Cold weather front...

[SirSipsAbit]

So I ordered cold weather fronts for myself and a friend. It gets cold here in Wisconsin.
Here are some subjective results before and after;
W/O Cold Weather Front:
20 degree morning
Start car, defrost fan on low, at 5 miles I turn fan to position 3, at 10 miles i switch to half floor & defrost... At mile 15 car is toasty warm. Shut down at mile 19.
0 degree morning
Start car, defrost fan on low, at 5 miles I turn fan to position 2, at 13 miles i switch to half floor & defrost... At mile 15 car is blowing hot air but not warmed up in the interior. Shut down at mile 19.
-10 degree morning
Start car, defrost fan on low, at 10 miles I put fan on position 2. At mile 15, air blowing is warm, not hot. At mile 19, I shut down a cold diesel.
With Cold Weather Front
20 degree morning
Results TBD
0 degree morning
Results TBD
-10 degree morning
Results TBD

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[Little Joe]

Can't wait to see your results based on your very thorough , repeatable conditions.

I just installed the front on wifes 14 also but have no comparisons ........only can tell early on that it is FAR FAR slower to warm up than my old 01 Corolla commuter.

 

[ChiTownPilot]

How do you like the Valeo wipers? I'm thinking of trying them over the OE blades.

 

[SirSipsAbit]

How do you like the Valeo wipers? I'm thinking of trying them over the OE blades.

The wiper packaging states OEM supplier and I believe it.
The 19" blade is a 100% match
The 24" blade is a 99% match (it has 2 blade clippy reinforcement thingy versus 3 on the OE's
The cold weather front was a cinch to install, I used a heat gun to prep the areas for the adhesive backed Velcro.

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[Little Joe]

Things I have noticed running the front:

EGT is running at least 100F higher in general such that cat temp is most always 600F or higher. Only active regen is the mileage counter one .
Temp is high enough that passive regen is keeping up fine.

Temps do not drop off in traffic and engine holds heat much better.

It takes 2-3 min idling to get EGT down to 400 versus only a few sec before. I think removing at least one panel would be necessary anywhere above 40F if worked at all .

 

[Johnny G1]

Was having the same problem Sat nite. but was -26C so made up a 1/4" plastic cover for the bottom inlet, 6x30" and it did the job rite away, didn't realize the heater core would keep the engine that cold with blower on high, would barely climb off the bottom mark, to-day a bit warmer @-8C and the temp gauge climbed to 90 with in 15 mins, Thanks for the advice on a cold hearted motor, never ever had that problem with my 03 1.9 Jetta.

 

[SirSipsAbit]

Initial impressions
The air coming out the vents gets hot almost 50% faster! That is substantial!
By product I wasn't expecting is the manual transmission warms up much faster. Now at mile 13 when I take my exit it shifts like it is summer! It usually would take a bit longer for it to react like that. Best $100 I spent on the car.

 

[jsalzl]

The cold weather front was a cinch to install, I used a heat gun to prep the areas for the adhesive backed Velcro.

How will this look when the kit is removed for the summer? Are to velcro strips going to be extremely obvious?

 

[Little Joe]

The velcro is on top of grille covered by hood when in closed position.

 

[sinnettc]

Is the bottom of the upper covers loose then? Do they just attach at the top or is there something holding them in place on the bottom too?

What about the lower cover? How does the cover attach there? Velcro top & bottom or wrapped around or ??

I was thinking about asking the wife to make me a set instead forking out $100 bux for a set. She's got the machine to do it and I've got some good velcro. Just haven't figured out how I want to handle the attachments.

 

[SirSipsAbit]

Is the bottom of the upper covers loose then? Do they just attach at the top or is there something holding them in place on the bottom too?

What about the lower cover? How does the cover attach there? Velcro top & bottom or wrapped around or ??

I was thinking about asking the wife to make me a set instead forking out $100 bux for a set. She's got the machine to do it and I've got some good velcro. Just haven't figured out how I want to handle the attachments.

The bottom of the upper covers are held in with "pillow blocks".

The lower cover is held in with two Velcro straps.

There is a rigid plastic sheet sewn in to keep the vinyl flat and smooth. Without it, their mounting method would not work.

 

[LarBear]

Last winter I fiddled around with pipe insulation behind the grille, and although it worked it was a pain in the tail. The cold weather front looks good, is easy to install and remove, although I've left it on the Jetta at temps up to 55° F for short trips with coolant temps that don't go above 195, and in fact barely reach it. I think that unless a person is cheaper than I am (REALLY cheap) that buying a front cover set from ID Parts is the way to go. The set should last for several seasons at least so the $100 works out to not too much per year.

 

[vfrav8r]

You are lucky to find the kit. I had to use two 8 foot pieces of 3/4" pipe insulation and zip ties to block the Minnesota cold air flow.

 

[LarBear]

You are lucky to find the kit. I had to use two 8 foot pieces of 3/4" pipe insulation and zip ties to block the Minnesota cold air flow.

Check out ID Parts.

It got sort of cold here again, and the coolant temp got up to 190°F with the winter front installed. It also seems to help retain heat in the radiator/engine after a stop, and unless you have to drive through slush keeps the slop out of the engine compartment/belly pan.

 

[8v-of-fury]

It takes 2-3 min idling to get EGT down to 400 versus only a few sec before. I think removing at least one panel would be necessary anywhere above 40F if worked at all .

I wonder if that is why the newer cars have the lower fuel mileage. Its burning enough fuel to hold that much cylinder heat even at idle?

My AHU tdi is down to idle temps 30-45 seconds after I am out of gear. Lol.

 

[Little Joe]

IMO the fact that the DPF ect is basically attached to the turbo/manifold the heat it holds requires much longer cool down time.

