Engine warm-up FAIL

[user removed]

Today I had operating temp indicated in 1.2 miles (just below the middle of the temp gauge). The needle passed the minimum range on the gauge in half that. No sense in running the defroster until you get close to normal temp.

I used to pull the electrical connection off the ac compressor to keep it from running in the winter.

regards
mech

[Xist]

Today was the first day that I drove to work with the vent on. The cold used to not bother me, but I did not care to have cold air blow on me.

Why would I heat up the air?

[Striker2237]

(reads thread shamefully while thinking about the 10 min remote start protocol used whenever its time to go somewhere)

[Frank Lee]

You can reform- better late than never.

[Miller88]

Originally Posted by Striker2237

(reads thread shamefully while thinking about the 10 min remote start protocol used whenever its time to go somewhere)

Remote starters are evil! I need to disconnect the one on my Jeep. It drains the battery after a few weeks. One day it started on its own and ran for a few hours. I discovered it when I walked out to go to work and my Jeep was running - it burnt through 1/4 tank of gas!

Never though to run recirc to get heat inside quicker - I wonder if that's why it takes so long for the heater to get hot? The car comes up to temperature in a reasonable amount of time ... but it's still trying to heat outside air. I'll have to try recirc.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Cobb

You know, the crack the window does work for reduce or eliminate the inside fogging...

That's because - as been said in a different context - it's not the heat, it's the humidity. You're exhaling a lot of moisture, which condenses on the cold glass. Open the window, most of that gets sucked outside. And, if the humidity outside is fairly low, the air flow will sublimate the condensation away without melting it.

If you think going to work in the morning is bad (for condensation, I'm not getting into other issues :-)), try getting into a cold vehicle with two energetic dogs, panting heavily after an afternoon of cross-country skiing. Opening the window a crack doesn't work, it needs to be at least halfway to do any good.

PS: And, from this morning's news, another costly side effect of idling cars to warm them up:

... when it's consistently cold in the morning, we see more and more people getting their vehicles stolen as criminals like to go around neighborhoods looking for targets of vehicles idling in driveways."

http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/st...Fm38nmxRg.cspx

[Striker2237]

OMG! THAT'S IT! I can use the recirc to have heat sooner! No more having to remote start for 10 min or being forced to deal with ice cold air for the first 10min of driving!

[Cobb]

I stand by my statement as I tried it again. I run the heat with the car cold as its still warmer than the outside air while sucking outside air. It seems to read operating tem about 3 minutes quicker on outside vs inside air.

Originally Posted by Striker2237

OMG! THAT'S IT! I can use the recirc to have heat sooner! No more having to remote start for 10 min or being forced to deal with ice cold air for the first 10min of driving!

[Striker2237]

Thats good to know! When I'm done driving for the first 5ish miles and turn the heat on lowest fan setting my temp drops from 194 to 130ish, sometimes lower if its colder outside and it take a mile or two more to recover and if I stop then it goes quite cold on the gauge again

[Miller88]

Turns out, for some reason, Ford doesn't allow recirc and defrost at the same time.