RICKYVB

I was wondering if anyone changed the time limit for the Auto Start. Seems odd to me, the car doesn't run long enough to warm up. I kinda thought that was the point of the auto start.

I am looking to double the time it will run before it shuts off again. Any help would be great! Thanks in advance.

843de

Its been covered here in the past, you only get two ten minute periods of run time before you have to start the vehicle manually.

If the normal ten minute run time is not doing it for you, you can wait until it times out and restart it, or time it and do a quick shutdown and restart at 9 1/2 minutes then you'll get 19 1/2 minutes of warm up time.

jima59

I'm curious as to how long your car runs on remote start. We don't seem to have a problem either heating or cooling the car with remote start. We are in NE Florida where it is extremely hot in summer and can get chilly, low 30's in winter.

843de

I think its because he's out in Wyoming using it as a mobile hotel room judging by another post he just put up, now I've been in Wyoming in winter and its bloody cold so maybe he just need more blankets rather than more run time.

goetylsd

Personally, I find that ten minutes is usually enough time to get things warmed up on most winter days. On the coldest days of winter, the 20 minutes stills seems more than adequate. Then again, I don't need for it to be 100 degrees inside the car before leaving, just so the vents aren't blowing out cold air. I like to do it more so to get the juices in the engine flowing as opposed to get the heaters blowing out hot air. I hear more and more nowadays that you don't need to warm modern engines up as it won't cause harm to the engine to drive it cold, but it just "seems" better to. It might not harm it to drive it cold, but it certainly doesn't hurt to warm it up 5-10 minutes either, other than gas $$$. Gas costs nothing compared to a new engine. I guess that's a matter of opinion though, I'm sure some people just turn the key and put it in drive.

RICKYVB

No, I don't even run it in wyoming. This was back in Maryland. My car stays extremely cool for a long period of time. Which, is better then it heating up prematurely. Cooling in the summer is easy. Plenty of time, just for some reason in the winter. It never gets warm enough to defrost the windshield. Even the temperature inside is luke warm at best.

So, I take it as though maybe the thermostat I installed releases premature then, if no one else has this issue. I just replaced that before coming out here to WY.

firemangeorge

Ricky. You've got a cooling system issue. Sounds like a thermostat problem.
(yes, I saw that you already changed it) Either a defective new stat or an installation error. Check your engine temp reading on the DIC. I bet it's below operating temperature.
If the operating temp is OK, then a second thing to look at would be the temperature/blend door in the vent system.
Let us know what you find.

whopper

if it isn't warming up fast enough, it will trigger the CEL, and blank out the temp reading on the DIC with "----", and the analog temp gauge will bottom out.

Ie: the same symptoms as a stuck-open thermostat

843de

I'm thinking a blend door stuck halfway open or closed is the culprit here. An incorrect thermostat would cause other issues and as whopper has pointed out above, you'd see an indication on the DIC of trouble.

RICKYVB

Blend Door sounds about right. The temperature reads properly and has no issues with the old issue I had showing ( _ _ _ ) and the check engine light being on.

Both gauges have no issue reading the temperature!

Here's the thing though. Once I start driving it down the road. It gets hotter, quick. Just idling though, it stays around 162*F.

When driving, the heat coming out of the vents is normal to me. Basically the same temp as my 2008 HHR was. No difference but, my 2008 hhr would reach that temp at idle too. Never had an issue with the Run time on the 2008. It would warm up and defrost the windshield with ease.

Kinda thinking, maybe this thermostat releases prematurely causing the radiator fluid to not heat up enough. Basically, it holds enough for the hhr's computer to read the temperature but, releases sooner then a factory thermostat would. Allowing the coolant to circulate early and get prematurely cooled.

***ALSO***

Kinda wondering if maybe once, I start driving the vibration causes the blend door to open the rest of the way to full heat.

Not a big deal to me. Just would be nice to work out the bugs. I don't mind starting the car myself and heating it up by giving it a little gas. I just like things to work like they where designed to work.

Any help would be great! Thanks, in advance for your time.