already nice and toasty.  Not sure if it's an option or an aftermarket heater (like a Webasto or Eberspacher) so pre-heating may not be possible on the Skoda item.

If I lived in Norway I'd go for the aux heating.  

 

A friend who lives not far from Oslo has his set up to come on 10 minutes before he gets in the car so it's already nice and toasty.  Not sure if it's an option or an aftermarket heater (like a Webasto or Eberspacher) so pre-heating may not be possible on the Skoda item.

Preheating is possible (remote with a 100 m range and a timer at least with Columbus) and as far as I've understood the units Skoda uses are built by Webasto.

Edited 3 November, 201411 yr by kallekilponen

I changed my MK2 Octavia 1.9 tdi for a 1.2tsi Rapid and the engine gets hot very quickly. But it's only seen temperatures as low as 6 degrees at the moment. Nonetheless it's very quick compared to the tdi.

Hi, I havent tried mine in winter but it does seem the 1.2 heat up much quicker than my ol 1.9 tdi. Also, if you live in Norway Møller offers Defa prewarmer fitted for app 8000,- nok. I am concidering it, but have always managed without. Even with -20c. Just put on warmer clothes.

I thought the newer petrol engines had a coolant circuit in the exhaust manifold to get hot air within a couple of minutes?

Go for the aux heater, I have it on the RS Tdi it's just fine to get in a pre heated car, also the durability from the engine will better as the wear is less for

a heated engine.

It is a Webato heater.

Only the interface to program is bad, you have to activate EVERY day  for the next day shame on you VAG???

Wish we could have this option in the UK, especially for the diesels. A retro fit webasto would be around £1500 and I don't really fancy someone cutting in to fuel and coolent lines.

Mark

Hi,

thanks a lot for your thoughts and experience   . It might be a bit overkill, but I guess I go for the aux heater. Thought about getting a heated front screen instead, just to get the ice off quickly when starting, but it's not available with the 1,2 tsi (probably it just consumes too much juice from the battery which I am sure is smaller than for the bigger engines).

 

Cheers 

jogo