They're useless. I know. I have one.
Anyway to warm up faster?
- Thread starter Marky
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They're useless. I know. I have one.
I have a diesel powered heater (Webasto iirc) in my Scania, if I park up for say 11 hours with it running constantly, afaik, it uses less than a litre.
As for warming the engine, drive it normally. Swapping the thermostat usually works wonders too
My old focus tdci was like this.
On cold mornings it took ages to get heat. Ford claimed of was the engine efficiency or some such randomness. If I was using boost so to speak on the motorway (70 ish) it warmed up a lot faster. Round town it could take 30 minutes !
On cold mornings it took ages to get heat. Ford claimed of was the engine efficiency or some such randomness. If I was using boost so to speak on the motorway (70 ish) it warmed up a lot faster. Round town it could take 30 minutes !
Diesels take ages. Another reason not too have one, they are hardly efficient when cold too
Blocking the rad a bit is a good idea, even on petrols to help warm it up faster.
Water is always in the heater matrix so putting it on cold will make little difference to how it warms up. It will warm up faster in the engine but then be diluted with cold water from the matrix. Ver similar to how a thermostat works with the main radiator
Blocking the rad a bit is a good idea, even on petrols to help warm it up faster.
Water is always in the heater matrix so putting it on cold will make little difference to how it warms up. It will warm up faster in the engine but then be diluted with cold water from the matrix. Ver similar to how a thermostat works with the main radiator
Soldato
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This. The reason people used to cover their rads in older cars was due to the thermostat failing open. The stat wont open to the rad until the water hits 80-90ish degrees C depending on the car by that time the car would have nice and warm.
When I was working in the UK and had a company van, they never got warm just idling. You needed to drive/spank it to get some heat into the system.
I could drive for about 5 miles, and would just be pulling onto the motorway when I started to get some heat through the blowers in winter.
When it was bitterly cold a few years ago -5c and below, when you stopped driving and were at lights or junctions, the temperature gauge dropped back down to cold, I saw plenty of people with card in front of the radiators that year.
The best heaters I had were in my 306 GTI/Rallye, heated up within a minute!
I could drive for about 5 miles, and would just be pulling onto the motorway when I started to get some heat through the blowers in winter.
When it was bitterly cold a few years ago -5c and below, when you stopped driving and were at lights or junctions, the temperature gauge dropped back down to cold, I saw plenty of people with card in front of the radiators that year.
The best heaters I had were in my 306 GTI/Rallye, heated up within a minute!
Soldato
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What you saw were people who either had faulty thermostats, or were misinformed. And if your temp gauge dropped back down to cold when sat static at -5c then you had something wrong. Even if the thermostat opened and started moving hot water into the rad, there would not have been enough time for the rad to dump so much heat so quickly that the temperature gauge would register a 30-40c drop before the thermostat closed again.
Soldato
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The thermostat isnt an open/closed gate.
Rads are massively oversized for a UK winter anyway. Blocking the rad will help increase underbonnet temps.
Light load after warmup with the heater set high can see coolant temps creep down anyway. Mines far better with my radiator block.
Rads are massively oversized for a UK winter anyway. Blocking the rad will help increase underbonnet temps.
Light load after warmup with the heater set high can see coolant temps creep down anyway. Mines far better with my radiator block.
It does help with keeping the whole bay cool though. In any case its a simple and cheap thing to try
Exactly, heater on full whack as its a van, huge radiator as its a van, expected to be thrashed at full load up a hill during summer so has to cope.
Temperature gauge being damped also not showing a true reading. The water will obviously still be warm to hot, but not 85C or whatever the gauge reads at.
Soldato
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I never knew this, I was under the belief that they were closed until they started to heat up and opened at the rated temp for the engine.
That must mean that cars that have overheated due to a thermostat that was stuck shut has been another fault and that the thermostat I recently replaced on my wifes car is faulty as that was shut when it was cold too.
They stop the flow of water to the radiator until the water has reached a pre-determined temperature. Once reached the thermostatic switch opens and the water flows through the radiator and is cooled. If the temp drops below the determined level the thermostat will close and the cycle continues with the aim of maintaining a constant engine temp.
If the thermostat jams or fails to open the engine will overheat. They can also jam open and cause the engine to be over cooled.
Soldato
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Apparently not, they are not a open/closed gate as you and I have suggested.