Mk II TDI (130) - How long to warm up?

[SilverBeast]

I realise it depends on conditions and driving style, but roughly how long should it take for a Mk II TDI 130 to warm up? 

I did two journeys last night of about an hour each. Outside temperature was around -2 to 0C and around half the distance was on motorway. I stuck to speed limits and was keeping rpm low. In both cases engine temperature only reached halfway up from the bottom of the gauge to 90C (70C).

I know the diesels are efficient and slow to warm up but this seems slow to me.  The cabin became comfortable about half way through the journey.  Booster heater and run on pump are both working. I (still!) haven't replaced my temperature sensor (2-wire, grey) so VCDS Lite still shows an intermittent short to 12V or ground. I haven't checked codes on booster heater lately, but it was showing repeated flame outs previously, the heater exhaust has however been hot after my 20 min journey home recently.  I have seen gauge at 90C previously after long (couple of hours in warm weather)

[brummygit]

I'm in the same position - with the booster heater working mine takes around 3-4 miles or around 5-10 minutes max to come up to temperature. Without the booster heater its almost impossible to get it fully warm in around 0 degrees or below.

My booster heater is also not starting due to repeated flame out errors at the moment.

[Chrispb]

It's surprising how much having the heater fans blowing how much it cools the engine down, you can experiment this by driving the car from cold with all the blowers turned off, not a pleasant thought I know but just watch how much quicker the temp gauge reaches normal.

[SilverBeast]

It sounds like I possibly have a problem still with the booster heater then. It takes ages even in summer and my 15-20min journey to work doesn't see the gauge rise from the bottom stop!
Could it be my thermostat is stuck open?

[Chrispb]

Silverbeast if it's struggling to get to 90 in the summer then yes check the thermostat, the booster doesn't kick in above 10 ish deg's so will not affect summer warm up.

[SilverBeast]

Replaced the thermostat today.  Checked the one removed and the replacement and they both opened/closed at around the same temperature, so I think the original was probably OK too!

While warming engine up to bleed the system it still took ages.

Two problems I found:-
(i) As previously mentioned the engine coolant sensor hasn't been working since I got it.  I got a replacement based on pictures I took previously from a Forum member who bought the wrong one in error.  The sensor looked blue in those photos, turns out it s grey .  Oh well at least they are the cheaper ones on ebay.  I noticed that the cooling fans came on as soon as I started the engine.  I assume that this is a default setting when it doesn't get a reliable reading.  The Temperature Sensor fault goes away when the engine warms up.  The fans turned off at about the same point.
(ii) I also monitored the Booster Heater while it was warming up.  This appears to work some of the time.  I saw fault codes for Glow Plug Open Circuit and Repeated Flame Outs and it wasn't reporting the Voltage (Meas Group 1, first measurement) last time I looked.  There is a short section of clear tube in the fuel feed line to the Heater and and there are bursts of bubbles going through that, so hopefully the dosing pump is OK. I just hope it's not the controller PCB!

[bigjeeze]

The fans come on as soon as the air con does - so try turning off air con as see if that helps. It sounds like the aux heater needs looking at.

[SilverBeast]

I did that (set it to ECON).  I even turned the cabin heating right off (fans right down), and the radiator fans were still on all the time.  The radiator fans stopped running at around the same time the Temp Sensor stopped giving a fault in VAG-COM as the engine warmed up.

Temp Sensor should be on it's way.  I'll report back with an update once it's fitted.  I suspect I will need to sort out the booster heater though.

[SilverBeast]

Just a quick update.

I replaced the temperature sensor before christmas and the guage now functions correctly.  My glow plug light now goes out virtually straight away too.

Unfortunately it is now clear that my booster heater works intermittently. The engine got to about 75C on the way to work this morning (after 5-10min) and then cooled down again to about 60C during the remaining 10min of the journey.

[Chrispb]

Could it be that the outside temp switch (the one on the wiper linkage) has shut down the heater? have you tried temporarily leaving the temp switch bridged to rule this out!

[SilverBeast]

Nope.  Outside temperature was 4C.  Also VCDS-Lite keeps throwing up flame outs and last time Glow Plug short.  I'm hoping some wiring is intermittent rather than the controller being flaky, though I am aware that the D5Z's have a "reputation"

[Chrispb]

umm glow plug short that's an unusual one they usually go open circuit.

[SilverBeast]

Just checked on the laptop I use for the car. It has

This was from 2nd January 2013
01491 - Glow-plug for heater (Q9)
   29-00 - Short to Ground

This was from October 2012
01491 -Glow-plug for heater (Q9)
   36-00 - Open Circuit

Plus flame outs
I'll grab some more on the way to work tomorrow

[gregers]

not goner tell anyone how to suck eggs,but no one has mentioned what the run on pump is up too?

[Chrispb]

umm glow plug short that's an unusual one they usually go open circuit.

Yes I suppose it's possible could be dodgy wiring inside the heater or even the plug shorting out when getting hot, just pray it's not the controller.

[SilverBeast]

not goner tell anyone how to suck eggs,but no one has mentioned what the run on pump is up too?

I checked it was working (I did the brushes last year, or is it the year before now? - the pictures in the Reference Library were supplied by me).

Seen Flame Outs and Flame Extinguished today, though it ran through a couple of cycles after I got home while I was sat on the drive.

I'm off skiing (yearly exercise!) for a week on Sunday so I will probably look at it some time after that, particularly if it's cold!