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1991 VW Jetta GL ECOdiesel COLD START (~40°F)

1,448 views · Published 5 January 2012 · 23:45 · Indexed 2 October 2026

Channel: bnkwupt · 2012 · Autos & Vehicles

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Instrument cluster view of a cold start... not the most entertaining, but it demonstrates the speed at which it warms up.

Temp today is 42°F, last night was 24°F, the night before was 14°F.

Your best bet is to skip around to view the temp gauge throughout the video.  There is moderately interesting stuff at the beginning and at the end.

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This is the "normal" sensor on a "cold" gauge, meaning that the indicated reading is one "line" left of center.  The other arrangement would make the gauge read as it's pictured, where the needle is indicating that the radiator fans are just about to come on (210°F?).  In other words, in my current setup, the fans come on at the line that's straight up, and the thermostat opens at the line just below that (first line).  

So going out on a limb, we can figure that the t-stat line is 210°F, the first line is 180° and the white bar ranges from 120° to 150°.  Gross estimates here... I'll have to verify things when I find the temp gun.

Based on the video, the engine reaches the bottom of the white bar at 10 minutes, the top of the white bar at 18 minutes, and half way up to the first line at 23 minutes.  Keep in mind that I pushed the cold start handle in at the 10 minute mark (as I normally do when it reaches this temperature), which decreased the idle speed and retarded the timing back to normal levels.

Bottom line is that it reached the same temp as my truck in the same amount of time... 20 minutes.

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