Did a search and didn't find anything.
How long does it take your Fit to make heat? My 'cold' warning light goes off in a couple three blocks, and the car eventually makes plenty of heat.

It seems to take a looooooooong time to make heat, tho'. I have an uphill run from intown to home (maybe 7 miles total), and on a cold day (20*) I don't have much heat until I am nearly home.

Is this normal, or do I have a sluggish thermostat or some other problem?
Thnx,
Moon

 

I feel mine takes a bit longer than I would hope for as well, so I don't think you're alone. It's definitely passable though. It always feels like an eternity whenever your cold!

If it's cold enough outside I'll go and start the car and let it warm up for 5 minutes before hopping in.

It doesn't help that you gotta keep the RPM's down while that 'cold' light on, I think someone said under 3,000 - 3,500 is ideal.

 

Normal. The Cold light goes off pretty quickly but it still blows cold air for a couple of minutes.

My guess is the light goes off when the car's only a tiny bit warm (like when the thermostat first opens), then the coolant has to go through the heater core, warm that up, then everything that warmer air blows through on the way to your feet is still cold and takes some heat away from that air... only when everything is warm do you get warm air.

You're the last step in the process.

And I've noticed that even when it's warm air blowing, I still have to have the fan on 3 or 4 for probably 10 or 20 minutes before it's warm enough to turn down to 1, as that warm air has to warm the whole car, otherwise the cold air in the back is still sucking heat away from my feet.

Oh, I noticed that even when I have it set on floor only, some air blows through the dashboard vents. I'm okay with that as long as I'm not using the dashboard cup-holder. So I plan to keep that one vent closed all winter.

 

I'm pretty sure it does that to keep some warm air blowing on the window to keep condensation down.

 

Yeah, I prefer the higher, round cupholder in front of the side vent, and those vents are in fact always on unless the louvers are shut.
An old 1200cc Civic I had would actually drop down out of the operating range on a long downhill in cold weather. OTOH, my bride's panzer is making heat about two minutes after you start it. Not sure how it manages that; maybe a heating coil around the exhaust manifold or the turbo.
Anyway, any way to speed up the process? Mask the front grille?
Moon

 

I can't remember the exact temperature that the light goes out but it is close to or a little over 150 degrees and on cooler days the temperature will max out around 170... It was 85 degrees here yesterday and my scan gauge was showing 173 when fully warmed.... The cooling fan kicks in around 208 degrees.... European cars are much quicker to warm up than the Fit which warms up a little faster than a 4.3 liter GM V6.

 

I would imagine your Wife's Audi has a turbo with an oil and coolant plumbed center housing rotating assembly. This would help bring up coolant temps faster. The throttle probably has an FIAV and the oil filter housing likely has coolant run through to help get the car to operating temp faster. Besides cold oil is bad for bearings/piston rings/valve guides/cams etc.

And the car doesn't run as efficiently cold, typically wasting more fuel as it does not atomize as well.

 

It crosses my mind that the emissions may be reduced by getting the temp up quicker. Gotta be better for the machinery as well, and in any case, Her Ladyship is more troubled by the cold than I am, and she has heated seats to boot. I at least got heated grips on the snowblower....

Now, all that said, any way to get the Fit to warm up a little quicker?
Moon

 

You could install an engine block heater, or if your car is garaged you could look into insulating the space better or adding some heat.

 

Alright, here's the scoop from someone that is ASE certified and works on cars for a living

The heater core uses the engine coolant to dissipate heat into ambient air which is blown into the cabin. When cold, the engine coolant circulates around the engine block until it reaches a certain temperature at which point the thermostat opens. The "cold" light will go out around 70*C (according to my scan tool) but the thermostat will open at around 180*F. The coolant WILL FLOW into the heater core before the thermostat opens. Our systems have a manual heater valve which opens up the heater part of the coolant circuit to the engine block passages when you turn the temp knob to HEAT.

As for speeding things up, there's really not much you can do other than warm your car up before you drive (as i do, even in FL). I do have one tip though, while warming your car up, leave the temp control knob on COLD while it sits then when you enter the car go to max heat. Essentially the heater core acts as a second radiator so if you have the temp knob on full heat and the blower on max while it's sitting "warming up" you're actually preventing it from doing so faster as your blowing cold air past the heater core while the engine is trying to heat up the coolant.

