It's just now getting cold down here in Atlanta and I've noticed that my heat (at least when set to Auto) does not kick on until after I've been driving for about 5 minutes. Around that time the fans crank up and it warms up pretty quickly, but those first five minutes are a little rough. Seems like the car is just warming itself first before sharing the heat with me, but I always thought there was a heating element besides the engine heat to warm the cabin initially.

Anyone else seen this or is something strange going on in my car? Thanks for your input.

 

Happens to me all the time. It takes some time for the car to warm up and only then will it send you warm air. Used to happen on my old Acura too.

 

Mine does that too. It's normal. It doesn't want to blast you with cold air... But if you want, you can just override the fan speed and let it blow cold air at you for a few minutes. Don't know if that really helps it to heat up faster, but sometimes I do it just to fool myself into thinking that my heater's on full blast--whatever that's worth....

 

A block heater would help speed things up for you.

 

There's no separate heating element for the car heater, it's only engine coolant.

 

Yep..that's the way most cars with Auto Air work. Only mine seems to wait till the coolant temperature is at the midpoint in the gauge where as my old car would heat up as soon as it was past the C mark in the gauge. Is this normal?

 

I would much rather wait than have cold air blowing on my feet in the morning.

 

i live in atlanta too, and it takes a while for it to get warm

 

I guess the question to the OP is:

1) Does it take 5 minutes for the fan to turn on?
2) Does it take 5 minutes for heat to come out?
3) Both?

The answer should really be BOTH for the reasons listed in previous replies. I think ALL cars with AUTO Climate Control work this way. If your car is already warm (you just filled up at a gas station, etc.), then the fan should turn on right after you start the car and warm up almost instantly.

I park my car in the garage and even on cold mornings (below 40), my heater is pumping warm air within a minute. However, on a cold night, after my cars been parked outside, it can take 3-5 minutes. This is normal, I try and rely on my clothes and the seat heaters until the water gets warm enough.

 

1) It takes about 5 minutes for the fan to really start moving...it is working when I first start up, but at its lowest level.
2) If I take it off auto and speed up the fan myself, it is mostly cold air for the first minute or two.

I'm not totally surprised by the car not being able to instantly blow out hot air, but the fact that the Auto feature holds it off for so long seems strange to me. When I used to get in my '89 Honda Prelude when I lived in Boston, I would crank the heat and the fan, and it seemed to be pretty warm within a minute or two of driving, so I guess I'm just feeling like the auto feature may be keeping the heat for itself a little longer b/c of some switch that says the engine temp must be x degrees before warming the cabin up. Guess it's just taking a little while for me to get used to all the electronically controlled stuff, which seems to think about what I tell it to do, as I was so used to my old car doing exactly what I told it without thinking.

All criticism aside, I still love this car! Just wanted to check that my heat experience was consistent with that of everyone else. Thanks for the comments everyone!

 

Yeah the car is waiting for a specific temperature reading from the thermostat. You can always manually override it. I think it kicks on at different intervals as it warms up. IIRC, it should kick the fan up to the next level once it reachs temperature X, at temperature Y it'll kick it some more, at temperature Z it's at full temp and will operate up to maximum if necessary. I think it works that way, but I'm not sure since I haven't paid attention.

 

Actually I find heater to be pretty quick in my car. Heater in my Maxima is quite a bit slower.

 

The heat in my '03 coupe is slow to kick in, but it's quite hot...while the car is in motion above 35mph. When I come to a stop, or I'm moving in slow traffic, it blows out cooler, sometimes cold air (not quite as cold as outside).

Any idea what the problem might be?

Thanks

 

bump. I'm having problems as well. Did you get this fixed?

 

I live in New England and find that the car heats up quicker than any car I've owned. It's by design that the fans don't spin up until there's some warmth, and I love the feature. I know I don't want 5 degree air blowing on me until the car heats up. I'd rather have nothing until there's some warm air. If you're impatient you might get quicker warm air out of the defroster, but that's just blowing it on the windshield.

The heated seats are another matter. Pathetically slow compared to other cars I've owned. The car is warm before the seats are.