Electric auxiliary air heater

[Amchlolor]

One of the boys here is looking at getting a 1.9tdi special edition A3 and I note they have an 'electric auxiliary air heater' listed as one of the features.
I assume this is one of those things that heats the interior when the engine is cold.
I'm pretty sure my car doesn't have this,does it ?
Takes ages for my car to get warm,so I'm assuming it doesn't.

 

[southpaw66]

I think mine does (and I assume yours too). Works as part of the windscreen demist. Hot/warm within a minute of starting engine from cold. Not powerful enough for main cabin heat.

 

[Eeef]

I think it used to be an option for the Scandahouligans, not seen it over here.

 

[Amchlolor]

I definitely do not get hot/warm air within a minute of starting.
Takes forever for my car to defrost of a morning.

 

[steve184]

i think all the diesel engines have this - but i must say i've never noticed it do anything - remember reading this before i got my last car and getting quite excited at the fact that the minute you start the car you get warm air but in reality this definately does not happen - never noticed even warm air come out of the demist vents either - thing is if it did you could divert that air to the normal dash vents to get warm but it doesn't. Would be interesting to have an explanation from Audi themselves as to what benefits this gives as I can't see any.

And yes mine took an age to warm up too.

Anyone with a 170 comment on whether that warms up any faster - i ****** hope so!

 

[Amchlolor]

I took note on my drive to work his morning.
I started my car on the drive and left it idling for about 5 minutes while I scraped the windows.
I then drove about 3 miles,at around 40mph,before coming to traffic.
I then sat in walking pace traffic for about 15 minutes,before a 1/2 run at about 40mph to the office.

My temp gauge was sitting at about 65C at the end of the journey,far lower than the optimum 90C.
The outside temp was about -1C

Normal ????

The last petrol car we had,which was the wife's Honda HRV,used to reach it's optimum operating temp in about a mile,even in the winter.

 

[southpaw66]

Diesels tend to run colder so on colder morning the coolant temp will take longer to reach 90 as heat is diverted to the cabin. I've heard somewhere that a diesel will not reach 90 when idling -only under load.

I can feel hot air coming from the round vent on top of the IP, next to the window, when I reach the end of my road. So somethings provding heat but I wouldn't go as far as calling it an aux heater.

 

[stan]

I always thought this sort of ticking noise from the centre of the dash was the electric heater doing its thing as when the car warms up i never hear it . How well it works i dont know i use the heated seats, but next time i shall see how quickly it sends heat into the cabin.

 

[h5djr]

According to the latest Owner's Manual for the A3 Sportback that I borrowed from my dealer recently, the Auxillary Heater is a remotely controlled device that can be programmed to come on, say 1 hour before you are going out, inorder to warm up the car. It is only available in some markets, presumably very cold areas. I don't think it can be ordered on a UK model.

Having said that I'm sure I've seen something in the parts catalogue about an 'electric heating element' as part of the ventilation system on the A3. I will investigate further...

 

[Amchlolor]

If this link works,it should give you the list of standard equipment for a special edition A3,where we saw it listed.

http://ak4-uk.audi.co.uk/sat.do?man...ils=&v_basics_details=&v_accessories_details=

Sorry,but I can't work out how the hell to insert a hyperlink on this site these days.
Not since the 'rejig'.

 

[h5djr]

In the Elsawin workshop manual there are the following notes:

Vehicles with diesel engine are currently fitted with an additional air heater (if requested by operating and display unit (Climatronic control unit -J255-) heat energy is added to air on exiting from heat exchanger of heating system/air conditioner unit).

On vehicles with diesel engine and “auxiliary heater” optional extra, additional heater function is assumed by auxiliary heater, which operates as fuel-driven additional heater.

Vehicles with petrol engine are currently not fitted with a supplementary heater or auxiliary heater is not actuated as supplementary heater.

So it seems that the diesel engined A3 do have an additional heater function to provide some warm air before the main heater is warm enough to provide the heat. The 'auxiliary heater' is an option for cold climates where a fuel driven unit is used to provide heat before the engine is used at all.

 

[southpaw66]

In the Elsawin workshop manual there are the following notes:

Vehicles with diesel engine are currently fitted with an additional air heater (if requested by operating and display unit (Climatronic control unit -J255-) heat energy is added to air on exiting from heat exchanger of heating system/air conditioner unit).

On vehicles with diesel engine and “auxiliary heater” optional extra, additional heater function is assumed by auxiliary heater, which operates as fuel-driven additional heater.

Vehicles with petrol engine are currently not fitted with a supplementary heater or auxiliary heater is not actuated as supplementary heater.

So it seems that the diesel engined A3 do have an additional heater function to provide some warm air before the main heater is warm enough to provide the heat. The 'auxiliary heater' is an option for cold climates where a fuel driven unit is used to provide heat before the engine is used at all.

I think your summary is spot on.

 

[Amchlolor]

Interesting.

So,is it the use of possibly misleading wording on Audi's website,or are they actually standard equipment on the special editions after all ?

I suppose the first option is the most likely.

 

[steve184]

No its definately standard - but i guess you would only know what it does if it was deactivated one day then perhaps the engine wouldn't get warm at all or something i dont know - but it doesn't seem to do much (or it didnt in my tdi anyway)

 

[stan]

Took note today the face vents blew out warm air after a few mins. from the first start up of the day & driving less than 2 miles.