In the Winter (New England) At idle will a 300D warm up suffciently and in a timely fashion to defrost/warm the cabin?
Rob M Concord, MA USA
a 2001 VW TDI will not, but with an AC blockheater, Bob's yer uncle

A diesel generally doesn't do such a good job of heating the vehicle cabin because it idles much more efficiently than a gasser. A VW TDI uses so little fuel to idle there is simply less waste heat.

__________________
'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

Diesel engines tend to not get up to operating temperature until you put them to work. At idle, they take in a huge volume of cold air relative to the miniscule amount of fuel- exceeds a 200:1 ratio I think. If your car has the idle control knob on the dash like mine does, increasing the idle will help a little as it introduces more fuel, but still may not raise the temperature enough to open the engine thermostat on a cold day. In winter months it's not a bad idea to use a radiator blind- cover most of the rad with a sheet of something, like you see on the big rigs.

Dave

'76 300D W115 "Pearl"