Takes forever for the car to warm up ??

[erhayes]

Mine heats up really quick to. )

 

[CX-SV]

Mine heats up normally, but so far I have not experienced anything below 30degree F in the CX-5.

 

[GAXIBM]

Hey GAXIBM can you take a picture of your CX-5 front view. Just want to see what you got there. And where u got those cover?

I said IF I lived in the cold north. We have bugs down here so you can look at the "how to" section about "Bug Screen" using pet screen and see pictures of the front of my CX-5.

 

[tobeychris]

I live in Toronto and commute 50km to work. It has been anywhere from 0 to -20C around here the last few weeks.

I have not had any problems with the car heating up. I have it set to +20C on the automatic settings of my GT w/Tech and it will take a few minutes before it turns the fans on, but once the engine is warm it kicks in and I warm up very quickly.

The only thing missing is a heated steering wheel.

 

[pjensen641]

If I lived in the cold north, I would block at least half of the radiator airflow for the winter season when you put on winter tires. If you notice the front of long haul trucks you will often see plastic covers over most of the radiator in winter weather and they have a large engine, but it works better if the coolant does not get so cold. It also improves mileage as do active shutters which a lot of trucks and new cars (new Mazda 3 top trim) now have.

I just blocked the entire lower half of the grill (black bumper area) with black Coroplast (corrugated plastic) and black zip ties. Put it out in front of the grill. Being black plastic, you don't even notice it. Seems to have cut my warm up time in half, but I am still monitoring.

 

[brandini]

Just a tip, for aerodynamic reasons you want to block the top off first and go lower as you need more. Also, without a gauge to watch actual coolant temps I'd be wary of doing the blockoff since modern-day stock needles have a quite large dead spot to reduce the visual movement and prevent panicking for those that don't know any better.

So just beware, if the needle moved higher than normal, the water temp is not just a little higher than it should be, it's a LOT higher. Center dead spot is probably a 40degree range.

 

[phoned]

Even better when the CX5 has no gauge at all, so you may be crazy off.

 

[pjensen641]

Just a tip, for aerodynamic reasons you want to block the top off first and go lower as you need more. Also, without a gauge to watch actual coolant temps I'd be wary of doing the blockoff since modern-day stock needles have a quite large dead spot to reduce the visual movement and prevent panicking for those that don't know any better.

So just beware, if the needle moved higher than normal, the water temp is not just a little higher than it should be, it's a LOT higher. Center dead spot is probably a 40degree range.

I wanted to do the upper half, but not on the outside for appearance sake. Problem is that the damn cover over top of the radiator is permanently riveted on with 4 to 5 small rivets. Didn't feel like drilling them out.

I have no worries about engine temp overheating. The cabin heater is still slow to get to the real effective point (though better). Also, the lower half of the grill is maybe only 40% of the area. Add to the fact that I did it in front of the grill, so the air coming in the upper half can still make its way to the lower portion of the Rad, eliminating any hot spots. The air will tend to travel down anyway, since most of the air exits through the bottom of the engine compartment.

The cooling capacity is meant for running in the hottest locations the vehicle is sold. I am certain that I'm good to go.

 

[howlin4you]

This topic seems odd to me. The car takes a little longer to warm up than our other car and past cars (a Trailblazer and a Dakota) but that always made sense to me (as was previously pointed out its a small 4 cylinder). What my wife and I have both noticed however is just how much warmer it is once warmed up. We live in Wisconsin, not quite as consistently cold as the Canadians but still darn cold, and we normally run the thermostat at the 12 o'clock position or else its too hot in the car. The Trailblazer we have and the Dakota we used to have would require 3/4 or full heat for a far longer drive time to keep us warm on the coldest days. I'm sure the CX-5 is sealed up much tighter than either of those trucks but it's more than just that, the air out of the vent is noticeably warmer. I've always assumed the difference is a more efficient design in the Mazda (providing more cabin heat with less engine supplied heat). So it's odd to me that people would mention the car doesn't warm up since that is completely opposite of my experience. It would be interesting if a few of us took thermometers to the vent and posted the results (along with run time and outside air temp). That way we could rule out our individual perception of heat and look at it a little scientifically. I wonder if we'd find that different models or years don't warm up as nicely.

 

[pjensen641]

This topic seems odd to me. The car takes a little longer to warm up than our other car and past cars (a Trailblazer and a Dakota) but that always made sense to me (as was previously pointed out its a small 4 cylinder). What my wife and I have both noticed however is just how much warmer it is once warmed up. We live in Wisconsin, not quite as consistently cold as the Canadians but still darn cold, and we normally run the thermostat at the 12 o'clock position or else its too hot in the car. The Trailblazer we have and the Dakota we used to have would require 3/4 or full heat for a far longer drive time to keep us warm on the coldest days. I'm sure the CX-5 is sealed up much tighter than either of those trucks but it's more than just that, the air out of the vent is noticeably warmer. I've always assumed the difference is a more efficient design in the Mazda (providing more cabin heat with less engine supplied heat). So it's odd to me that people would mention the car doesn't warm up since that is completely opposite of my experience. It would be interesting if a few of us took thermometers to the vent and posted the results (along with run time and outside air temp). That way we could rule out our individual perception of heat and look at it a little scientifically. I wonder if we'd find that different models or years don't warm up as nicely.

