Can anyone help? Outside temp. zero cent.. Climatronic off. 10 minutes on driveway to get engine up to 90 cent. at a constant 2000 rpm. Seems too long to me.

Keeping at 2000 rpm, switch on climatronic and temp. guage immediately falls towards 80 cent. Engine appears unable to maintain running temp with heater on.(@2000 rpm!)

Thermostat, water pump, rad., aircon fan, all new.

Any feedback would be of help-otherwise great car!

cheers

Can anyone help? Outside temp. zero cent.. Climatronic off. 10 minutes on driveway to get engine up to 90 cent. at a constant 2000 rpm. Seems too long to me.

Keeping at 2000 rpm, switch on climatronic and temp. guage immediately falls towards 80 cent. Engine appears unable to maintain running temp with heater on.(@2000 rpm!)

Thermostat, water pump, rad., aircon fan, all new.

Any feedback would be of help-otherwise great car!

cheers

Mine is 2.0 TDI and takes 6-7 min on outside temperature od +7C. So I'd say it's the same

TDI much more thermally efficient that petrol hence longer warm up. Is is why a TDI does more mpg than an equivalent power petrol. Your warm up time sounds normal to me given an outside temp of zero or less.

My 2.0 TDI from startup to heat coming out of the heater takes about 4 miles driving, and a while further before reaching normal temp. At this time of year and these temperatures diesels take a lot longer to warm up.

The car will warm up faster if driven under load rather than left at 2K rpm on your driveway wasting fuel needlessly.

My Octy2 1.9TDi also takes a long time to warm up in cold weather but my previous Octy1 1.9TDi was exactly the same. Starting from cold last night, it idled in the drive for 5 mins while I was defrosting the windows. Then I drove 12miles at 30mph due to fog. When I arrived the temp was still only about 80degrees, with outside temp about zero.

The main problem is it takes a long time to defrost the inside of the windscreen if the condensation has frozen and you can't drive it until you can see where you're going. SWMBO's 306 1.9TDi warms up much faster but then it does 10mpg less than mine.

Yep my Oct'y takes an age to warm up

That's why I take Swmbo's to and fro work as it's got heated seats

Yes mines the same - If I leave home and travel South (downhill) it can take as long as 12 miles to reach normal temperature - However if i travel North (Uphill) it reaches normal working temp in about 2 miles. I took mine to the dealer to have it checked and they said it's Ok, as mentioned above it's to do with the thermal efficiency of the engine.

Many thanks to one and all for the responce to this thread. Lowflyer's got it in one. "long time to defrost the inside of the windscreen".

Have heard of a preheater for the coolant system which comes as an optional extra elcewhere to get round this problem, any ideas?

Strikes me if there is such a thing it should be standard fit!

Am I right in thinking that some cars have electric heaters to help while the engine is warming up? Does anybody know of any that do or am I imagining it?

I don't mean the heated-front windscreen that you can get on some (all?) Fords.

Previous car I had before the Octavia was a Saab 93.

This had an auxiliary heater using diesel when the engine was cold and the temperature below 3 degrees.

Nothing about it in the handbook or by the salesman so I got a fright the first time this thing fired up. Sounds like a jet engine.

Very good though, certainly warmed up faster, cold to warm in about 2/3 mins in minus 5.

You can buy an add on electric heater which plugs into the mains via a socket under the bumper. It can be set to come on with a preset timer. Quite expensive though if I remember correctly.

While everyone is correct saying that it takes a long time to warm up and that sitting there at 2k rpm isn't a good idea I'm surprised that nobody has commented on the temp dropping once the heating is turned on.

On both this and the previous octy I can only think of a couple of occasions when the engine temp dropped under normal use and that was on the very coldest of days and by a tiny amount. It seems odd that it would drop quickly in weather that isn't too cold (unless we are talking about a non-UK car)

Think bryand has a pre heater on his Fabia.

Think bryand has a pre heater on his Fabia.

I've got a Kenlowe electric pre-heater, which works very well - provided you are within reach of mains electricity. Cost

Yep it takes forever to warm up when idling. I think it is the turbo which really chucks the heat out which is why driving up hill warms it up much faster. I suppose going up a hill in 4th needing plenty of boost will generate more heat than going up in 3rd with little or no boost.

I had noticed that the temp stops climbing when you're stationary in cold weather.

On the other hand I've never seen the temperature go above 90 even in hot weather after a fast run. Once it gets to 90'C it seems like its fixed there. This maybe a 1.9TDi thing - more powerful machines must have higher thermal loads.

The idea for electric preheat comes from the VW range but as you can undoubtably tell I'm fishing at this stage.

Thanks for graph Bryand found it very interesting

I can confirm that the Kenlowe Hotstart pre heating system Bryand mentioned is extremely effective if you have access to a mains supply and it's even better when linked to a timer.....instant heat & no de-misting or de-icing problems from the word go !

See HERE for more information if you are interested.

I have noticed this before with diesels, started my journey and been sat in traffic a bit further into my journey, and seen the guage drop slightly, thought it was a problem, but seen it on so many diesels, it does not worry me now.

Surely the guage drops slightly due to the thermostat opening, and all the cold coolant in the rad finally mixes with the hot coolant in the engine, thus bringing the overall temp down. ?

I'm sure there must be diesel heaters on some of the VAG/Audi PD engines? If someone could look into that it would be great.

You think that is bad, I have a fabia (2001 1.4 8v) that took about 10 miles at least to get wiarm went abck underr warranty and had sensor changed ok for 2 days then temp gague never mooved from zero for about 20 miles then day later nothing at all.Back at dealers (rover/kia bought from them)but if anything is too akward for them they take it to Skoda dealer soem 120 miles away if they hae to hope it freezing or them. At least I was luck enough to get another warranty cover

You think that is bad, I have a fabia (2001 1.4 8v) that took about 10 miles at least to get warm went back underr warranty and had sensor changed ok for 2 days then temp gague never moved from zero for about 20 miles then day later nothing at all.Back at dealers (rover/kia bought from them)but if anything is too akward for them they take it to Skoda dealer some 120 miles away. Iyf they have to hope it freezing or them. At least I was luck enough to get another warranty cover

Oh yea not deisel either, is this a common problem?

Am I right in thinking that some cars have electric heaters to help while the engine is warming up? .

No, you're not imagining it. My Fabia vRS has a Kenlowe electric pre-heater controlled by a timeswitch so the engine is up to temperature by the time I start up in the morning.

The car needs to be parked within reach of a main electrical outlet, of course (i.e. garage or carport). Takes about 45 minutes to bring the coolant up to temperature, though you still have to drive a couple of miles to warm the oil up before giving it too much wellie. Saves a bit of fuel, too.

Will it ever pay for itself? Probably not in hard economic terms, though the reduction in engine wear is impossible to quantify. But never having to defrost windows and a warm heater from startup are really worth having.

I'm ok with mine as it warms up within 1.5 miles of leaving home, owing to having to drive up a bloody steep hill!