i cover slide a pc of cardboard down between radiator and grille makes a tremendous difference. I then zip tie the cardboard to the grille and just remove in the spring. They say it is due to the engine being so efficient that it doesn't generate enough heat. And saves tremendous amount of fuel from pre starting it as that doesn't seem to help much unless you restart it multiple times.
Heater does not perform well in cold temperatures
- Thread starter nizzy1115
- Start date
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- Minnesota
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- '16 Touring AWD
It's not a great heater when it's really cold. My partner's 2020 CR-V hybrid with a little 2.0 has an easier time warming his larger interior than my CX-5. As far as what I can recommend, keep the fans set to "off" (all you're doing is blowing cold air anyway) until the blue oil light disappears. This (usually) happens when the oil temp is at about 100F and the coolant is at 120F, which means you'll get noticeable warm air. If you need it on to prevent foggy windows, just keep the fan speed at 1 or 2. The auto-climate system in the CR-V works the same way, but I don't have auto-climate in my car. When it's -20F, not much you can do. It's a perfect performer heat-wise down to about 10F.
Another thing I've noticed is there's a patch in the center of my wind shield , about where the mirror is mounted, that either doesn't get hot air from the defrost setting or the air isn't getting hot enough. It chews up my wipers and is a pester when doing high speed driving in the cold.
Another thing I've noticed is there's a patch in the center of my wind shield , about where the mirror is mounted, that either doesn't get hot air from the defrost setting or the air isn't getting hot enough. It chews up my wipers and is a pester when doing high speed driving in the cold.
One thing I don't do when first using my wipers in the cold is to attempt them when there's still ice on the windshield. Once warmed up, it's all fine. But, yeah, ice is hard on blades, that's for sure.
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- Minnesota
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- '16 Touring AWD
I should clarify that this only happens while driving. I don’t use my wipers to clear my windshield of ice, I own an ice scraper/snow brush. I don’t think you could get away with living without one in Northern MN.
Same in my case, when it's 20ºF or colder. What I do, once that blue indicator light has gone off, is to drive for a few miles in "Sport" mode or a gear or two lower than normal. With revs in the 3K rpm range, the heater and defrost get quite toasty quite quickly. But if left to the car's own choices, normal lower-RPM operation doesn't "charge" the heater system very well. Of course, either will suck the fuel far more than normal, but it gets the heater hopping. This, on a 2016.5 CX-5 GT AWD.
Haven't had the thermostat or other sensors tested. At 120Kmi+, it's possible one or more of them isn't quite up to snuff on mine; don't know. Though, I suspect that the engine's efficiency and preference for more-fuel-efficient gear choices means that it doesn't pump out as much heat as some other vehicles.
I don’t use my wipers to clear my windshield of ice, I own an ice scraper/snow brush. I don’t think you could get away with living without one in Northern MN.
I use a proper scraper as well. In the few instances I have left a small bit of icing here or there, the wiper blades didn't like it at all.
So, for me it's scraper + defoster + waiting until the windshield's clear, before I begin driving. Probably the safest, though it doesn't do fuel economy any favors.
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- Minnesota
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- '16 Touring AWD
I totally agree! Unfortunately, even with the oil temp up to 200 and the coolant at 180, the defrost cannot keep that one spot "defrosted", no matter what the fan speed is set to. This doesn't happen until the temps start to dip below 0, but it is quite the annoyance. It also seems exacerbated by high driving speed, like 45 MPH or higher.
My vehicle does (2016.5 CX-5 GT). Of course, it slowly gets up to temp when outside temps are frigid, but once there it's almost never that the weather's so bad (even in a 0-10ºF blizzard) that the defost and overall cabin temp can't keep up with new icing on the windshield. Have had the car down to -12ºF or so and, even with the frosting in the mornings, once windshield icing was gone it kept gone. Have had it come back again if stopping for more than 5mins, in such cold weather, but while running and while the heater was blowing, it doesn't re-ice thankfully.
Sorry to hear your vehicle (vintage?) doesn't seem to be capable of keeping up with the bad weather, at least not northern MN.
Wish that the CX-5 had about twice the blower speed, about 50% better coverage, and a good third more overall heat. My dial needs to be cranked before it'll deliver "top" heat in the cabin. But, once there, it holds its own.
Plan B, for my travels and during the worst couple months of winter: a couple of small wool blankets, a good insulated Carhartt jacket, wool cap, heavyweight wool socks, wool gloves, winter mittens. Haven't needed insulated pants yet, but Duluth Trading has that covered if I wimp out.
I'm sure there are little differences from car to car that cause this. An older sensor here, a weaker heater control mechanism there.
N7turbo
2023 CX-5 2.5T ... 2024 MX-5 RF GT
Wow. I would be burning up. I only use the system at 20-50% capacity during the winter.
Yeah, I figure that on my car there's a sensor that's not quite up to snuff. But it works, even if mid-way on the heat dial won't deliver half the heat's ability. So, sadly I won't be fooling with it until it's a problem. But then, it is approaching 10yrs old.
