Recently purchased a 2004 Mazda3s as a second car, and now that it's very cold outside I have noticed that the heat doesn't come on until the car has been running for several minutes. It doesn't seem to matter whether you let it idle or if you are driving, either way it seems like it takes forever when it's a cold morning. I thought maybe that the climate control is designed to let the engine reach a certain temperature before allowing the heat to be run, but I've never run across another car that was designed that way. I have the manual climate control, with three separate *****. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance,

-Ryan

 

hmmm.... if its a somewhat cold day (still above freezing), i can get my car warmed up in about 1/2 km of driving. or usually about halfway to school.

lately, its been taking almost twice as long. my car is finally warm when i park my car. which is really pointless now lol

 

oh, and my car is standard, so i find shifting really late in first and second, ie, around 5,000 - 5,500 rpm, helps warm the car up a bit faster.

 

Even though the car is still young. Your heater core may be a little clogged up. To say that when the coolant is supposed run thru full flow, it is not. Maybe just trickling thru and warming up thru diffusion. Coolant flush is in order since the car is used and most owners who have leased the car, would never bother flushing it.

 

Maybe I should clarify this a bit, its not that the heat gradually warms up or is slow to warm up, its that the fan doesn't kick on until the car decides the engine is warm. At that point the air coming out of the vents is plenty warm, the problem is driving and waiting for the car to turn on the fan. Does that make sense? Is that the normal operation of the heater in a Mazda3s?

Thanks,

 

ok, i dont have that problem.

if i start up my car, and immediately turn on my fan, all i get is cold air.

 

You should have that checked out. That's not normal. The air should start blowing right when you turn thefan speedknobon.

 

Bad idea!!VERY bad idea. I realize you are leasing your car, D, but running it up to redline (or near) before you have oil tempwill cause excessive wear on bearings, rods bearings,pistons and cylinder walls.You shouldn't even try that until everything is fully up to temp and has had a chance to expand properly.
It sounds like you don't even get your car to that point on your trip to school. If I were you, I'd be keeping the R's down around 3K and less under those circumstances.
I drive mine like that for at least the first 5-8 miles... then beat the crap out of it (if I'm in the mood.)

And bikeryan, you def have a problem there. The fan should come on as soon as it's asked to.

 

thats wat i thought also..on a cold morning my car starts at around or less than 2 rpm. then i let it come down to 1k... at this point the car is still cold, but if i wait for the temp level to read even 2 bars over the cold level, it would take forever (10 mins).. am i also hurting the car? should i wait until it gets to normal temp? or am i good to go once the rpm drops to 1k?

 

Don't confuse water temp w/oil temp.
Here's what I do based on what I know (read, experienced, heard, etc...) I start the car and usually let it idle down. More than that and you are just wasting gasoline (Zero mpg.) Put the car in gear and gently, normallypull out, shifting into second around 2K-2.5K and I keep doing that until I'vereached normalwater temp for at least a few minutes indicating that the oil temp is coming, or has also come up. Oil temp takes longer than water temp. A gauge would be best, but most cars don't come w/one and since this is my daily driver, not my daily race car, I have not yet installed one.
I don't think you are hurting your car, SPeeDy. Just take it easy until the car has had some time to properly warm up. The racers take great care to do that. Why shouldn't we?