UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Muldoon wrote: Tue Nov 27, 2018 12:59 pm
Why no standard heated windscreen

They're a double edge sword, had one in our Fiesta and Mini.
Great idea, yes, but the filaments are all too easy to see in some light conditions and, once you see them, you can find your focus being drawn to them.

Hum, yes finding the elements and focusing on them, almost as bad as driving into a blizzard and finding yourself trying to home in on the snow flakes heading your way!

Muldoon, I have no experience of owning or driving a new Polo or the 1.0TSI engine, but are you saying that your car is not quickly heating up until the temp gauge is displaying a steady 90C which is where it should be? VW Group will have gone to huge steps to make sure that these engines heat up to their design operating temperature of 90C as quickly as possible so that they run with minimum emissions and hopefully best MPG.

Now if you are only using that car for very short journeys all the time, and demanding max heat out of the cabin heating system, then maybe you are stripping the heat out of the engine coolant system faster than the engine is dumping heat into it.

Muldoon wrote: Tue Nov 27, 2018 12:59 pm Why no standard heated windscreen

It’s not standard on the Golf, but it is available as a £300 option - but strangely, not on Golf models with the 1.0 litre engine. So maybe if it were available on the Polo, it might only be an option on models with the 1.6 diesel or 2.0 petrol engines.

Andy Beats wrote: Tue Nov 27, 2018 1:33 pm They're a double edge sword, had one in our Fiesta and Mini.
Great idea, yes, but the filaments are all too easy to see in some light conditions and, once you see them, you can find your focus being drawn to them.

The optional heated screen on the Golf uses a wireless electrically conductive layer within the screen, so no filaments to distract the driver.

RUM4MO wrote: Tue Nov 27, 2018 1:54 pm Hum, yes finding the elements and focusing on them, almost as bad as driving into a blizzard and finding yourself trying to home in on the snow flakes heading your way!

Muldoon, I have no experience of owning or driving a new Polo or the 1.0TSI engine, but are you saying that your car is not quickly heating up until the temp gauge is displaying a steady 90C which is where it should be? VW Group will have gone to huge steps to make sure that these engines heat up to their design operating temperature of 90C as quickly as possible so that they run with minimum emissions and hopefully best MPG.

Now if you are only using that car for very short journeys all the time, and demanding max heat out of the cabin heating system, then maybe you are stripping the heat out of the engine coolant system faster than the engine is dumping heat into it.

My commute is 5 miles.
In this weather (around 5C) it takes around 3/4 of the journey for the car to reach proper operating temp.
Mine has heated seats, thank goodness.

Blinking heck that means that this engine's cooling system has been made to mirror that of a modern TDI engine's cooling system, time they started to fit auxiliary heating element into the cabin air box - or as I suggested above the driver is using up the heat that the engine is dumping into the coolant system a lot quicker than it is being dumped into the coolant system.

I do admit to trying to keep the cabin fan off until the engine has warmed up to 90C - well an indicated 90C, most of the time that works without misting, but when misting happens safety overtakes other needs and the fan is used to clear the misting up glass, that usually means that the temperature gauge is up to 90C after 2 miles max in this sort of weather - car is normally garaged overnight.

When switching back from electric to ICE (temporarily), the reason I went for petrol over diesel, for the first time in decades, was my short commute.
The petrol may be taking three and a bit miles to reach full temp, but at least it's reaching it.
Not unusual for my diesels to never reach full operating temperature on my commute.

Agreed. I had a Golf 1.9TDi which would just about warm up fully after a 7 mile journey to work, mostly A38.

Same journey now and the Polo is warmed up by 3 miles maybe 4. My journey to work has increased to 12 miles now.

Car re-booked for 17th of December after the debacle listed several posts ago.

Petrol engines do warm up faster than diesels.

