Car heater not heating up

[amebb]

Hi there

Happy New year to everyone!


I have a question with my car. I have a bmw e53 x5 automatic 3.0i diesel. year 2004.


When i drive my car it takes a long time for the temputure gauge to reach half way on the temp gauge.


I have changed the Thermostat last week and i have checked the heater water valve too. They all seem to be perfect.


The water pump seems to be okay too when i checked my car.


What else should i be checking on my car?

Thank you

[andrewwynn]

"half way" on e 53 is a fake out it's not really a gauge but if it doesn't get to "noon" def not heating up.

Use the hidden menu or some form of live reader to see what the actual temp is.

Do you have cabin heat and what is the ambient temp? You might have a temp sensor fault.

You can use an IR thermometer to measure the upper radiator hose to measure engine temp.

New ≠ fixed. You can do some testing such as block the radiator with cardboard see if it'll warm up: indicates the thermostat stuck open even though new.

A defective temp sensor can cause the non gauge needle on the dash to stay low but if the sensor is at fault you should have a hot hose and cabin heat.

You can clamp a radiator hose to simulate closed thermostat. If the temp climbs fast means you got a defective new tstat.

[wpoll]

From memory, your Webasto heater is also not running?

If not, then it's pretty normal for the car to take a long time to warm up. With everything working correctly, including the Webasto aux. heater, in sub-10Deg.C. temps it can take up to 20 minutes of city driving to reach operating temperature. With no Webasto, it will take even longer.

Higher speeds (on motorways etc.) will increase engine load and reduce engine warm-up time, but this is somewhat offest by higher airflow over cooling components.

Another possible failure that could extend warm-up time is the viscous fan coupling. If the viscous clutch is seized, then the fan will run at full speed at all times. While this should matter while the thermostat is closed and the coolant flow through the radiator shouldn't be a factor, the sheer volume of cold air flowing over the entire engine etc. can increase warm-up time slightly.

And of course, as Andrew stated - new does not equal fixed (or good) - the new thermostat may be faulty. I've heard quite a few reports poor after-market brand thermostats for our diesels (which are bytw, 3.0d not 3.0i) - the best bet here is an OE part. Worked well for me when I replaced mine 6-8 years ago, and still does.

[andrewwynn]

Good call on the radiator fan clutch: the cardboard test will help with this.

My current car is E 70 with N 55 motor which is terribly efficient and when the temps drop very very slow to get to temp.

With ⅓the radiator blocked i have to turn off the cabin heat for at least ten minutes just to get to 75 C.

Today at -7C i never saw 90C with 30 min. of driving.

[amebb]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

"half way" on e 53 is a fake out it's not really a gauge but if it doesn't get to "noon" def not heating up.

Use the hidden menu or some form of live reader to see what the actual temp is.

Do you have cabin heat and what is the ambient temp? You might have a temp sensor fault.

You can use an IR thermometer to measure the upper radiator hose to measure engine temp.

New ≠ fixed. You can do some testing such as block the radiator with cardboard see if it'll warm up: indicates the thermostat stuck open even though new.

A defective temp sensor can cause the non gauge needle on the dash to stay low but if the sensor is at fault you should have a hot hose and cabin heat.

You can clamp a radiator hose to simulate closed thermostat. If the temp climbs fast means you got a defective new tstat.

So, i do get warm air coming in. Nothing that i would say is 'heat'.

I can drive around and eventually after 25 minutes of driving i get hot air in the cabin.



The temp gauge needle is so reluctant to rise to the noon position and takes for ever.


We live in a small town where you can drive from one side to the other within 10mins... so waiting for the car to heat up is pointless lol



Also, the reason why i changed the thermostat in the first place was because i thought that it could have been faulty and this is why the temp was not rising.
After changing the thermostat i am getting the same results as before, so i think that my previous thermostat was fine.


I will check again today, as we are expecting a cold patch of weather next week.


Thank you

[amebb]

Originally Posted by wpoll

From memory, your Webasto heater is also not running?

If not, then it's pretty normal for the car to take a long time to warm up. With everything working correctly, including the Webasto aux. heater, in sub-10Deg.C. temps it can take up to 20 minutes of city driving to reach operating temperature. With no Webasto, it will take even longer.

Higher speeds (on motorways etc.) will increase engine load and reduce engine warm-up time, but this is somewhat offest by higher airflow over cooling components.

Another possible failure that could extend warm-up time is the viscous fan coupling. If the viscous clutch is seized, then the fan will run at full speed at all times. While this should matter while the thermostat is closed and the coolant flow through the radiator shouldn't be a factor, the sheer volume of cold air flowing over the entire engine etc. can increase warm-up time slightly.

And of course, as Andrew stated - new does not equal fixed (or good) - the new thermostat may be faulty. I've heard quite a few reports poor after-market brand thermostats for our diesels (which are bytw, 3.0d not 3.0i) - the best bet here is an OE part. Worked well for me when I replaced mine 6-8 years ago, and still does.

Yes you are right, my webasto sometimes makes a sound and then stops... so, it is faulty and that too needs to be looked at lol. I think at this stage the whole silly car needs to be looked at!


Thank you for your help.

[andrewwynn]

I don't recall if the diesel is set up like the 3.0i, but i used to take the mechanical fan out in winter. Even on the m 54 it would take very long to heat up.

For now, get cardboard in front of the radiator leaving maybe 10% open to help deal with random warm winter day.

I help my car warm up by putting the transmission in sport mode. I think in E 53, might be only manual shift but i used to do that in my 2001 just keep the revs 500 higher than usual by keeping in a lower gear.

My car will not reach operating temp in a 20 min. drive when it's below freezing out with ⅓ covered radiator.

I have to turn off the heat for the first half of the drive and i can reach 80-90° in 15 min. or so.

On E 53, if you get above about 70°, the needle will lie to you and snap to noon and say you're at operating temp. The fake gauge on the dash is really a three position idiot light.

Cold, possibly at temp, way over heated.

It's not as gauge in the sense of sweeping through temps. It fakes it by sweeping a little when cold bit it snaps to noon way before it's at operating temp.

[andrewwynn]

Definitely check your fan clutch it's not stuck on!

[Clavurion]

First check from cluster hidden menu (or with diagnostics) if the engine temp is ever coming to normal 88-92. The gauge needle is on 12 o'clock 75 C->. For M57 engines the original BMW part for main stat (Made in Austria). All after market variants are poor quality made in Italy stuff. In UK you have Euro 3 model without EGR cooler so no need to worry about EGR thermostat. On automatics there is still another thermostat for oil heat exchanger but those are quite reliable and rarely fail. E53 has so huge radiator that I've removed the viscous fan permanently and not causing any problems if the front electric pusher fan works normally.

When diagnosing possible Webasto problems INPA has good live data to show what's happening or not happening.

[andrewwynn]

With n 55 motor and ambient -14c, i never got over 90c after 40 min. off driving. I have to turn off the heater to get the coolant pump to slow down if i want any heat in the first 20 minutes of driving.

With the m 54 i took off the clutch fan and used cardboard in winter.