Interesting. My 2013 seems to take about 15 minutes of highway driving for the heater to actually get "hot". After about 20 minutes, I start to think about dialing back on the temp control. Its warm after maybe 5 minutes of town driving and another 5 minutes on the highway, just not hot. I wonder if the larger engine heats up quicker. Its also possible that I have a marginal thermostat. I've started a topic to see about an ECU data logger to get some real data.

This whole warm up thing for me is maybe half annoyance due to comfort, and the other half due to the 15% reduction if fuel econ that I am seeing.

 

[erhayes]

Do those who complain not using the recirculation mode?

 

[pjensen641]

Typically we have to run the defroster up here in the north land in order to keep windows from fogging up in the AM. The defroster does not allow recirc so that it can pull in dry outside air. So you are correct, very little recirc for me. Haven't noticed a huge difference when I do use it, other than my windows start to fog.

 

[GAXIBM]

The temp dashboard lights give you four states: Blue = cold - allow to warm before heavy load, no light = good running temp, red flashing = hot - reduce engine load & check soon, red solid = too hot - shut it down now and let it cool while you figure out what is causing the problem...

 

[pjensen641]

So after taking some data, it appears that the Blue light goes off around 130-140 degrees. The engine thermostat opens at 170. When I start from cold and drive around town here (ambient ~15F) it struggles to get past 150 degrees. I assume that is due to having the heater blasting on high. Anyway, it seems like blocking off the lower half of the grill was certainly not too extreme and I maybe could go further. The maximum engine temp I saw was 175F after 20 miles on the highway. It hovered between 170 and 175.

I may go ahead and try blocking off the upper half instead. I'll leave a couple holes to let some air through.

 

[minnesotaart]

This is an amazing thread to me. Mine heats up right away...the fan starts blowing by the time I am down to the end of my street (1/2 mile). It's cold here this AM (-15F), but it heated right up on my way to work and I was at the set temp (72) in no time. Must be that the GT w/Tech does a better job of managing the system? Not sure. But I DO know that this vehicle has WAY more heat than my 2002 V6 Escape did. I should also note that I am a "get-in-it-start-it-and-go" type of driver; I never warm up my vehicles and I've never had a problem from not doing so. I am completely satisfied with the heat the CX-5 puts out and the speed with which it heats up.

 

[Woodys2718]

I saw -14 F when I pulled into work this morning. I had backed down my fan speed to 2 with plenty of heat coming from the vents.

Sunday night we are to see -20 F. I'll report back Monday morning.

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[CX5Dude]

Minus 30 here in Ottawa, Canada. If I use the fan on speed 4, I get cool air, however if I use it on speed 2, it's plenty warm. The cold air is passing over the heater core passes way to quickly on speed 4 to capture the heat while on speed 2, it passes the core more slowly thus it has time to gather the heat. To help keep the windows defrosted, crack the driver and passenger window open 1/4 inch. This will evacuate your warm moist breath while driving. Also, if its not snowing, leave them cracked open to avoid the glass from icing over due to the leftover moist air in the car when parked.

In the extreme heat of the summer, speed 4 doesn't allow for adequate cooling as it needs to capture the cool of the ac unit. Speed 2 will provide better cooling.

Cheers and think warm thoughts!

 

[Nikoman]

All, please realize this is a small 4 cylinder engine. I've owned dozens of cars including a used car dealer in IL. Similar to other small displacement Japanese cars (i.e. Honda) they take a while to heat the heater core and never blow super hot air, period. Deal with it or go buy a V6 or V8 something or premium vehicle. This is a $30k CUV. I live in Chicago and have no issues. It does take a minute or two longer than my last car (audi) but not a major difference.

Some advice:

- Don't turn auto on until after a few minutes. The fan will blow through the heater core and cool down the "warm" anti freeze even quicker thus making is take longer to heat up.
- Get a cover in the trunk to segment that space from the cabin. It helps with climate control in general. it won't obviously fix the temperature directly from the heater as some seemed concerned with.

 

[bluefan]

Being here in Winnipeg that's pretty much Canada's cold spot that has life, there's only a few things I do to heat things up quickly.

1, plug in whenever you can. This helps heats up the car and ergo the cabin much more quickly.

2, Keep fan/vents off for at least a few minutes after you start driving.

3, CX-5 keeps the last setting of your heat seater after you turn off the engine, use that to your advantage

 

[TreyP]

All, please realize this is a small 4 cylinder engine. I've owned dozens of cars including a used car dealer in IL. Similar to other small displacement Japanese cars (i.e. Honda) they take a while to heat the heater core and never blow super hot air, period. Deal with it or go buy a V6 or V8 something or premium vehicle.

Sorry, not buying it. My girlfriend's 4 cylinder Subaru has blasting hot heat within 5 minutes or so, and my stepson's Saturn also has no problems like my CX-5 does.

I drove 30 minutes to work this week and there was still a streak of ice on the windshield, and that was after 5-7 minutes of warming up as well.