My GTI+ takes about 7 miles to warm up to 90C oil temp in the current weather - and I don't tend to heat the cabin until the car is up to temp (if I put the heat on at all, I like a cold cabin). My Golf R takes about 4 miles - maybe that's part of the reason my mpg is relatively crap (vs my expectations) in the GTI. It warms up like a diesel (slowly). Cold weather doesn't have half the negative effect on mpg for petrols as it does for diesels - petrol doesn't need a hot engine to combust close to optimally, as it chucks out a lot more energy out of the exhaust as heat rather than converting it to kinetic energy.

Warm up might be quicker if I did most of my motorway speed miles at the start of my commute to work rather than the end, or maybe my engine cooling.kicks in too early. Everyone here is taking oil temp and not water temp, right? Water seems to get to 90C within 2 miles.

I have found the Pingi dehumidifiers are working well in my cars for condensation

I do find the windscreens are a nightmare to keep clear inside these Polo's though, they go cloudy and need wiping on a daily basis, anyone else found this? No amount of glass cleaner makes any difference.

monkeyhanger wrote: Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:23 pm Cold weather doesn't have half the negative effect on mpg for petrols as it does for diesels

This is the first petrol I've had since the 90s, I've had loads of different makes of diesels in between - BMW/Audi/Mazda/Ford/Renault/Kia/Mini/Honda/Nissan
All of them gave great MPG, even when cold.
There was no noticeable increase in MPG when warm, they just got on with being economical at all times.
In fact, I got much better MPG from a 210BHP Alpina BMW than I am from my Polo, and by god I drove it a lot faster....
I'll just have to live with it, as I didn't really want to go back to diesel after my Leaf, but it's very disappointing.
The MPG I'm getting driving carefully suggests that if I booted it up I'd get MPG akin to a Subaru Impreza.....what's wrong with this engine that's it so fuel inefficient?

" Everyone here is taking oil temp and not water temp, right? Water seems to get to 90C within 2 miles."

I'd think as the discussion is about condensation on the windows, most if not all people are referring to indicated coolant temperature as that is what is handing the heat over to the cabin air - I do know that a more realistic idea of how far on wrt heating up the engine is, is to check the oil temperature though.

MilgeS wrote: Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:31 am I have found the Pingi dehumidifiers are working well in my cars for condensation

I do find the windscreens are a nightmare to keep clear inside these Polo's though, they go cloudy and need wiping on a daily basis, anyone else found this? No amount of glass cleaner makes any difference.

Yes, I have the heater and recirculate on with a window open to keep the humidity down. I don't like air con, it dries the air too much.

From a current post on seatcupra.net forum on misting-up windows at this time of year - thanks to forum member andycupra on seatcupra.net;

Now understand that as air cools its capability to hold moisture reduces.. so if the air at 20 degrees has relative humidity level of say 75%, as the temperature cools overnight the relative humidity figures increases until you reach the dew point. - you tend to get more moisture form on the windows are these are the coldest bits.. (notice how headlights mist up when washing the car? - on that note if you get this issue and use a hair dryer to remove the moisture you must run the dryer on cold and remove the warm air)

Now, this time of year, its wet, its cold, you wear a coat... you breathe... this all means that the air within a car tends to have high relative humidity as you introduce moisture and ramp up the temperature...
So the good news is you can do somethings to help. - for example, in addition to fixing any leaks and removing wet items, plan ahead, and by that i mean, as you approach your destination, try and get the relative humidity down in the car. So hold your breath..
Other ways to reduce the humidity may be to turn off the heater and open the windows to get some air changes through the car and hopefully reduce the humidity. - and/or run the air con to use the dehumidifying affects, but for this to work well you need to run the temperature lower.
and don't forget to do the windows up again! - hopefully this will reduce the build up.

The bad news.. is that moisture and misting up is a natural phenomenon all cars suffer, although the differing levels. Thickness of the glass, how air tight the car is, or is not... how wet the seats got when you sat on them with you wet jacket..

Leif wrote: Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:11 am
Yes, I have the heater and recirculate on with a window open to keep the humidity down. I don't like air con, it dries the air too much.

So the very thing that could stop your condensation....is switched off....
Oh well.
Mind you. you're not the only one that does this, I'm often is cars that are misting up and the aircon is switched off - really baffling.