Takes forever for the car to warm up ??

[pjensen641]

I have the entire lower grill and half of the upper grill blocked with Black Coroplast. I did some datalogging today. 0F ambient temp. Intake temps remained within a few degrees of ambient. The coolant temp never went over 175 degrees. After 20 miles, I pulled in to my garage and popped the hood. The upper radiator hose was only warm. I could grab it and hold on to it indefinitely, so not hot. I also felt the intake manifold and area around the throttle body. Still very cold (as expected by intake temps).

So my conclusion here is that I don't have an issue with my thermostat. The radiator hose would have been hot if the T-stat was letting water through. Basically, the 2 liter engine is just that efficient. If I am running the heater fan on high, it drops the normal operating temp from 175 to 165, which is below the t-stat temp (177 to 182 according to service manual). Essentially the heater is able to take most of the cooling load.

I believe that blocking the grill has helped warm up a little. My blue light now goes off within about 2-3 miles of town driving.

 

[Nikoman]

TreyP, I have a wiper freezing problem to but the air is warm. Our climates are about the same and I have no issues. Drove tonight in below zero weather and only warmed it up for 3 minutes. I had hot air after about 4 minutes of driving. Perhaps your perception is different or your CX-5 is different, can't really say...

 

[GAXIBM]

Touring with manual air controls vs GT with automatic air may be different design for heat?

 

[MikeM.]

I notice that both responders who are happy with the heat both have GT/GS models. I know the controls are different from my Touring, so maybe the plumbing behind them is also different?

I have the touring model with the 2.0L engine and it does warm up slower than my Volvo S80 T6 (inline 6 with twin turbos) but I think that is to be expected since it is burning so much less fuel. But when it does warm up it's hotter than I need, even when it's only 15 degrees F outside.

 

[Rob Ciniello]

I have 2014 gs. It heats up after 5 mins or so beautifully. This week was -20- -30 here in Toronto. I do leave it parked in a garage tho. But even after work where it is parked outside for 8 hrs it's fine.

 

[davegt]

So after a few months of winter driving I found a few thing that help with the temp. leaving the fan off during warm up helps a lot. and not using the high 4 setting. I have noticed when I was driving and I put the fan on 4 the temp light would come back on. keeping it a 2 or 3 seems to be the best for hot air. the 4 cylinder tiny engine is prob the main reason for the heat prob. my last vehicle was jeep liberty and that thing would start throwing heat before I had all the snow cleaned off..lol All of these points were mentioned in previous posts ( Thanks for the responses). Also with cheap thin carpet on the floors and thin head liners...(lightweight everything for that matter) heat will leave the car in a hurry. Off topic... the all wheel drive system in these cars are great in the deep snow and the ice. I have been able to get around a lot better than most of the other awd vehicles is see on the rd.