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The cool wail

The heater of my 5yr old Diesel 2.2 Nissan X-Trail T-Spec has never been much good and only starts to give out heat when the engine has warmed up after 10-15mins of driving. This is a real nuisance in severe winter weather because I can't use it to defrost my windscreen. My partner's petrol MINI One has an excellent heater and her car warms up within a few minutes and certainly long before the engine reaches its optimum operating temperature. Should my heater work better than it does?

Asked on 20 March 2010 by W.W., Birmingham

Answered by Honest John
This is true of diesel engine generally because they are more thermally efficient than petrol engines and that means they take longer to get hot.
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