Winter Start up

ROVER

This morning I started up my Primera and the Wife's Mondeo diesel and let them both idle outside the house. After 10 mins the cabin in my petrol Primera was warm and temp gauge was at normal reading. The Mondeo's cabin was still cold and temp gauge had not moved from cold. I have noted this before on the Mondeo the temp gague only moves once the car is moving and not idle tick over. Is this normal? do any other Diesel drivers have similar experiences.
At least the Mondeo has the heated front windscreen otherwise you would need deicer or the kettle to clear the ice of it.

peasant

Modern high pressure tdi's are thermally so effective that there is very little excess heat, especially when just idling.
On the other hand they do produce a fair amount of heat when at full roar, so some have larger coolant circuits, making the initial warm-up even longer.

Some modern diesels even have additional heaters to counter this effect.

fletch

My 1.9tdi can often take 10 minutes of driving before the needle starts to move. Very annoying on these cold mornings.