yea mine too but it just depends on how cold it is out side or if i parked it in the garage or not

 

Same with me a little over 1 mi, gauges indicate full temp.. I thought it was strange also when i first purchased the vehicle..

 

These little four-bangers take no time at all to warm up. Even in the middle of winter.

 

A more interesting question.. Have you ever noticed your cooling fans running? I've never had them come on with the exception of operating the A/C. I even live in south Texas! All things considered; I think with the extreme economy purpose of a Focus, it is designed to warm up fast and bask in its own heat.

 

Duratec- D20:
My cooling fans never came on. The engine heats up, but my guess (without a coolant temp gauge) is that it hovers around 180. This is an all aluminum engine, but it has the same radiator as the mixed Zetec. Ford did the same thing in the Aerostars- the 2.3 and 3.0 had the same radiator as the 4.0. Our motors are overcooled. My Focus would heat up quickly, but soon after the cold weather hit here- I noticed a sudden drop in my fuel econmy. Now the cold weather here came and went, and I was still on the same tank of fuel so it WAS NOT ethanol that caused me to go from 32ish to 26ish. These are guesses going by my usual usage at certain FE on my fuel gauge- not super accurate. I had a similar experience in my old Aero*, so I tried the same fix I used before. I blocked off part of the radiator with cardboard. The temps then stayed around 60F for more than a month. I never had a hint of overheating, and the fans STILL did not come on. The only time the fans did come on was while I was trying to figure out a problem with a friend's battery and charged it for 30 mins with mine idling.

Now the temps are dipping down into the 30's at night and the 40's during the day, and I've not noticed a difference in the fuel economy from when the temps were in the 60's. If you pull the plastic latch cover off that sits over the top of the grille back to the radiator (pull up slightly and slide towards engine after removing plastic screw & pin anchors), you will see that there are two spaces on either side of the latch support that are 8.5" x 17.5". I filled both these spots with cardboard, and folded the bottom of the cardboard to fit inside the splashguard at the bottom. After the testing period, I duct taped the cardboard and re-installed to protect the cardboard from rain. The car seems to run much better in the cold ambient temps, and the fans still do not come on. I think it would take 15 mins of idling to get the primary fan to turn on, and, from my charging experience at 60F, it goes off after about 5 mins.

Beware Zetec owners, this was done on an 05 Duratec, later D20's and D23 owners, try cautiously. I have not done any data logging with my XCal2. I am also running the stock program at the moment. XCal2 programs generally advance spark, so you might want to retard spark in the program instead to be completely safe and to avoid Ford's -10 knock sensor setting. D20 owners, this seems to be helping avoid cold ambient temp FE losses, however where I live there is not blended fuel because our temps barely go below 30 for 2 weeks. Your FE experience will be different, but my guess is that it will help some. IF anyone want's to do datalogging on an XCal with a D20 PLEASE post in my fuel economy thread. I'm too freaking busy at the moment. OH yeah.. instant heater too. []

 

yea if u let it sit, it wont warm up for crap... if you really drive your car right out of the gate, you can warm it up in about half a mile... but a mile or two is normal...

 

well mine just warmed up in like .8 of a mile but its not that cold out today and i pulled it out of the garage

 

ya letting it sit for like 5-10 min to warm up and the needle is barely moved, drive it for 1-2 miles and its warm

 

Guys I'm sure some of you know this but for those that don't you do NOT want to give your car hell when its cold!! It beats the crap out of the motor, and will slowly begin to shorten its life.

I live right off a highway and the speed is 65 but most do 70, now I dont care how busy it is when i pull out with a cold motor I dont shift past 3000 and slowly creep my way to 65. Once its warm I romp on it and get where I need to go.

So be gentle on your cold motors!

 

Yeah but it only takes a mile so its not hard to wait to romp on it.[thumb]

Also my 2003 4.o ranger takes like ten minutes of driving to warm up. I hate it when its cold and i cant use the heater.

 

i had a newer FoFo rental, and i was sooo amazed at the warmup period. i timed it, literally under 2 minutes, the needle was in the middle. my svt takes at least 10 minutes to fully warm up.

 

focusin is right, dont start the car up, give it 5 seconds and go, very bad, let it sit for atleast a minute to warm up the oil and such, i get in mine, turn on car, take asip of my drink, put on my seat belt, adjust the radio or cd toa song i like, turn up the volume,a bit to lol, and then put it in first and away i go

 

yea I sit mine out for like 10 minutes when its cold... that way it's not freezing inside the car... whoever it's still cold... but once I get moving, it warms up pretty quick

 

thats why i didnt rush to get a remote starter put in mine, i can deal with being cold for a few minutes and then getting warmed up, but i still may get the starter just becuase i dont always feel like shivvers and trying to concentrate on my driving

 

I just wanted to go a little off topic but has anyone noticed how freaking long it takes for it to cool down? I can get in my car after about a hour of letting it sit and the temp is still up there.

 

haha yea I have noticed... sometimes it can be upwards of 3 or 4 hours and it's still warm...

 

Does anyone notice a burst of heat from the vents while turning in their focus?

 

Nope I have never had this either.

 

no I've never noticed that... I will check it out next time I satrt mine up

 

ive noticed a horrible smell come out of my vents when i grind the clutch, its horrible anyone know what that smell is[hihi]


oh my 03 sometimes ive had burst of heats come out of the vents if i gave it gas once ina while, was kinda random

 

I thought I was the only one with the car warming up quickly. At least I know there isnt anything wrong with mine hehe. Ive never felt that little "burst of heat through the vents" though.

 

FWIW...the temperature gauge is reading cylinder head temp in the Duratec, not coolant temp. That's probably the reason for fast warm up/slow cooldown as shown on the gauge.

 

That's the purpose of the thermostat, to keep the water in the head. The focus warms up so fast because the head is probably designed to heat the engine fast, for emission and comfort purposes. Regardless of the funky temp gage, the air temp is warm almost immediately.

 

Is that the little bundle coming out of the center of the head in between the ignition coils?

My car takes half a mile to warm up. I don't sit in my driveway too long, about 15-20 seconds then go, but I just cruise till the car warms up abit. I don't hit the gas anyway driving to work, gas mileage (For those smart alecs out there, my car will idle to 25mph so no I don't have to hit the gas)

 

Is that the little bundle coming out of the center of the head in between the ignition coils?

Yup, that's the sensor.

 

ummm....mine warms up amazingly fast...probably my favorite part! but i live on a busy road so sometimes i need to romp on it...i try not to though...piston rings are my friend!

 

my car warms up in about 3 minutes

my truck is about 10-15 minutes

 

Both of my 2.3's warmed up very quick. I heard this was because of the precat in the exhaust manifold but I don't know for sure. I'd like to find out though cause if it's true, it's another reason to think carefully about a header.

 

also, the all-aluminum block might distribute the heat faster? I'm not sure. The explanation about the difference in where the temp gauge is reading from makes sense too though.

I know my little focus Duratec warms up a good bit faster than my mom's Escape does (but it has heated seats, so who cares)!

 

Mine gets to normal operating temp (gauge in the middle) in about 10 minutes of idling, or 2-3 minutes of just hitting the road cold.