Think I have a thermostat issue, I changed my DSG stat last year so don't think its that.

I'm not even getting to operating temperature in November on A, B and motorway roads after a 30 minute / 17 mile drive.

How long roughly does yours get to bang in the middle doing average driving at this time of year? in terms of time and/or mileage

Thanks

Mine has been barely lifting past 50C these past few very cold days, but to be fair, I've not been doing any long trips, although it would usually teach temperature on the gauge for these trips.

@Dann2707 Is it at this time of year where the ambient temp is down near freezing rather than OOP North were it was into the teens maybe. Is it the Coolant not getting to an indicated 90*oC on a 30 minute / 17 mile drive? It should do, maybe in half that even at zero*oC. What is it getting too?

What is the oil temperature indicating it gets to?

In here Finland, weather 0 to -5 its about 10k miles if steady highway at 50-55mph speed and you got thermostat open and +87c. Using 6th gear on manual.

-10-15 using 5th gear, maybe some miles more.

I use always cardboard to block radiator when outside temps are +5 or lower. It gives nice boost. All kind of grill covers which comes outside are worth of nothing in here. Maybe good for middle europe winter.

That's interesting Karpov. I've just googled and such a thing does exist. Ingenious! https://ebay.us/m/mb6wxh

My 1.6tdi octavia takes about 20-30 mins to reach OP temp(90degrees) on a fairly slow drive into town at at the moment -2c . My old 1.9tdi took about an hour and in real cold weather never reached 90. I was lucky to get 70 degrees as the thermostat was bad no matter howw long I drove for. It will depend on driving style/revs etc but I reckon if its not reaching 90 degrees in about 20/30 mins of normal driving the thermostat may need replacing.

Alasdair

Winter grille covers were commonly available for Citroens ~2007. Perhaps Skoda do them. They were for diesels though, as they take longer to warm up.

Might sound like a daft question but are people driving around with the heating on full or even half full because if so, that'll be why the car's taking time to get up to temperature. The cabin heater is drawing what little heat it can from the coolant that's flowing and therefore the engine will take a lot longer to get up to temperature.
Winter/ colder months I always have the heater off for a while (with the heated seats on) until it gets to temperature. In my 1.6TDi Rapid just now it was 6C outside and after five or six kilometers at 60 and 50 Kph it was nice and warm and I swithed the heating on.

This is my style but i prefer that grill cover also. These wont get that hot that you have to be worry about. Under +10 to +5 just use it.

I think these are clever, if yo put heat on, example 20-21c deg inside it wont took all engine heat inside. If you use high blow and high temp that will slow down engine temp.

I use allways temp 21-22C deg at winter and we have normal winter here -10 to -20 weeks and months.

And if you have some time berofe cold start + electric this kind of hose heaters are common at vag engines here. At superb installation place just close to aux water pump under engibe.

About one hour and coolant +40c if its not colder than -15.

I have replaced my DSG thermostat this weekend and it has resolved my issues.

I also got a grille cover as suggested by @Karpov and it's a perfect fit. I know we don't have arctic temperatures here, but every little helps.

Glad you solved problem. I have seen a few diesel cars with rad cover. Used to have one on my old landrover as it took about 45mins plus to reach temp when cold in winter. Main reason was non electric fan

Alasdair

On 22/12/2025 at 20:53, persimmontom said:

I have replaced my DSG thermostat this weekend and it has resolved my issues.

I also got a grille cover as suggested by @Karpov and it's a perfect fit. I know we don't have arctic temperatures here, but every little helps.

Good to hear you're issues are sorted. Would you be able to share where you got your grille cover from ?

7 minutes ago, TasMan said:

Good to hear you're issues are sorted. Would you be able to share where you got your grille cover from ?

Of course - this was the one (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/406295175176). Perfect fit, although I would suggest cutting some of the length off the plastic bolts before installing, just to make it quicker, as you don't need the whole length.

Many thanks ! My car is a 2014 facelift model but I think they do one for this, bit more expensive at £49 though...

My car is a manual 2.0TDI CFFB engine, been struggling to get up to running temperature since the weather has changed a couple of months ago no matter the journey type. Makes me wonder if the thermostat is faulty...🤔

1 minute ago, TasMan said:

Many thanks ! My car is a 2014 facelift model but I think they do one for this, bit more expensive at £49 though...

My car is a manual 2.0TDI CFFB engine, been struggling to get up to running temperature since the weather has changed a couple of months ago no matter the journey type. Makes me wonder if the thermostat is faulty...🤔

Could potentially be, but yours will be the main thermostat and I think that's a little more involved to replace (although not impossible).

Yeah sounds like engine thermostat. 4-5h replacing first time. Second time maybe 2h. Bolt behind oil filter is only true pita.

Thanks folks, I'll need to look into what's involved. Would likely get a garage to do this for me, time is very limited unfortunately.