Inline Hester

I'd rather go oem if possible. 3rd party frost heater is not my first option.

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Have you experienced a winter yet without one?

The OEM kit is pretty extensive. A whole bunch of hoses, clamps, brackets, grommets, zip ties, etc.

ETKA shows the same kit for both the -2014 cars and the 2015 cars, which I find odd because the two engines are so different.

A dealer can sometimes tell by VIN if something fits your car. And I think they have one kit for manual cars and a slightly different one for automatics.

5C7-054-915-A or D are the part numbers I have.

Where does the oem kit tie into vs frost heater?

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Oh, and no I haven't. I bought the car in April.

It burns such little fuel, and the blower pulls so much heat off the heater core, by the time I drive 3 mile to work, the needle doesn't even budge off the resting peg...

This is coming from a plugged in car, with heated seats, driving 45mins one way.

Now I need to bring the kids to daycare in an ice cold car, ontop of my short drive, without heated seats.


So I'm investigating my options right now.

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jason_ said:

Where does the oem kit tie into vs frost heater?

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No idea since I've never installed either.

The warm air off the heater core is not coming from the core much anyway, it is coming from the car's built in electric heater.

It's slow to heat. Blower on high, recirculation off, I drove over 20 miles in 46*F outside air before it was anywhere near normal range.

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Yep, it's a diesel.

While I have no experience with the 2015 engine, all the previous TDIs are slow to warm up, and often have a difficult time maintaining temps at low engine loads when it is bitter cold out. Which is why they have electric assist of some sort on most models. Which helps. In extreme cold climates, they also get a fuel fired heater booster, but none of those were offered here. My Sprinter has one, it works great. 15 F morning and it is getting heat inside of 30 seconds, plus it helps to warm the engine up.

They really did try and do everything possible to make the engine get up to temp as fast as possible. The cooling system is pretty elaborate because of that. But in the end, a hyper efficient diesel just does not have a lot of waste heat.

I agree from all aspects.

The kicker is there's no traditional cast holes in the block to punch in a simple element....

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oilhammer said:

No idea since I've never installed either.
The warm air off the heater core is not coming from the core much anyway, it is coming from the car's built in electric heater.

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I checked module and it's not selected factory.

Should I enable it and see what happens?

jason_ said:

It's slow to heat. Blower on high, recirculation off, I drove over 20 miles in 46*F outside air before it was anywhere near normal range.
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You're doing it wrong.... This will be my 3rd TDI and it warms up faster than the other 2 for sure. I have needle movement in 5min of driving, in town. Leave the fan OFF until that need moves, then turn on to 2 not FULL blast. Because of the multiple coolant circuits, we are able to get the heat to the cabin faster. Conversely, if you turn up to full blast, it's going to strip so much heat off the system that it's going to feel cold for much longer.
Today it was 19*F (my car sits outside) and I had needle move right at 6min and did like I always to. I've been surprised, pleasantly, at how fast I get heat in this thing.
You don't need "normal" range for good heat inside for you and the kiddos. If you must have instant heat, get the frost heater, they work great, just buy the unit from them and install. If you don't want to do business with them, the factory setup is SPENDY but can be done using the parts from the other regions that they come installed from the factory on. There is a thread somewhere in here on it actually.

ETA: Thread located here with info and options (you're going to need to be ready to seriously tinker on your car) on the factory solution >>>>> http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=482241

jason_ said:

It's slow to heat. Blower on high, recirculation off, I drove over 20 miles in 46*F outside air before it was anywhere near normal range.

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Either your fan is on to high a speed or your heater core is clogged, one was reported on a '15 NMS with as little as 50K miles.

How many miles on the ride?

I'm impressed with the heat delivery on my '15. I get heat in less than a mile from my house when it's below freezing out. Granted, the car's inside in a garage overnight and this time of year the temp in the garage is in the high 40s. Still, it delivers heat much faster than my older cars.

Regardless, you're only driving 3 miles. How cold can anyone get in 3 miles?

740GLE said:

Either your fan is on to high a speed or your heater core is clogged, one was reported on a '15 NMS with as little as 50K miles.

How many miles on the ride?

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I had warmth the entire trip, within 5 minutes onto the road.

But pulling heat off the core as much as I could the needle never made the 200 mark until 15mile of driving.

Just rolled 12k. Bought it with 34 miles 5 months ago.

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jason_ said:

I had warmth the entire trip, within 5 minutes onto the road.

But pulling heat off the core as much as I could the needle never made the 200 mark until 15mile of driving.

Just rolled 12k. Bought it with 34 miles 5 months ago.

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Sounds like your car is fine, just like the rest of ours.

Mrrogers1 said:

Sounds like your car is fine, just the rest of ours.

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Agreed, while the new system does give a better preference of dumping heat into the cabin, there's only so much heat to feed the cabin.

Even in the Alltrack TSI, the temp needle gets right up to 190F with in 2-3 minutes, the cabin heat is a trickle (compared to a fully warmed car, I'd compare it to slightly more than the grid heater of the TDIs) until I start seeing the oil temp start to climb past 170F, which is about 10 minutes depending on driving habits. On my 7 mile 35-40mph commute to work, oil temp just gets to ~185 if the outside temps are bellow 30 by the time I'm parking, this is even with keeping the car in a 55-60 degree garage.

jason_ said:

Just rolled 12k. Bought it with 34 miles 5 months ago.

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Heater core is probably not clogged, just gotta drive more!