Cold Weather

[JTaylor2005]

Anyone else's HDI run better in cold weather? Must be the colder air going into the engine is more dense. Makes me want to get an intercooler on now haha.

[Seb_Ryan]

Exactly as you say.. Colder air is more dense.. Every car is better lol

[MY95]

Yes runs better performance wise, less mpg though as well as being rougher from a start and not as quick to start or warm up though :/ More disadvantages to advantages unfortunately

[Toms306]

Runs better if you can ever get the coolant up to temp anyway...

My MPG is in the 40s now. :cry:

[JTaylor2005]

Last tank full I got like 49mpg and tbf it feels great to drive. Warming up doesn't take too long after about 2/3 miles I have nice warm air coming in. Which is good enough I suppose

[Toms306]

Yep, using heaters sucking all the warmth out of the coolant making MPG even worse...

I've got an electric heater element in the Focus so the heaters are hot quickly, but it takes an age for the coolant to get up to temp so I'm running on a cold map most of the time...damn these thermally efficient diesels!

[MY95]

Just got 52mpg in the 306 Tom last tank.... you jealous your DV6 cant get that mainly short journeys but with 100 miles in one day (two 50 mile journeys), so pretty impressed.  Should get another 306 Tom :p

[Toms306]

Tbh I've thought about getting a V8 petrol, probably more efficient than the DV6, would definitely warm up quicker haha... But I've become emotionally attached to the bloody Focus now.

Problem is I only really do slow town journeys where the heater is using heat quicker than the engine can make it, or 'some mph' on the dually with so much airflow and very little load that that doesn't warm it up either. Plus it's not an economical engine in a heavy car, should've been left in the Fiesta where it works well, keep to the 2.0 in the Focus!

[Paul_13]

My 1.3 cdti work van doesn't get above 70'c with the heaters on full blast at the moment

[lolsteve]

Hurray for the quick to heat up K series, up to temp in couple of miles. But put the heaters on and you can watch the need flop back down

Tom I imagine you with a V8 petrol would be *turns car on, turns car off, walks to destination, complains about MPG*

[Toms306]

Even turning it on would be a bit fuel heavy tbh...

[bashbarnard]

Love it. More power. Quick to warm up. Little bit more difficult to start on veg but still starts fine. I do like my xuds.

[DeeTurbo]

I love the way my car sounds ticking over on a cold crisp morning. It sounds like it's idling slower and you can hear each cylinder fire individually.

[welshpug]

sounds like many fooked thermostats and short journeys on this thread.

[Poodle]

No HDis are just stupidly thermally efficient, mine used to take about 20 minutes of driving to heat up fully, that was with a new, genuine thermostat.

[welshpug]

odd, drove my sisters c5 loads and that warms up in 3 miles

[MY95]

Took mine 20 mins to warm up tonight Poodle, so nice to know mines as it should be

[DeeTurbo]

I think the C5 has an electric heating element like the 406.

[Magenta Sunset]

perhaps it's them glow-plug thingys

[Poodle]

Perhaps, i installed some good ones in my project car with the intention of testing the theory, unfortunately 18 months on it's yet to leave the drive.

A standard car shouldn't take that long tbf, my95, my estate is usually warm in 10 minutes.

[adam b]

If you are that hung up about mpg that cold weather affects you that badly I think you need to reevaluate your life.

Sell the shitty diesel and buy something that is fun instead. I got 34 out of my track car going to Snetterton on Sunday. I then did a tank of vpower in 142 miles. Hooray!

[Toms306]

We can't all be as rich as you though, Adam.

[Piggy]

Is there any connection poodle between those blanked their EGR and those with struggling temps?

MrsPiggys 206 got up to temp much quicker i rekon before i blanked the egr...its got a water heater too

[Toms306]

I have wondered that myself, lost EGR and EGR cooler (essentially another coolant heater) in my case but can't remember if it was any better last year before that! Pretty sure I wasn't blanking 306 HDi's when I first had them though, in fact probably not until the Moonstone that Tose now owns, and they were still taking forever to heat up back then.

[welshpug]

Didn't notice any difference when I blanked the EGR, gas only flows when the valve is open so it wont be that hot.

[Toms306]

The EGR is open most of the time, both at idle and cruise, it's only really fully closed when you're booting it so should make a difference to warm up.

[Ruan]

It'll be especially noticeable on the ones with the EGR cooler.

[bashbarnard]

Right so out of the interest of science. (not boredom) on the way to work this morning from stone cold I timed my heaters. 3 mins to get warm air (not hot) and 10 mins to get fully up to temp. Bit of everything driving. Mines an xud, no egr, k14, Bosch 9mm and front mount.

[Jonny81191]

Just fit a kenlowe preheater. Warm heaters the second you get in. It's pricey though.

[Poodle]

XUD is an entirely different kettle of fish, the pre-combustion chambers put a lot more heat into the head and therefore the coolant.

I've heard that the egr cooler can make a big difference, but i've yet to test it. I certainly didn't notice much change when i blanked mine, but then it wouldn't have had much gas flow through it anyway being as blocked as it was lol. If you didn't want egr but wanted the heating you could probably replace it with something like a water jacket on the downpipe with a thermostat controlling flow, hell of a lot of work for quicker warm up times though. For now i reckon somebody needs to properly record what happens when they fix their pre-heater circuit. Or when they blank their clean egr.