Prob worth trying ethanol free fuel
3-cylinder fuel economy in extreme cold
- Thread starter Mr.cant-find-his-10.5-mm
- Start date
Not sure you can get ethanol free fuel in Canada. And if it's available at all, it would be premium which would be pretty expensive for a vehicle that doesn't require it.
dad's old Ford Aerostars( had 6 or so over the years as company cars) in real cold some were okay, one or two would roast the front seats, but behind that not so much.... a couple ice fishing trips to a lake 45 min or so away... when he got home, the fish, in the bucket right behind his seat, were still frozen solid...
of course they were all basic models, with no rear heat/air/etc.
Yeah, not that. Simply it takes time to warm up coolant and to get ANY heat.
I have VW with massive interior and it takes 2min for hot air to start coming.
It is crappy engineering.
Some cars just are way over cooled for cold weather.
I've got a piece of rubber mat that I keep in the trunk of my Sentra for when it gets really cold. I use it to cover about 2/3's of the radiator. Without it, the radiator stays cold even after driving for an hour in low temps, though the engine will stay over 170f at the head where the sender is.
Once, after driving in 10f temps from Bozeman to Missoula, MT, the bottom rad hose was barely warm to touch. (And yes the thermostat was working fine in normal temps).
I've got a piece of rubber mat that I keep in the trunk of my Sentra for when it gets really cold. I use it to cover about 2/3's of the radiator. Without it, the radiator stays cold even after driving for an hour in low temps, though the engine will stay over 170f at the head where the sender is.
Once, after driving in 10f temps from Bozeman to Missoula, MT, the bottom rad hose was barely warm to touch. (And yes the thermostat was working fine in normal temps).
The problem there is not volume, but poor engineering.
There are other vehicles that have huge interiors, small engines, but no issue with heat.
Only way you can speed up that is to keep HVAC on cold and not allow coolant to circulate through heater core until certain temperature.
You should see at -20f when I started Sienna at ski place.Japanese makers and poor engineering? Can such a thing even exist?
1. Start it with ski boots still on.
2. Turn on steering heater and seat heaters (horrible speed).
3. HVAC On cold before I turned off vehicle.
5. Take boots off, etc. Take kids boots off. Kepp him in jacket and suit, well, bcs. Toyota.
6. Get in after some 10min, and rpms are still above 1,000 and coolant needle is still having clinical death episode.
7. Start driving. LUCKILY usually I would go uphill to go over Loveland Pass to I70. If Loveland Pass closed, than go downhill to get to road to Breckenridge. Well, let me tell you, that is a nightmare bcs. there is no heat, but I have to turn ventilation bcs. fogging windows.
Once it reaches temperature, it stays, but until then, it was game: how to avoid pneumonia.
I don't know about you, but it sounds like a pinnacle of engineering to me.
As many faults as my Grand Caravan has, all I have to do to warm it up is double tap the remote start button and the heated steering wheel and driver seat, as well as all defrost functions will turn on automatically for me. The HVAC will not turn the fans on until the coolant reaches I think 100F or so. I wish I could program the passenger heated seats to turn on as well, but it is what it is. The seats warm up pretty quickly anyways, so it's not a big deal.
In 10 minutes of idling the interior is usually warm enough to not fog up the windows and be all bundled up. It works equally well in 100F weather when it comes to cooling the cabin off.
No, it's actually very efficient.
The reasons are a combination of at least a couple of factors:
-all aluminum engines
-lightweight materials (engines, bodies etc.)
Back in the old days vehicles had cast iron blocks that once up to temp, would create tremendous, consistant heat.
Add to that metal oil pans, valve covers etc. all contributed to making a vehicle a heavy, gas guzzling stove on wheels.
So despite newer vehicles not creating as much heat, they are actually far more efficient than before.
What are you talking about? Nobody here compares the Sienna to some old, iron v8.
Pretty much all light duty vehicles have all aluminum engines. They have similar or better efficiency and don’t have trouble with heating up the cabin.
You’re just making excuses for Toyota’s engineering blunders.
I absolutely do not have those issues with my VW or BMW. Actually Honda Pilot is also not bad.
VW is up in heat in 2-3min, the same as BMW, and I am talking last few days, -10, -14f. Honda needs bit more time, but nothing dramatic.
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I have a remote on the VW Atlas, but the heating is so efficient, and the engine warms up so fast that I rarely use it. I hate idling vehicles.I don't know about you, but it sounds like a pinnacle of engineering to me.
As many faults as my Grand Caravan has, all I have to do to warm it up is double tap the remote start button and the heated steering wheel and driver seat, as well as all defrost functions will turn on automatically for me. The HVAC will not turn the fans on until the coolant reaches I think 100F or so. I wish I could program the passenger heated seats to turn on as well, but it is what it is. The seats warm up pretty quickly anyways, so it's not a big deal.
In 10 minutes of idling the interior is usually warm enough to not fog up the windows and be all bundled up. It works equally well in 100F weather when it comes to cooling the cabin off.
But you cannot always rely on remote start. We had one freeze episode at Denver airport after arriving, at that point I knew Sienna was going to have a short stay in our family.
The heat on the few rental, late model Jettas I had was terrible.
I had to beat them like a red-headed stepchild just to get a trickle of heat.
I admit, a BMW of any vintage is far more substantial, hence the effortless heat.
I attribute that to being RWD biased and possibly from being heavier?
VW EA888 engines have integrated exhaust manifold. They literally need 2 miles to get to the coolant operating temperature in extreme cold. That is if I keep HVAC on cold. Maybe 3-4 miles if I turn the heat to max once the needle starts to move. Not sure about renatl Jetta's and issues. I drove some Jetta's with 2.5, and definitely did not have that issue.
BMW has a lot of tricks that move temperature fast up. One of them for example, in my BMW water pump is electric and DME decides when to start to circulate coolant.
I had BMW X5 35d. Being diesel, it takes a lot of time to warm up. However, they installed an electric heater that provides heat until the coolant temperature reaches 50c. It was the best thing! I am not sure why other manufacturers cannot do something as simple as that if the vehicle has problems with heating.
That doesn’t explain why other vehicles with similar construction don’t have the same problems with heat the Sienna does. Our Grand Caravan with its all aluminum v6 gets heat faster than my iron block HEMI does in the truck. I know the truck takes 4 miles of gentle driving to go from a 12 hour 0F or colder cold soak while parked outside to “I need to turn down the heat before I burn my hands.”
-24 that has to be miserable going to work in the morning
I can't imagine a 3 cylinder engine in a car being very good for anything, especially in the cold when efficiency is expected to drop. The engine is under powered to begin with.
To be fair Volvo has never been known to have good fuel economy on any gasoline engines. Safety (weight) and reliability has always come first, very late to introduce DI.
So many other 4-cyl does that better. Honda, Audi, even Saab pre DI.