Hello all, living north of Phila,PA. Outside temp"s around 13deg with high wind chill. My base MINI with 3-cyl engine takes close to 12 miles to reach max engine temp on gauge, is this the norm out there? heater works fine during this time but then works outstanding once engine reaches optimum temp.
Thanks for your input. Jeff

 

Takes mine about the same.

 

I'm in Colorado and we've been at the same temps and even below 0. The engine does take a while to warm up. I bought an OBD2 reader that will show temps in degrees and it confirms the slow warmup. The explanation I heard is the engine is so finely machined that there is little friction, hence the long warmups.

Glad to have the seat heaters.

 

The answer is in this question: Why does it take more hot water to make cold water hot than it takes cold water to make hot water cold? Thermodynamics. Heat travels TO cold and the colder it is the harder heat has to work figuratively speaking. Then you plug in the distance/rate/time equation. Instead of having hot air 5 miles from home it goes to 10 miles or more.

 

No. There is no metal to metal contact. There is heat generated from friction but it is the friction of oil molecules.

It just takes time to bring a considerable sized lump of what is essentially cold metal, filled with cold oil and surrounded by cold water, up to running temperature (approx. 200F).

Even on mild days I have monitored engine coolant temperature and more recently with my new Challenger R/T Scat Pack (which can display "gauges" showing coolant and oil temperatures on the LCD in the center stack) and it can take some engine run time before the engine is up to temperature. In some cases 10 minutes or so.

Neither one of my Porsches had heated seats. My Challenger has heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Nice. I must be getting soft as I age.

My JCW doesn't have heated seats or a heated steering wheel.

But all 4 cars came with auto climate control. This is a really nice system. In auto mode -- even if the A/C compressor isn't on -- when one starts a cold engine the climate controller dials down the cabin vent fan speed so one doesn't get blasted with cold air. As the engine runs, and gains some heat, the climate controller ups the cabin vent fan speed a bit and one feels some warm air.

As one continues to drive more cabin vent fan speed is dialed in and before one knows the cabin is up to temperature.

 

Engine temp shouldn't reach, max, right? lol. You mean in the center.
I noticed that the instrument cluster shows OK pointing center even when it hasn't reached 180F. After long enough drives, I see coolant at 220F, and oil 210F. I have a F56 by the way.

 

I'm just down the road and notices the same thing on my 2.0 S. I, too am thankful for heated seats!

 

I changed out my heated seats for Sparcos. The little car warms up so fast I haven't missed them.

 

for the 2 weeks of negative temps (as the high) Im glad for those seats. They get hot fast. Almost to the point of painfully hot

I did notice it took about 15-20mins before I noticed warm air coming from the vents though