Alrite all.

Have a small qurey. This morning, the fabia took ages to warm up. I put the heating control on around 19-20 degrees, and power 2 out of 4, pointed it at the window. It was -4 outside.

After 15 miles, the engine temp wasnt even 1/4 warm! , so i turned the cabin heater off and then the engine started to heat ip.

Is this common? Should i use some of that water warmer (like water wetter)?

Dave

Yeh my car takes ages to heat up, usually about 10miles or so. In those first 10miles I wouldn't turn on the heaters as you are prolonging the time it takes for the car to heat up.

If you want to get the car up to temperature, give it some beans! Having the heater on will draw heat from the engine, IIRC.

Chris

Yeah mine takes ages to warm up, most of the journeys I make are for work, which is 3 miles away, car normally heats up when I get around my work area which is about 10 mins away.

Davy

If you want to get the car up to temperature, give it some beans! Having the heater on will draw heat from the engine, IIRC.

Chris

Yeh I've started to rev it a bit in 3rd gear after about 5 mins of driving and it seems to help the car get up to temperature quicker and I see a slight improvement in fuel consumption over my short journey to work.

agreed, the turbo generates lots of heat, my car stays cold as I pass through the village, as soon as I hit the 60 and use some boost the temp warms up almost straight away....

Does "giving it some beans" not damage the engine 'cos the oil is to thick?

Dave

There is alot of talk about that happening, but modern oils are alot better than they used to be (which is why you pay so much!) besides I dont mean full throttle red line, just "reasonable" acceleration, so you get the turbo spinning...

I've always driven my cars from cold as I would drive them normally, and never had a problem, did 80k in 20 months in the vRS, and engine / turbo ect were as good as new when I sold, up to 29k in the fiat now since April, and no problems, and that has 18,000 mile service intervals.....

personally, I wouldn't worry about giving it some beans when cold, as I've never encountered a problem, but others may have different opinions, I know a fair few people on here have blown turbo's, but I'd be more worried about switching off when hot, having just run on full boost, than on flooring it when cold....

another way to think about it, is the car is spending much less time running with cold oil/water than it would if you drove it gently until warmed, so which would do more damage, someone driving gently and taking half an hour to warm up, or me giving it a bit of power, and only spending 5 minutes cold.......

Well summed up, Sharky!

Chris