Cars and cold mornings?

Soldato
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11 Apr 2004
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For those people who whack the heaters on and then go back inside the house, you do know your car is taking an absolute age to warm up.

Instead, flick the heaters to cold (don't even turn the blower on) start the car and come out in 5 minutes, switch to hot and set to a low speed.

The coolant will be much warmer (and thus work miles better) than if you'd just left the car cooling the freezing cold engine coolant, which you were doing by having the heating and blower on max on a cold engine.

Afterall, it's the engine coolant that runs through the heater matrix inside the car.
 
Soldato
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D4VE said:
This morning my handbrake was frozen on, the lever would operate but woundlt unstick it. Went for a quick drive but came back because it was still stuck on.
Went inside the house and it unjammed once the heat had worked on it, I'll garage the car tonight! :eek:
Exact same here.

I'm working from home tomorrow if this happens again.
 
Soldato
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I get up about 6... out the door for about 20 past, so I go out about quater past, start it up with heaters on full blast, de-ice it and go over the shop then drive off..
 
Soldato
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Gone......
When starting the wife's car - Walk up to front door of house, press button on remote starter. 15 minutes later, go out to already warm car and drive away.

When starting the old truck - Go out, unplug block heater, turn key on to let electric fuel pump fill carb, press pedal twice to prime and set choke, hold pedal down slightly, turn key. Once engine coughs to life, rev it slightly a couple times to ensure it's running ok on its own, go back inside for 10-15 minutes. Go out into nice warm truck and drive away.

With the Toyota - Go out, press pedal twice to engage choke, start car. Rap pedal to reduce carb high-fire setting from 3,500RPM to about 1,500RPM. Go back inside house for almost 30 minutes. Go out to still freezing cold car, but warm engine. Drive off.

When I get the Silverado running - Walk to front door of house, press start button on remote engine starter. 10-15 minutes later walk out to warm truck and drive off.


All those saying that leaving a car idling will damage your engine due to lack of oil pressure better take your car in and have it serviced / repaired. There's 10 times more damage done driving a cold engine than ever will be done by letting it idle. My 25 year old truck with 335,000 miles still developes 12-14PSI of oil pressure at WARM idle. At cold idle there's almost 60PSI. So if you're not getting good enough oil pressure at cold idle, there's something fundamentally wrong with your engine that sitting idling at a long stop light is going to kill it a lot faster than cold idling will.


Oh, and if I ever even THOUGHT about pouring water on my windscreen right now, I'd either end up with an EXPLODED windscreen or every single bit of water I poured on it frozen on it. Mind you, at 6:00 AM it's still -30*C around here.....
 
Man of Honour
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Wiltshire
I bag the garage whenever possible \o/

Otherwise it's just a case of putting on the heated front/rear windows & mirrors and leave the heater on. This usually makes it drivable within a few minutes :)
 
Soldato
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UK
Personally I start the car up 10 minutes before I set off and put the heating on full blast to the windscreen.

Then get some warm water and pour it onto the windows and mirrors, get in the car and drive off.

It's usually nice and warm, (apart from the leather steering wheel and leather part of the seats)!

I live at the bottom of a cul-de-sac so no-one is going to steal my car and I doubt much damage is going to be caused by not driving it straight away.
 
Soldato
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Bill101 said:
someone will steal your car if you leave it with the engine running :)
As long as you do not over rev it when very cold it will be ok and it will warm up faster as you are putting the engine under load, as well as getting some MPG.
The problem on really cold days is that the screen frosts up again as soon as you move

Not if its locked and the keys aren't in the ignition..

ah the joy of remote start... warm car and no piston slap on the way to work

:D
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
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I've got some of that de-icer that's in like a windolene bottle so it comes out in a fine mist, 2 or 3 squirts and the scren is clear.

Air con on so no misting up and I'm away.
 
Associate
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Weston-Super-Mare
If it's cold i start it up, turn on heating and rear window heater, drive off...............sit at the roundabout at the end of my road starting it up again........drive off again.

Reckon it needs a service ?

:rolleyes:
 
Suspended
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Manchester
andybtsn said:
I have asked numerous people this question but I get a different answer it seems. My knowledge is that you have to drive your car in cold mornings straight away and not just starting the car, putting the heaters on full blast and walking away for 10 mins.

Please clarify?


I thought it was different for different cars. In my old mk2 golf manual it said drive straight away but no high rev's :)
 
Soldato
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I don't get the fuss. I walk out my front door, down the warm heated stairway and out into the underground carpark. Get in the car, plip the garage door open then start up (cue noise of hammer hitting anvils) and drive out. :D
 
Soldato
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N.E England
My Routine:

Hop in car, start car
Put both heated windscreens on
Wait a few mins
Windscreen wipe the melted ice off
Drive off

by that time the cars fully heated up and the heaters are on full blast leaving me nice and toasty warm :D
 
Caporegime
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In a house
Tom|Nbk said:
My Routine:

Hop in car, start car
Put both heated windscreens on
Wait a few mins
Windscreen wipe the melted ice off
Drive off

by that time the cars fully heated up and the heaters are on full blast leaving me nice and toasty warm :D

Same. :D

Heated windscreens are a godsend, no more fannying about outside scraping, and spraying deicer. :p
 
Associate
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My neighbour used to start his car and let it heat up.
He used to wake my gf up with the noise.
I advised him that for the benefit of everyone's health he should just drive off immediately.
 
Soldato
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Wellington, NZ
Scrape windows, drive off with blower on max heat but low speed (so I can hear the radio) pointing at windscreen. Takes a while for the gear knob to warm up though:eek:

LoadsaMoney said:
Same. :D

Heated windscreens are a godsend, no more fannying about outside scraping, and spraying deicer. :p

You'd still have to scrape the side windows :\
 
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Soldato
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Stanley Hotel, Colorado
A modern car warms up much more quickly due to reusing the exhaust gases I think. Either way its much better to drive off then idle because you will do less damage overall, try for 2500 to 3500 revs.
AGW said something about setting the heaters to cold helps it warm up, not sure why. Maybe its the same idea modern cars are using automatically now
 

mrk

mrk

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Old car on cold mornings (icy conditions)
- turn key and listen for fuel line prime and engine light to go away
- turn to start engine
- listen to the engine start up, there is a rattle for a few seconds whilst the belts etc all warm up
- wipe/scrape side mirrors if they have ice on them or mist as well as rear window
- demist rear window
- drive off, within 5 minutes the engine warms up and the heating can be turned on
- the engine temp dial remains only a quarter up until a good hour or so of dirving


New car on cold mornings (icy conditions)
- Turn key, wait for dash to indicate normal checks complete
- Start car and press the windscreen button on the climate control (all mirrors auto demist themselves almost instantly once car starts)
- Any ice/snow etc melts off within 2 mins
- Press windscreen button and cabin returns to room temp...Drive :)

I noticed on cold morning leaving the climate on auto will not fire up the fans above 2-3 bars power until the car is warmed up enough - this reinforces what people have said about not turning the heating on until the car is fully warm. Even setting the temp to 32 degrees won't budge the auto climate control until the thing knows it can use the heat it's generating instead of blasting in cold air.
 
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