Hope this helps/clarifies.

edit: I also don't think your "warm up" time is long, as these engines produce little heat and most hondas in general take forever to heat up (drive a EK civic and you know what i'm talkin about). If your thermostat was defective and jammed open it'd take a good 15 minutes of driving for it to ever get warm.

 

i concur.

 

I have been wondering about this myself: recirc. vs. fresh air, fan speed 1 vs max, temperature knob on cold vs/hot. I think I'll stick with recirc., and will keep it on cold from now on, but what's the best fan speed? Thanks.

BTW for the OP, the Fit also takes quite a while to get warm using my methods, so don't expect any miracles with this either, but it definitely helps.

 

Never paid attention. It should be pretty quick relatively speaking. I would guess the Heater is "Old school" and hooked in line with the Engine's cooling system and it a small engine and small radiator, it should heat up quickly. Defrosting is almost immediate. I live in SF Bay Area and it really does not get to cold here.

 

My garage is not truly 'heated', but it is well above ambient. Tonight it is 50* in the garage and 22* outside. Problem occurs whether starting from the garage or starting after the car has had a cold soak sitting outside somewhere. I don't see a block heater really helping.
We got my daughter a remote starter, as her car sits outside (seniority does have its privileges...), while the Jeep sits in the 'barn'.
Back to the question-
I've experimented with the 'recirc' setting in the Honda as well, and it does hasten the warmup.
Think I will look at masking some of the radiator inlet. The other week, it was clogged with snow (!) and the car seemed to warm up much quicker, which is what started this thought process....
Moon

 

Here in VT where it's been down to single Digits already, it takes from 5 min (around 32*) to 15 min (around 8*) to start blowing anything I would consider "warm" air. Remember that also, the heater has to heat the plastic tubing up (from the heater core) up to each of the vents. I agree that turning the heat off at the switch will help warm up the engine quicker.

~SB

 

I actually dont think the heater is that bad in these cars for the tiny engine. My old civic took quite a bit longer to warm up.

 

When I had my scangauge, I think my cold light went off between 123 -125. If I'm really wanting heat, while the vehicle is warming up, I hold the rpm's between 2500 & 3000. It's not immediate heat, but it heats up noticeably faster. I've debated on blocking off half of the radiator as well. Damned small engines.

 

Small engines heat up and cool down much quicker than big ones... That prevents water condensation in the crankcase by allowing it to dissipate more quickly... I have to drive about a half mile before it is necessary to drive over 10 or 20 MPH.. Unless the temperature is below freezing that is far enough that I can turn the heater temperature knob on, set the fan in the 1 position and feel heat coming out of the vents, if below freezing just a little longer .... I always start driving as soon as I start the motor but do so with a light foot on the throttle and with the revs low.... It is better to slowly drive around the block a couple of times in a residential area with light traffic at a slow speed to get the drive train lubricants circulating and the engine oil to warm up before having to get up to driving speed in faster moving traffic than it is to let the car sit and idle to warm up and then just take off and drive... If you are to turn on the defrosters the AC is also going to come on to dry out the air being directed toward the windshield. This means that the cooling fan will be turned on also unless you have disconnected the wire that bridges the AC and defroster switch.. This will cause longer warm up time and only cold air from the AC will be coming into your car ....

 

You can tell he is old. Believes in not idling a car to warm it up. I agree 100%. Just ticks me when neighbours running their pollution machines in their driveways.

Now heat. I have driven real old cars etc. The old V8s took forever to warm up. I find the Fit OK for spewing heat in a relative short distance. It is winter people. It takes time for any car to heat up. Geez these kids that want it now.

 

I used to disconnect the automatic chokes on air cooled VWs and some other cars to prevent dumping too much fuel into the cylinders while they warmed.. The accelerator pump would squirt enough fuel to start and in a minute or so you could drive off even on the coldest day... On old British motorcycles there where ticklers that pushed the floats down in the bowl on the carburetor(s) and slightly flooded the intake passage so it would start when you kicked it through so they had to idle for a little while before you could take off... Electronic fuel injection has made sitting and warming up a vehicle unnecessary before driving off...... I wonder if anyone under 40 could live without fast food, microwavable food or cell phones.... I had to get serious about cooking when I dated younger women because none of them could cook, they only drank diet drinks and had health problems from binging on fast food and then not eating for days or ate all the time and took laxatives, puked or got fat.... There was one Irish girl 19 years younger than me that lived with me a few years that was a damned good cook but I could hardly understand a word she said.... She was from Boston.