This engine will still be warm, long after a similiar sized gas engine is stone cold in 0 degree temps.

 

[Little Joe]

The quickest way to get exhaust cooled down is to decelerate with NO throttle opening through two or 3 gears and idle into yard to shut down

 

[sinnettc]

Temps have been cold here in OR/WA (but not obscene like some of you in the midwest) for the last few days. I decided to try the 3/4" pipe insulation as a test and it works great. I put the tubing in all 3 of the openings in the lower grill and in one of the upper ones. With the temperature below freezing the car actually warmed up to 192F before I got to work 15 miles away on Tuesday. That never happens when it's below 40F out and full airflow through the grill; 170-180 yeah, but not all the way up to "normal" temp.

Today we drove about 320 miles from Albany (OR) to Anacortes (WA). Temperature was around 28F when we left and topped out around 41 in Seattle. I pulled the plugs out of the upper grill about 60 miles into the trip as the outdoor temperature had come up above freezing and I wanted to see what would happen to the engine temp with the additional airflow (seemed to average about 2F cooler). For the rest of the trip the temps ran between 188F and 194F, mostly at 190.4 or 192.2F. Exhaust temps generally seemed to be in the 600F range with one brief spike to 1200 when we driving through Portland.

I think I'm going to buy myself a set of the ID Parts covers, which will look much nicer. Frankly I don't understand why VW doesn't make/provide them but oh well.

 

[glick]

Frankly I don't understand why VW doesn't make/provide them but oh well.

The 2015 has them built in as "active shutters" and will open/close them in order to heat/cool the engine as needed as well as closing for increased aerodynamics when driving at hwy speed to increase fuel economy.

I haven't started the car in conditions as cold as described here (coldest so far being -13C) but I start, put the cabin heater on max, fan on 2 (turns on the aux electrical cabin heater) and start driving. About 5-7min later I turn down the heat because the engine is warm and blowing hot air.

 

[Mugs]

Hi I'm new to the forums - was going to install a winter front from foam pipe tubing and I'm just wondering if I have to leave an opening anywhere to prevent overheating , or airflow problems? I live in South Western Ontario. For what it's worth had a rough idle on a start -up a couple months ago and just last week a rough start and a stall , talked to the dealership after I read about the intercoller problems and hopefully I get the kit without much bother I only have 20000 or so kms on the car.

 

[Cogen Man]

Hi I'm new to the forums - was going to install a winter front from foam pipe tubing and I'm just wondering if I have to leave an opening anywhere to prevent overheating , or airflow problems? I live in South Western Ontario. For what it's worth had a rough idle on a start -up a couple months ago and just last week a rough start and a stall , talked to the dealership after I read about the intercoller problems and hopefully I get the kit without much bother I only have 20000 or so kms on the car.

No need to leave any opening. With the foam pipe insulation there will always be enough air flow.
http://www.idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=4648
Might want to look at the above site. I got one of these for my 2011 Golf and it really helps in engine warm up time. SirSipsAbit got one for his from IDparts. They have a flat shipping fee to Canada of about $15.

 

[flyboy320]

I have foam pipe covering my front grill, upper and lower, and also monitor the intake temp using my Auto PolarFis. Yesterday on the way to work, the outside temp was -10c, and the intake temp was about +5c. This is on the highway about 110KM/Hr. When I drive into my parking garage, it takes about 5-8min to go up the levels, traveling at a light jogging speed, the outside temp about the same, but the intake temp rose to about +30c.

I observed this all last winter as well, and generally found any time outside temperature was 0c or cooler, then I could cover the whole front of the grill, but as soon as it was about 0c or warmer, I removed just one of the pipe insulators from the lower grill. The intercooler is very effective, and if I had all the grill covered on a a day with outside temp above 0c, sometimes my intake temp would be +40c in the parking garage, probably about to trip a CEL. By removing just one section of pipe insulation, the intake drops to a more reasonable 25c.

 

[Mugs]

Hey, thanks for the info guys. Took her for a little test run and it seems my liters per 100 already seems to be better we'll see. I have to look into AutopolarFis it's pretty neat I have the comfortline so I might be out of luck?

 

[bennybmn]

Any idea off the top of your head what size pipe you got insulation for? Smallest available?

 

[flyboy320]

Any idea off the top of your head what size pipe you got insulation for? Smallest available?

It's the size that fits standard indoor house copper pipe (I think 1/2" pipe).

 

[Cogen Man]

Any idea off the top of your head what size pipe you got insulation for? Smallest available?

1/2" is what you need. Before I got the IDparts grill block I did the pipe insulation trick. Also used some zip ties to secure them. I monitor my intercooler charge air(ICA) temp. with my ScanGuage II. I've found it better than monitoring intake air temp. ICA temp gives a mix of compressor discharge air temp and LP EGR temp. (Low Pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculaton)

 

[bennybmn]

I don't have any aux gauges... but I was thinking for these well below freezing days it might be nice and it won't get too hot. Half the winter here it's more like 40 deg out... I can leave them off then.

 

[opelgt21]

I made a lower grill cover from twin wall plastic sheet and some black duct tape from Lowe's. Total cost was only $16, so will see if this survives the Indiana winter.

Pics

 

[The Mail Guy]

I would be interested in seeing any pics of the pipe insulation zip tie install.

 

[I800C0LLECT]

I wouldn't mind buying just that lower front for my Hybrid. I wonder if running that year long would be an issue for the 1.4L since it has stop/start and glide already designed into the the setup. I've noticed that I have a hard time keeping the 1.4L temps above 180 during 20F to 30F mornings. Even in the summer time the temperatures can dip quickly from 210 on the interstate down to 180 or even 150 with stop and go traffic.