Slow to warm up - What's the reason?

[Thymeclock]

Apparently I'm not the only one who finds the Aveo very slow to warm up, especially for such a small car. I'd like to hear all possible reasons that might be contributing to this.

I can think of several possibilities, but there may be more:

1. Relatively low temp of the original thermostat.

2. Relatively low spark plug temp of originals. (Hotter plugs might be better.)

3. An unusually large capacity of the oil system. (It holds at least 5 full quarts.)

[petrified.rabbit]

those are all common to european market (imho)..

if your talking about the passenger cabin, i think it is the "proximity" of the heater core hoses within the system. if that makes sense.

if you are talking about operating temperature, i think the warm up circuit is too efficient and runs the car cold versus a forced warm up cycle like older models. I am not sure if this is a change on ulev standards or aveo specific. But even with the engine cold, the maf and heated o2 can run the engine fairly efficient. As it used to be getting the o2 warm that took time in the first place.

[Thymeclock]

those are all common to european market (imho)..

if your talking about the passenger cabin, i think it is the "proximity" of the heater core hoses within the system. if that makes sense.

if you are talking about operating temperature, i think the warm up circuit is too efficient and runs the car cold versus a forced warm up cycle like older models. I am not sure if this is a change on ulev standards or aveo specific. But even with the engine cold, the maf and heated o2 can run the engine fairly efficient. As it used to be getting the o2 warm that took time in the first place.

The two are related. Until your operating water temp rises you aren't going to have heat in the cabin.

No car operates as efficiently when cold as it does once it reaches operating temperature. But the Aveo seems to take an inordinately long time warming up. Most of the fuel economy losses come with cold operation. And the longer it takes to get warm, the worse it is.

[christian]

hmm...My 2011 Aveo heats up very quickly, actually. I've always thought that it heats up quicker than most cars. It beats my old honda and my wifes 09 civic.

[petrified.rabbit]

I know the two are related, but you can get a warm cabin and have the engine just starting to warm up. And you can also have a hot engine and no heat to the cabin.. I wasn't sure where you were going with the post.

My aveo seems to do a little of both, under certain conditions. It seems it would be solved with a new thermostat switch to run the high idle. It has only happened to me twice that i got to work and the car didnt have heat yet. That is when it thought about it, it still idles about the same, maybe 50-100 rpm less. But the warm up circuit definitely warms my car in about 5 minutes.

[wylee]

If you get it figured out, I'd like to know what it is. My car will never reach normal temperature at an idle when the temp is below 20° F

I don't think it's #3 since on a really cold day my temp gauge ever so slowly starts to creep up for the first 5 miles of my commute then I can watch it drop a little when I head down about a 2 mile stretch of downgrade.

[MetroMPG]

I realize this doesn't address the original question, but have you tried running a partial grille block? Just about any vehicle can easily get away with this (3 seasons of the year) without causing the coolant fan to run unnecessarily.

Plug-in coolant/block heaters are wonderful things also, but that's another topic.