# Slow engine warm-up Cruze Eco??



## cruze1953 (Jun 30, 2011)

Has anyone noticed that it takes way too long for the cruze eco to reach operating temp????
Been watching my own temp gauge since you can't relie on the OEM gauge, not true temp, it freezes at 1 tick before 1/2 and stays there and this is not what is really happening engine temp wise!!!!
I tested warm up time at 38 degrees, did a 2 minute warm-up with everything on to load engine then drove with turbo boost up hills ect for 5 miles. After 11 minutes I only reached 180 degrees and electronic thermostat was closed yet, top hose was still cold, I have even disconnected thermostat and still slow warm up time. Specs call for 210 normal operating and it runs there most of the time once it reaches full warm-up. The front shutter is closed also entire time.
The warm-up time was acceptable above 50 degrees outside temp but fuel economy has really suffered sicne colder weather hit.
Chevy only offers an oil pan heater to assist in very cold starts. I have installed a lower radiator heater, 600watts, and this has helped but it still seems to stall out at around 170 degrees unless the engine is working fairly hard.
My take on this is that the engine efficiency is too high and not enough waste heat is being generated under lite load/ economy driving to get the heat we need for full warm-up. I was hoping that the engine was designed with a fast war-up feature but seems not.
How long is it taking for your Cruze/Eco to reach temp. BTW mine is a stick shift which even hurts the warm-up more.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

Are you running the heater during warmup? That lengthens the time to warm up the car by quite a bit. If your heater's running full-blast, then the engine's trying to warm itself and the cabin. Turning the heater off during warmup lets the engine keep all its heat to warm itself up. 

I think my Eco MT warms up quite quickly with the heater off and plugged into an oil pan heater. 5-6 minutes after the engine is turned on the temperature is up around 160-170*F. Another 2 minutes for 7-8 minutes total, and it's at operating temperature. After it hits 180*F, the heater comes on if it's really cold outside. When I run the heater, it'll take 15-20 minutes or longer to warm up. As you can guess, the heater stays off* until the engine's warm. 

*When I need to clear the windows when the car's not warm, I flick the heater onto setting 3 until the windows are clear enough, then turn it back off until necessary or the car's warmed up.


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

I have noticed that when warming the car up at idle with the fan on, the temperature gauge has hardly moved even after 15 or 20 minutes. It warms up quickly though once you start driving. The oem temp gauge at full warmup for me is just under the halfway mark. 
In other words, it sounds as though a slow warm-up time at idle is normal for this engine. I have the Eco 1.4 turbo but with automatic transmission.

This was recently discussed in http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/9-ch...6-wondering-now-about-1-4l-winter-months.html

However, in your case, something doesn't sound right. After 11 minutes of driving, it should have been at full warmup temperature long before that. As I mentioned in the thread above, I started out with an outside temp of 33 degrees, cold start, and reached 200 degrees within 4 or 5 minutes. You don't say what year your Cruze is, but it seems to me I read something in this forum about defective T-stats in the 2011's.

(Found it) http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/25-s...e-update-thermostat-sticks-open-position.html

Let us know how you make out.


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## elegant (Jan 6, 2011)

While there has been a thermostat problem on some Cruzes, car engines take a lot longer to warm up than many folks think. I have another GM product that allows me to track, digitally, both the engine water temp and the engine oil temp and it takes (save on a hot sunny day) ten minutes or more for both the engine oil and water to get to "full operating temperature." On a very cold day, it can take more than 15 minutes or more for both to be up to temp.


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

Interesting. Do you have the ability to see the coolant temp in your Driver Information Center? If so, how does it compare to this GM product you are referring to?


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## limited360 (May 6, 2011)

2011 ECO MT here... I can drive all the way to work, 15 miles side roads and 20 miles of highway, and the vehicle still does not come to full operating temperature. 

The cooling system has too much heat rejection for the displacement engine, its obvious!!! I should be able to put my heater on high and the car should still warm up. I can turn the heater on after I let the car warm up and suck the temp back down to the 1/4 mark, completely unacceptable. I have filed a complaint directly to GM.

WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD COLD WEATHER HERE IN DETROIT YET!!!!


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

Fan speed definitely makes a difference. I tried warming up the engine from a cold start with fan speed on high, and I can see how the engine would take a long time to warm up. 

I was only putting my fan speed on the two lowest settings and had no problem getting heat AND warming up the engine with temps in the 20's..

Just for kicks, I then started out with a hot engine, and then went for a 50 minute drive. Outside temp was about 36 degrees, coolant temp was in the 220 - 230 range. By the end of the drive with fan set on highest setting the whole time, the coolant temp gradually dropped to about the 180 degree range and stayed there.


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## cruzin2012 (Jan 12, 2012)

Sounds like you guys in cold weather are going to need front grill covers like many diesel jetta owners in cold climates use.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

It's physics at work. The cooling system is designed to cool the car with the A/C on full tilt during a Death Valley summer. It's meant to shed heat, not trap it. The system is working as designed. It's not meant to heat up both the engine and cabin at the same time. Think about it. The heater is a smaller, second radiator. If both radiators are shedding heat from the engine, then the engine will take longer to warm up. Don't expect a warm engine or a warm heater for a long time if the heat is on full blast when the engine is started. Turn the heat off for the first 2-3 minutes the engine is on so only the main radiator is shedding heat.


