BG510

Nowadays, it takes the heat forever to start working correctly in our 2010 Traverse. It used to take 5, maybe ten minutes to get warm. Now, the other day, when it was about 35 degrees out, it took over 20 minutes to spit out even luke warm air. Now we are into the real part of winter (we are in NJ), I don't want to have to have my car running for 30 minutes before I can get into it for a comfortable ride.

Any ideas why this is happening? And how to fix it?

tech2

here are some possibilities:
-low coolant level. check the level in the rad and coolant reservoir. If its low, have it tested for a leak. maybe the water pump is leaking
low cpoolant typical symptom will be no heat at idle but heat at 2500rpm.
-stuck open thermostat; your vehicles pcm does rationality checks for this fault. If this is the case a engine light will illuminate and a p0128 dtc will be stored. if the ses light is on, check for dtc
-temperature blend door not moving; your description does not indicate this to be the problem

Note:
modern vehicles do not heat up idling. Start the car, let it idle for 1-2 minutes and start driving. Obviously, the engines cold so don't drive hard or over rev the engine. Driving it is the fastest way to heat the coolant and get heat into the cab.

I have a 2000 p/u that puts out heat right away. At -20*C, it will take 5+minutes of driving to get heat, this is normal.