[Gabriel]

Your issue could be in connection with the thermostat and/or the coolant temperature sensor .Your thermostat shouldn't open until the coolant inside the block reaches the proper temperature . Recently I drove to Detroit and didn't get the hot air as usual . Finally the check engine light came on . Once returned to my shop I scanned the computer and the result was indicating a coolant sensor malfunction . I went ahead and changed the sensor , the thermostat and coolant (which was due anyway) and now even in the coldest days that we had recently I get hot air within 3-4 km of driving , that provided that I just turn the engine and leave , not let it idle for minutes .

(01-26-2011, 05:12 AM)Mystake Wrote: with the super cold weather and windchill we're having, its taking longer for my engine to get up to temp (upwards of 10 minutes of driving) and by that point I'm at school and parked.

I have a block heater, but the parking lot's power source is on a timer so it doesn't always coincide with when I go out to the car. Once the car is up to temp, if I turn the heat on too high it won't maintain engine temperature and the air actually starts to get cooler.

until car reaches operating temp, I don't turn the heat on too, in case someone was going to mention this as an idea to get the car to heat up faster.

the windchill we had went as low as -40 overnight here, yikes! (and I'm aware that windchill only affects how fast something will cool down, not the point at which it'll cool down to)

is there a cardboard-on-the-radiator equivalent for the focus?