The heater is on

[dgly]

As I live here in the northeast I am subject to the single digit temperatures (yeah). Ive been noticing a difference in the time it takes for my 96 Pathfinder to warm up and blow hot/warm air vs my g/f 92 Ford Explorer.

 

In the moring with both cars at same time since last driven (night before) it would take approx 15 minutes for semi-hot air to blow out of my vents. The 92 explorer will blow Dante's Inferno style sahara dessert heat easily within 8 - 10 minutes.

 

So... anyone else noticing P/Fs taking this long..... any suggestions other than to let the car heat up longer or buy a pair of mittens?

[MaritimeMan]

You can always install a block heater. You'd get hot air in about 3 min with one of those.

[Precise1]

My guess is that the exploder is trying to live up to its name and runs near critical mass temperatures. No, really, my pathy warms up slowly, and the heat temp increases incrementally so I wonder if there is a thermostat in there or if it is stuck open. The bright side is that it runs fairly cool in the summer...

 

Bernard

[k9sar]

2 degrees this morning. My pathy warmed up fine but was blowing cold air. Checked the upper radiator hose and it was obviously pressurized so I knew my thermostat wasn't open yet. Piece-o-crap aftermarket thing I threw in there... anyway, I let her sit for a few more minutes and watched the temp needle drop off to nearly C and I knew that I was now circulating. Took another few minutes to warm enough to throw something other than snow out the vents, Total time was about 15 min.

[94extreme]

mine starts blowing warm air within a couple of minutes... the trick is to flip the lever to recirculate while it's warming up. then to drive flip back to fresh air.... enjoy....

[Mr. Pickles]

On a somewhat related note, the few Ford's I've been associated with have warmed up suprisingly fast. Had a buddy with a Tempo years back, and my brother's Mustang. They both seemed to get down to it. We had temps in the upper teens-low 20's and it would take a good 8-10 min. to heat up, by which time I was almost at work.