How long to get warm?

G

GrayB

Member
As the weather gets a little cooler, we have started to wonder about how long the engine takes to warm up. It's a 75 TDI and the temperature gauge generally takes several miles to start moving at all. My drive to work has about 3 miles of easy town driving, followed by 4 miles of open road - which usually has traffic that keeps the speed down to 45ish. The temperature gauge just about hits 70-80 degC by the time I get to work - never reaching the normal 90 degC. The outside temp is about 10-12 degC.

My partner took it to work yesterday, on a more open road route and went at least 5 miles before it came up to temperature. Once it gets to 90 degC it sits there constantly for the rest of the journey.

This seems quite a long time to us. What do you think?
 
Diesels generally take longer to warm up than petrols. I also found that the engine temperature took maybe 3-5 miles to get fully warm. But with the auxiliary heater I could get nice warm air into my car within a minute or so :)
 
Ah yes, but the auxilliary heater doesn't come on when it's 10-12 degC outside! Various people say it comes on below either 5 or 7 degC.

Also, I'm thinking as much about the engine working efficiently as I am about the warmth in the car... Last winter I found that the mpg dropped about 4mpg when I used the aux heater regularly.
 
my 1.4 petrol takes about 1.5 miles to get fuly upto temp but a little longer when the weather is very cold
 
Wait till winter hits, here in the frozen north I can drive 12 miles to work & the gauge has just started to move!!!
 
I live in the north part of Sweden where it sometimes get very cold.
In this climate the "culture" is that every car needs a Warm Up system for
the comfort and joy of getting into a warm car. The system uses an electric
engine heater that usually heats the coolant which starts to circulate as it gets warm. For the A2 though, there is only an engine block contact heater available. This device is sculptured as the engine block and is simply fastened by a clamp holding it tightly to the engine, transferring heat from the heater to the engine. A special paste is applied between the heater and the engine to make the device more effective. As the coolant heater it works in the same way, heating the engine block making the coolant inside ciculate. The difference is that the coolant heater actually comes in contact with the coolant usually by removing a plug or draining screw. It needs about 400W and the time it should be used is a couple of hours prior to the departure, depending on the outside temperature of course. Using the engine heater saves fuel and wear on the engine. Emissions will also be reduced of course. In addition to the engine heater, most people also installs an outlet inside the car that makes it possible to connect a interior heater to. I have the Defa setup except for the timer and battery charger. I use a timer connected to the outlet on the garage wall instead. I ordered the system with the car and Audi charged me about £220 for the labour and parts. For more information, visit www.defa.com and click on WARM UP.
 
I'm a little confused... I know doesn't take much... lol

My A2 takes around 7-10 miles to get the engine temp to 90c, when the weather is cold. like now!

Also my climate takes a while to get warm, how quickly does everyone elses' take to pump out warm air??

bba
 
I do aroung 2-3 miles to work and back each day, I have a choice of 2 routes, one involves 90% dual carraigeway, the other is 30mph limit for 70% of the way. if i take the d/c route the dar is fully warm about halfway into the journey, but if i go the other route, the car is only fully warmed up (needle in the middle of the gauge) onece i've driven into our car park!!

One cool thing about the auto-climate system, as the car warms up, it gradually increases the air speed, quite a cool feature of the A2!!
 
Our 1.4 TDI takes around 20mins in the 4c to 6c temp range, also the Air Con or heater generally, takes 10mins before it pumps out any warm/hot air. Also if i leave the heater off totally the engine gets up to temp much quicker, is this also normal?
 
Now its getting colder down here in the south my 1.4 petrol takes a little longer but is usually up to temp within 3 miles. If I have the heater control on max it will take a bit longer. Seems to take more time if just popping into town.
 
Sounds like there may be a problem with your TDi, Emm - 20 mins is far too long.

You don't have the ECON switch on by any chance do you? This turns off the auxillary heater and will cause a massive increase in the time it takes for warm air to circulate.

If you don't have the switch on, sounds like a trip to the car doctor!
 
I think i do have the ECON switch on all the time, is this wrong? I did try it without the ECON switch today and it took about 5mins approx, so your right!
Thanks Emm
 
It's up to you - either on and cold (or hot in summer - it also decreases the amount of work the compressor in the air con system does), or off and another couple of mpg better off.
 
Even though I have the electrical Warm-up system, turning the climate control unit off will dramatically reduce the time before the coolant reaches normal temperature. This is the first car I can tell such a difference by turning the unit off. The needle starts to move beyond 60 degrees in about 0,8-1 km and is fully warm within 1,5-2 kms of city driving. Outside temp when departing: +3 degrees.
 
crb1011 said:
Now its getting colder down here in the south my 1.4 petrol takes a little longer but is usually up to temp within 3 miles. If I have the heater control on max it will take a bit longer. Seems to take more time if just popping into town.
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The big difference here is whether it's a petrol engine or a diesel. The diesel takes a lot longer - due to it's efficiency I guess, with more energy going to motion than to heat! Which is why the diesel has an auxiliary heater and the petrol doesn't (as far as I know...).

Even we have bitten the bullet now and sacrificed a few mpg to use the auxiliary heater...
 
well, guess I'm starting to get paranoid.

I don't have the econ setting on, and when I leave my house it's all 30mph roads, until I get to the motorway, 5miles. Then about another the climate is then probably showing auto and possibly 1 bar, within the next 4-5 miles or so on the motorway (doing my grandad 60-65) it starts to get like club tropicana.!

Not sure if this is normal?
Was talking to a friend t'ther day, hes has a passat TDI, which he claims gets' warm air pumping the minute he turns it on?
Bulls**t me thinks! or am I just bitter!

bba
 
ULP said:
Your first impression is correct. There is no way a car can produce heat from a cold engine. The laws of physics apply.

Tell him he is an idiot...
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Or are the later electric auxiliary heaters quicker to warm up than the Webasto diesel burners?
 
No the Webasto burners are much quicker. The electric one for the A2 is only a 400W heater and the Webasto heaters are if I remember correctly in the 2-5kW range.
 
Emm,
If you put you climate onto screen demist you will soon get hot air from the electric heater built into the system, when the heat comes through just press the demist button again to return to normal climate control, do not press the economy button as this will switch off the electric heater.
 
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