Hi my 2003 Doblo is running fine apart from the heating which takes a while to warm up and when on a run the blower cools it down even more the stat seems to be working is this a regular fault or have Doblos got super efficient cooling? Thanks Phil

The 1.9 JTD engines take forever to warm up in the winter and when it is bitterly cold never get the car really hot. They can manage to keep the temperature bearable on a run, but forget hot. In my experience anyway.

Cheers I didn't know whether to go old school and get the old tin foil over the grille.

phil2109 said:

Cheers I didn't know whether to go old school and get the old tin foil over the grille.

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a decent sized sheet of cardboard is probably good for an experiment..,

easiest to extract if the rad does get HOT,
charlie

Had probs recently with poor heating which turned out to be coolant leak. Dose of radweld and coolant up to the proper level and warm up is much better and can get too warm even on cold mornings. Might be worth keeping an eye on coolant level.

doblo1964 said:

Dose of radweld and can get too warm even on cold mornings.
Might be worth keeping an eye on coolant level.

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I wouldn't recommend radweld at all, :yuck:
maybe the more scientific "liquid-glass" for a cracked block, or a loose liner,

but otherwise just replace the faulty part, far safer

and you haven't lined the entire cooling system with crud..,

Charlie

Since blanking off my EGR, I have noticed the heater is blowing out hot air far, far soooner than it used to (had it going these past couple of weeks!).

check for leaks near footwell i had to put in new heater unit was apain in the ass to fit cost me 400 notes

Could be an old school diesel thing - down side of diesel engines running colder than petrol engines.
Coolant lose will mean more air in the system and air won't hold heat like coolant.
If your not losing coolant and the heat is none existant, I would suspect a partially blocked heater matrix.
Looking at baroosh72's post - reckon it's quite labour intensive to replace. Did it involve partial dash removal to get to the matrix?

I'm curious as to why people cover their radiator grille.
My understanding of the cooling system is that it consists of three independent but connected parts - the engine, radiator and heater.
Whilst the coolant is cold/ under temp, it circulates around the engine only - unless heating is called for & then it circulates around the engine & heater matrix.
Only when it reaches optimum temps does the stat open & allow coolant to flow around the rad - where the coolant's temp is lowered, enough to close the stat etc etc.
So, blocking the grille won't warm anything up faster, it'll just mean the fan is on for far longer than it needs to be?

Covering the radiator dates back to really old cars where the thermostat wasn't much good, maybe vapour expansion based rather than wax. In really cold countries they do it to keep the snow out of the engine bay.

Judging on what happens on my hobby motor, covering the radiator as an affect on air flow around the engine. My hobby motor is a 2.8 diesel Frontera and pre having the winch fitted on the front air flow restrictive position, it was noticeable if the thermostat reached the quarter mark, normally ran about 1/8th on the gauge. Since the winch as been on it runs between 1/4 and 1/2 and on the occasions when I have a senior moment and forget to take the winch protective cover off before starting my journey, it gets between 1/2 and 3/4 on the gauge when worked hard. Think it even gets to open the thermostat, which is unheard of on these old tractors.