So, I have a 2001 nb with a jackson racing supercharger. It was 18 degrees this morning and even with the car warming for 15 minutes, the car was not comfortably warm. Is there another thermostat I should try, I don't know what is in the car right now. The coolant is brand new. Full disclousure: I still have the soft top on it and it had stop leak run through it last summer. The stop leak was flushed out within days.
Thanks!
The softtop tends to let a lot of heat out, so that might be part of the problem.
Do you get nice warm/hot air out of the vents when you turn on the heat, or is that more lukewarm?
Flush your heater core and entire cooling system.
I drove an NB for 15 winters before retiring the car, and never though it was terribly cold. That includes well below 0F days.
The biggest issue I ever had to fight was that the hard top I had didn't have a rear defroster, so I had to use the middle vents to sometimes blow hot/dry air on the rear. That got the cabin very warm....
I did ten years of Ontario driving year round and was never cold. Heater was strong enough that on a bright winter day I would put the top down just to get some sun on my face while the heater kept me in the warm bubble.
If the heater core is working properly, you shouldn't be cold during the winter. The only Miata I have owned that wasn't pleasant in the winter was the one with a clogged heater core.
You put the top up? The heater keeps up pretty well with the windows up on a stock miata that is working properly. Also ran snow tires on my Miata for 3 years. I miss Miata life.
I plan to drive this new-to-me NA once in awhile in Ohio this winter, it has some sort of generic all-season tires. (The Abarth gets garaged with summer tires except for days above 40F and no salt.) I have the Crosstrek for winter duty.
I did drive the Miata one day last week when it was in the 30s, I discovered the heater works just fine.
The heat that comes out is warm, but the temp gauge didn't get to the middle this morning. I did flush the heater core, do it again? I have yet to put snows on the car as of yet....no snow yet here. Not that I am waiting until the last minute. The snows have been sitting out for three weeks at least.
My coworker drives his to the ski resort any time that it isn't actually snowing. It'll be 20* and he'll have the top down.
Yeah, you'll want a hotter thermostat if the temperature isn't coming up - the stock one should work well. If an aftermarket one has failed open it may never warm up in the winter.
I have the same issue with my supercharged NB. The temperature gauge will eventually get to the middle, but the air coming from the vents is warm, not hot, especially if I have the lever set to outside air. On the recirc it will get warm inside, but not very quickly. I'm running a hardtop on it during winters. I've only owned this one for 3 years and haven't bothered flushing the heater core, maybe I should. It was purchased with a blown radiator, so water pump, radiator, coolant and thermostat were all new 3 years ago.
Throw me in the "never had a problem" camp, except when it was really cold and I left the heat on full hot because the top was down and my shoe soles would get soft.
Is it possible the stop-leak clogged your thermostat open? My 96 (current daily beater) gets the needle to the middle of the gauge within 3 or 4 miles (<10 minutes of in-town driving) and warm air is flowing fine. It doesn't reach full hot out of the vents for another 5 minutes or so, but it's about the same warm up time as, say, my minivans. For reference, the warm up time on my 94 track car (has a thermostat) is about the same, and the really good quality gauge says about the same (~10-12ish minutes of street driving to thermostat opening temp ~190).
I can't see how a supercharger would cause it to be less hot? Did they wire the fans to be always on or something? Even with a thermostat, I could see that causing it to take quite a while to come up to temp then?
thedoc said:... but the temp gauge didn't get to the middle this morning. ...
Sounds like something isn't right with your thermostat.
My NA was fine with the hard top and my ND RF was fine, the heat on both would run you out of the car they got so hot.
I drove to Florida and back doing about 75 with the top down in about 40ish degree weather on a cloudy day with some spritzes of rain. With the heater on full-blast I could smell the soles of my shoes starting to melt a bit. Granted my car is an NA not an NB, but I can't imagine there was that much of a change. I'd be concerned that either your thermostat is wrong or malfunctioning or that your heater core flow is restricted. Maybe some stop leak got gummed up in there.
Check thermostat.
You can do this without taking the car apart if you buy one of the cheap laser thermometers: aim it at the rad hose and wait for the sudden change. If no sudden change, then either no thermostat or bad thermostat.
Afterwards, use laser thermometer to heat-check steak searing pan and entertain pets.
In reply to WonkoTheSane (Forum Supporter) :
Just to be clear, I wasn't thinking the supercharger has anything to do with the issue. If anything it generates more heat.
In reply to NOHOME :
I use my tire pyrometer to check rad hose temperatures.
Keep in mind, if it's staying cold it's probably stuck open so I'd expect a gradual increase in return line temperature as the car warms. You can kind of see the water moving past when the thermostat is open in the neck, especially when you rev the motor which can be a hint as well.
If it's had stop leak run through it, I'd figure the thermostat is sticking and the heater core needs a thorough flush. Put in a new thermostat, backflush the core, and then see how the heat works.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
Yeah well, can you use your tire pyrometer to point at someones beer across the room and tell them they are slaking off? eh? 
when I had my roadsters, I drove them all year with the top down. It needed to be raining or snowing for me to put them up. The only times I was ever cold was fall. My body was not yet acclimated to the cooler weather, so I froze my butt off until I got used to the temps
I dailied an NA for years in Michigan. Never got cold.
That said, i do have some aftermarket seat heater kits that I never used, if you're interested. Heck, I have seat massagers and ventilators as well.
I’m going to flush the system and put a new thermostat in. It wasn’t that cold on the way home and the temp was warm, def not hot.
I won’t get to it until this weekend. I’ll report back .
Thanks Gents
One last thing:
If you have an upsized/aftermarket radiator installed to cope with the supercharger heat, you'll lose more heat there than the motor will generate in chilly temps. Try blocking 1/2 the rad area with a piece of cardboard before swapping out a thermostat. You may only hit thermo opening temp for a very short time before it closes down again if your radiator is oversized for winter.
You'll need to log in to post.
