TDCi slow to warm up brrrr.

fbvisitor · 29-07-2011, 07:04 PM

Hi all,

Being a Pug diesel convert for a number of years, I recently bought the wife an 07 Focus diesel to replace the Terry.

A very nice car I have to say and one that I occasionally drive to work on my night shifts. Here in lies the problem.

Last week it was -3 and -2 degrees at 7.00 am after each of my shifts and I have to say the heater in the car is bloody hopeless. I shouldn't blame the heater as the engine itself seems to take ages to warm up.

Is this normal for these engines? It runs around 90 degrees (just under) once warmed up but compared to my old 405 Pug (this thing makes heat inside 2 k's), its just too uncomfortable to drive the 12 km trip home in such cool conditions.

Any ideas? Normally I would change the thermostat but I thought I might ask others first to see what the general consensus is with these things.

Cheers.

Franco Cozzo · 29-07-2011, 07:08 PM

Same thing with mine, gotta drive about 15km (all 100km/h highway though) before it gets up to operating temperature.

Not bad though, what I do is start my car 10 minutes before I leave work, by the time I get down the street, heater is a little bit warm so its fine.

Then im sweating 15km later and have to turn it down

Turbodiesel · 29-07-2011, 07:24 PM

Are you using the air con for heat or just the fan?

marg99 · 29-07-2011, 07:24 PM

The thermostat is part of a larger plastic housing on the Diesel and not really a cheap thing to replace. The TDCI takes a longer time to warm up and does run just under 90 degrees on the gauge when hot.
If your thermostat has failed it will take at least 10 minutes driving before it gets close to 90 degrees if even in cold weather. Mine failed under warranty so it does happen.

Citwit · 29-07-2011, 09:49 PM

I had a Citroen Xantia and it warmed up as you described for the Peugeot.The heater would be starting to get hot almost as soon as I got outside the drive way, certainly within a km. It must be a characteristic of French cars. My LT TDCI takes at least 10 km for the heater to start getting hot.

pugdriver · 30-07-2011, 12:52 AM

I have a Peugeot 307 diesel and it warms up faster than any car I've owned.
We have a 200 metre long driveway and by the time I've backed out from the garage, shut the garage door and driven up to the front gate, the heater is blowing hot air.

disappointed to hear the Focus is slow to warm up - looking to buy one for the partner. We live in a cold area so heater wants to be good.

burnz · 30-07-2011, 01:52 AM

all diesel burn cold naturally, it's normal!!

the european cars run higher back pressure to warm quicker, and provide better engine braking.

hotter climates like oz, some cars have a bonnet protector that allso reduces air flow the radiator to help warm in winter.

truck, say kenworth have those radiator covers; mack, have venation blinds in front of the radiator..

fbvisitor · 30-07-2011, 02:05 PM

Thanks for the replies all. The plot thickens, hmmmm.

Its interesting to note that some do get hot quite quickly and some don't.

Turbodiesel, I'm only using just the fan.

burnz, you may have read mine and other posts and noted that some diesels do in fact, get warm very quickly indeed. Interesting comments about the trucks though. I've read that the Cotroen C4 Picasso has a "winter" kit that performs this function exactly as you've described.

Thanks again.

Yellow_Festiva · 30-07-2011, 03:09 PM

Saw this thread and did my own test this morning. LV TDCI Focus.

Started car and drove around 1 km before wife asked me to pull over to check something. Instead of turning off, I let car idle.

Took about 1m to drive the first km then car sat for 5-6 min after that. Car temp gauge didn't move, heat was on full, fan only. Air was very gradually getting warmish.

On 7 minutes we took off again, you could start to feel the heat more now. By 8 minutes, and after another km of driving the needle started to move off cold. By 9 minutes the heat was getting to us so we put it to cold. I think it still took 15 minutes all up to get to correct operating temp.

Perhaps if we were driving it would have warmed up earlier by 2 or 3 minutes.

Citwit · 30-07-2011, 07:41 PM

I know that the heater circuit on the Citroen (and the Peugeots as well presumably since they use the same engines) comes off the engine before the thermostat. Hot water will circulate through the heater before the thermostat opens. Maybe the water for the Focus heater circuit comes off after the thermostat so that no hot water flows through the heater until the thermostat opens.

fbvisitor · 01-08-2011, 05:57 PM

Thanks for the replies Yellow_Festiva and Citwit.

I shall dig further on my next lot of days off.

Cheers.

Franco Cozzo · 01-08-2011, 06:58 PM

Took about 15km for mine to warm up with the heater all the way up, after idling for about 10 minutes, that was driving at around 100km/h too.

SpasticBus · 07-08-2011, 10:19 PM

I just received my Haynes manual for my TDCi Focus (LT) and it mentions that the TDCi Focus has an electric booster heater. The jist is that when the coolant temp is < 60 and the ambient is < 10, having the temp set to high heat results in this electric booster heater being turned on.

paulgo · 07-08-2011, 11:42 PM

Hey guys, interesting comments. I've LV TDCi 1/10 model, just love driving it. My heater starts blowing warm air within first kilometer and is fully hot in 5 minutes/5km's of driving. No warming up or idling. I use top quality synthetic oil and top notch oil additive so no time/fuel wasting. I would recommend for older engines to 'check' thermostat operation and also depending on the service history regarding coolant change, these diesel engines have iron blocks so there is possibility of increased corrosion within the cooling system and blocking vital passages, eg. heater circuits.

Turbodiesel · 08-08-2011, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulgo

Hey guys, interesting comments. I've LV TDCi 1/10 model, just love driving it. My heater starts blowing warm air within first kilometer and is fully hot in 5 minutes/5km's of driving. No warming up or idling. I use top quality synthetic oil and top notch oil additive so no time/fuel wasting. I would recommend for older engines to 'check' thermostat operation and also depending on the service history regarding coolant change, these diesel engines have iron blocks so there is possibility of increased corrosion within the cooling system and blocking vital passages, eg. heater circuits.

I just tested mine this morning and you are spot on paulgo, it doesn't take long at all.

The last oil change I bought my oil from Ford.

antisocial · 23-08-2011, 09:55 PM

Its not a Focus, but my Jeep (Merc Diesel) would blow warm air within 30 secs, very nice on -7 deg mornings.

Marlboro2728 · 24-08-2011, 10:19 AM

My LV Tdci takes approx 10kms before warm air comes out of the vents. Heater on highest temp makes no difference. I let the car warm up for about 1 minute in the morning as I open the front gate and then it is 100km/h freeway driving.