Its Cold.

[Dj_Sim]

You know the story.

Wake up in the morning,

Its 1 above freezing and you want the heater to warm up.

I have a 2006 alfa 147 Ti (facelift model) its the 1.6 t spark same as the lusso.

Now the heater takes forever to heat up. at least 2 miles of town driving.

Do you guys have this problem?

[Wombat Rick]

2 miles doesn't sound bad to me to be honest but if the car is generally taking a long time to warm up and/or the temp gauge is never reaching middle on the dial in normal use it would be worth replacing the thermostat.

Presume oil and coolant levels are as they should be?

[Dj_Sim]

Its brand new almost,
13000 miles on the clock.

Its just had its 1st service and nothing came up bad.

Temps do take a while to rise and in the 1st 10 mins i dont go over 3k so its probaly that.

I use the one button demist thing.

[Wombat Rick]

Dj_Sim said:

Temps do take a while to rise

Just keep an eye on it. In normal use the temp gauge should be bang on middle (90). If it's still new and low miles PLEASE check your oil at least every 1000 miles.


The one button demist thing is great!

[Dj_Sim]

Its good but i wish the TI came with heated screen in the front.

Scraping ice is gaybar

[DamienCBR]

Mine takes a couple of miles with the air con on.

D

[pdV6]

Dj_Sim said:

Its good but i wish the TI came with heated screen in the front.

Scraping ice is gaybar

It would have to be a Ford group car for it to do that.

[Dj_Sim]

Ahh does it work better with the air con on ?

[pdV6]

Misted screen will clear faster with the a/c on, but for ice you need heat.

[Wombat Rick]

Dj_Sim said:

Ahh does it work better with the air con on ?

Just keep it on all the time. It switches off below (I think) 4 degrees anyway. Ideally you should have the climate control set to full auto, snowflake button on and then just leave it to it's own devices and just adjust the temperature up and down. It works really well if you leave it alone!!

[Dj_Sim]

Wicked i like big carbon foot prints.

[DamienCBR]

I was on the understanding that aircon also worked to heat up quicker as well as cool down quicker.

D

[Dj_Sim]

Ahh thats intresting to know.

Ill give it ago when i leave work.

[bint]

pdV6 said:

Dj_Sim said:

Its good but i wish the TI came with heated screen in the front.

Scraping ice is gaybar

It would have to be a Ford group car for it to do that.

Apparently the sole patent ownership is due to end/due for renewal soon - can't remember the jargon, but essentially that it'll be open for other manufacturers to utilise if they wished.

Oh and air con and the de mist button that also puts wing mirrors on heat, should help with the problem - doesn't take mine 2 miles!

[Dj_Sim]

what do you mean ford group?

Dont other cars have heated screens like Renault's?

[DamienCBR]

Dj_Sim said:

what do you mean ford group?

Dont other cars have heated screens like Renault's?

Correct!

the patent is owned by the Ford Motor group hence only their cars have it, and have done for a long time.

Range Rover had them not sure if still do
Jaguar
Fords

D

[Dj_Sim]

its not true.

renaults have heated screens

[DamienCBR]

Dj_Sim said:

its not true.

renaults have heated screens

Really?

As in has the heated filament running through the glass like the rear window on all cars?

Never knew that.
D

[Avocet]

Heated screens have been around for years. I doubt very much that Ford could have patented the principle - although there might be something peculiar in the construction of theirs that's patentable.

As for the car warming up faster with the aircon on, I've heard that too but am not sure how it could work. Anyone got any ideas? I was wondering if it was because of the extra work that the engine had to do to drive the A/C system which, in turn, would warm it up faster but the trouble with that theory is that when it's really cold (someone said below 4 Celcius) the system won't work anyway!

I also wondered whether (above 4 degrees) the fact that the aircon dries the incoming air would make it heat up quicker because the heater matrix is only heating up air rather than air and water vapour. The trouble with that is that (a) it will be heating it from a lower temperature to start with and (b) if it DID have to heat water vapour, that would end up inside the car as extra heat anyway (albeit misting the car up).

So I'm confused!

[Wombat Rick]

Dj_Sim said:

its not true.

renaults have heated screens

Are you sure? They have those funny heat reflective ones but I didn't think they had heated ones?