So, while this seems like something that I should be able to figure out myself, I thought I would ask you guys too...
I'm living in Minnesota (near Saint Paul). My wife and I carpool and we take her car (she can't drive stick and usually needs the car for the day), which is a Jetta TDI. The problem is that when it's cold, like -20F (-29C), or even 0F (-18C), it's really cold in the car, and the car doesn't warm up easily. If you stop at a stop light, you lose a tick or two on the temp gauge, especially if you have the heater fan on more than the minimal setting. I can easily drive the 20 miles from home to work without ever hitting the "normal" 190F operating temp. The question is, what's the best way to warm a diesel? Obviously idling doesn't do it. It's got a "manu-mattic" transmission, so I have been manually shifting and revving to about 3k before I shift (redline is 4500) and keeping it out of 6th gear. Today I was wondering if that was the best way to do it. Would putting it in the highest gear as soon as possible and using large throttle openings get the car to warm up faster? Since it's still an automatic, I can't shift much earlier than normal "D" driving, but I can do it a little earlier. I've found that I get it warmer faster than just driving in "D" with the 3k shifting, but that's not good enough. :-) If anyone else knows the answer, that doesn't involve blocking the radiator, please let me know. Thanks! Mark _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower
