Hi All:

How long should it typically take for warm air to start coming out of my climate control system from a cold start?

I have a 2008 A4 2.0 Quattro. It seems to take at least five to ten minutes for any warm air to start flowing from a cold start. Until that time, the AUTO setting seems to keep the fan on the lowest setting and waits for the engine to warm up.

It that typical for this vehicle? Isn't there an electric heater to get things going before the engine, heater core, etc. are warm?

Thanks for any advice.

- Astro

 

I know it's typical for my A4. But then, I turn on the front and rear defrosters, the fan goes to high and blows air to the windshield. Until I get the rpms up, the seat warmers don't really come on, either.

 

@Lyman_T:

So, you're saying 5 to 10 min is a typical time for warm hair to start coming through your vents as well? Is your A4 a 2007-8 model as well?

Not sure why you'd have a significant delay with the seat heaters, though. I think those are all-electric (no forces warm air or tubes or anything like that). Once the engine is on, there shouldn't be any connection between the engine temperature and the seat heaters....

- Astro

 

All I know is it takes 10-15 minutes for my car to start blowing warm air. I was actually about to post a thread about this. Its 06 a4. I wonder if the carbonio air intake that i installed has anything to do with it..

 

typically I start getting heat within a mile or 2 of my house. The car is kept in an unheated garage at night but it is the same leaving work. and I feel the seats about the same time/distance

 

I have an '08 and I noticed the car takes a bit to get warm. Probably a few miles from my house and it will start blowing luke warm air in. Not ten minutes though.

One thing I may be noticing with my car, maybe you guys can confirm, with the climate control on 'auto', the middle vents on the dash don't blow air at all. I seemed to remember them a few months ago(got the car in Sept of this year), but now there is no air coming out of them. I find that strange on a 15 degree day that no warm air comes from the middle of the car.

More to that point, a few weeks ago I was hearing a weird squeeking in the dash behind the radio. I was thinking that may have something to do with it?

 

In Auto, mine never vents throught the center vents while in Heat mode.. A/C mode would cycle through once in a while.

 

@ianmason

I' m not 100% sure, but think that, yes, the center vents are *intentionally* shut off while the system warms up or cools down air upon initial start-up. I've noticed that mine don't open up until the car decides it's got warm air to blow on us. The problem is the time it's taking...not that they're closed at first. I could live with that if it only took a minute or two to get some warm air going and for them to open up.

Regarding the squeaking: There is a technical service bulletin out for current model year Audis (07-09 maybe?) that says the "flapper doors" and flapper motor assembly behind the in the climate control vents are sometimes too noisy and should be replaced...on both the driver and passenger side. Audi did it for me under warrantee last month when I requested it during another service. However, it wasn't a "squeak"...it was the "flap" sound. Not sure I heard squeaking at all, but perhaps that's another possible effect of the flapper motor door TSB issue?

- Astro

 

My 2006 takes about 5 minutes maybe a bit more to heat up, but then within 3 minutes of leaving the garage, I am doing 70 mph which warms up the engine real quick. My center top vents don't put out heat eather, but I was told by a tech, that was normal. I actualy thought that the heat coming out of the side top vents was a problem. I am use to a Jetta GLX with the automatic climate control, and when it was heating, heat only came out of the floor vents. If any heat came out of its top vents, it meant an expensive repair was in order. I also have the noisy flaps and saw the service bulletin, but when I mentioned it to the service department, you could tell that they really did not want to deal with it. Besides, if you have to take the whole dash appart, their can be a chance that stuff wont go back together quite right and you end up with all kinds of new squeaks and rattles that can be hard to fix.

 

Well I should take it in then, because it definitely was making that noise. And to reiterate, my center ducts NEVER seem to blow hot air in "auto" mode. I thought I remembered they worked when I first got the car, but maybe I'm wrong.

I guess if you guys are also noticing the same thing, must be normal. So this morning it was 5 degrees F out. It took my car about 5 minutes or so, and about 2 miles to start blowing "luke warm" air at me on low. It really gets blowing probably 5 minutes later or more. The car definitely takes a long time to get up to normal running temp. Longer than any other car I've ever owned.

I've also noticed that I don't seem to get very good heat at the floor in 'auto' mode either. My feet are usually pretty cold. Where in previous cars, the 'auto' mode always sent heat to the floor, since hot air rises, you'd want it at the bottom of the car to float up.