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

^ What sciphi said. Which is why I wasn't having a problem warming up my car, because I was keeping the fan setting at a reasonable speed. Except in this extreme test, but why would you want to do this under normal circumstances? I had to keep the windows rolled down partway or I would have roasted for the first half hour. lol


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## David1 (Sep 16, 2011)

Mine takes 25 minutes to get to 220 when it is below 30 degrees. Makes defrosting the windows a bitch.


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

What fan speed setting are you using?


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## David1 (Sep 16, 2011)

UpstateNYBill said:


> What fan speed setting are you using?


Not even on high, 3 mostly. If I am on high, I hardly get heat.


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## limited360 (May 6, 2011)

I can suck my car from 190F back down to 150F by driving easy and putting defroster on high... this is when its 32F out only too... 

Going to be a complaint when it gets really cold from me...


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## atikovi (Dec 27, 2011)

Shoulda sprung for the heated seats. Maybe you can add a block heater?


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## limited360 (May 6, 2011)

atikovi said:


> Shoulda sprung for the heated seats. Maybe you can add a block heater?



Block heater won't help anything... I can drive 40 miles (20 city, 20 highway) to work and still not be warmed up. Vehicle simply has too much cooling for the amount of heat this engine puts out!

I don't see a point in heated seats in a 18k car... I will keep the HVAC seats in my Lincoln however...


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## blk88verde (Apr 30, 2011)

Yes agreed - Engine warms up slow especially if you want interior heat. Like Sciphi, I let the engine warm up before even thinking about sending heat to the cabin. Last night it was around freezing, temp gauge was about 1/4 so I turned on the heat. The gauge started dropping. Small displacement engine/iron block all contribute to slowness to warm.


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## GoldenCruze (Dec 18, 2011)

I don't see a drop in temp on the DIC when I turn on the heat.


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

David1 said:


> Not even on high, 3 mostly. If I am on high, I hardly get heat.


Try setting it on 2. I defrosted my windshield and got heat within about 5 miles on this setting. Outside temp was about 20 degrees. The higher the fan setting, the longer it will take to warm up.


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

GoldenCruze said:


> I don't see a drop in temp on the DIC when I turn on the heat.


Where are you located? Someplace warmer? I can definitely make the temperature drop on a higher fan setting, which is why I set it to 1 or 2. Once the block has warmed up, then I can turn up the fan more, but even on a fan setting of 2, I have to turn down the temperature control because it gets quite warm in the car.


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## rbtec (Feb 3, 2012)

My car takes 4-5 minutes after driving to warm up. There is no drop in temperature running the heater. The outside temperature is in the 20s. For what it's worth, my 2008 Honda Civic takes about 20 minutes to get warmed up idling.


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## limited360 (May 6, 2011)

I have been running a high speed data logger in my car (demo'ing the tool for my job)... I can post the warm up plots on a cold morning if someone would like to see it...


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## UpstateNYBill (Jan 14, 2012)

For anyone having trouble getting heat, have you tried using recirc mode? It should make a difference.


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## limited360 (May 6, 2011)

not supposed to use recirc when defrosting FYI


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## cruze1953 (Jun 30, 2011)

Heater fan is OFF temp control set to cold, I don't turn heat on until 170 engine temp!!!!


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## cruze1953 (Jun 30, 2011)

I added my own coolant temp gauge after I found the OEM does not track the actual temperature.


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## cruze1953 (Jun 30, 2011)

When i use decel fuel cut off I loose about 30 degrees going down mile long hill from the top of my mountain,if is't cold I just let it idle in neutral all the way down and it is much better but stikk cools down about 10 dergees. I always use heater on lowest fan setting to save power except when defrosting.


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## cruze1953 (Jun 30, 2011)

Thats what I was talking about the factory gauge is a false reading, my coolant temp can drop from 190 all the way down to 160 and the factory gauge never moves!!!!!!!


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## atlantaga (May 29, 2013)

*2012 Chevy Cruze!*

I have the 2012 chevy cruze and I just notice yesterday that the temp gage is moving 1/2 from c - h in the matter of minutes. I have never seen this happen before. The car sits all day and as soon as I crank it up it goes from c - h in mintues. Is this normal?


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

atlantaga said:


> I have the 2012 chevy cruze and I just notice yesterday that the temp gage is moving 1/2 from c - h in the matter of minutes. I have never seen this happen before. The car sits all day and as soon as I crank it up it goes from c - h in mintues. Is this normal?



Depends exactly what you mean.

My car reads just below 1/2 when fully warmed up, on very hot days the car will reach operating temps much much faster than in cold weather. I would say in 50-80degree weather my car temp gauge is all the way up(just below 1/2) within 5minutes of driving.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

atlantaga said:


> I have the 2012 chevy cruze and I just notice yesterday that the temp gage is moving 1/2 from c - h in the matter of minutes. I have never seen this happen before. The car sits all day and as soon as I crank it up it goes from c - h in mintues. Is this normal?


Hey atlantaga,

If you are worried that your temperature gauge isn't working properly you can always take it to the dealership so they can have a look-see. Please let me know if you discover what is causing this.


Amber N.
Chevrolet Customer Care


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