Winter preparations

Pat Mustard

After a late one at work, I got to the car and it was covered in ice.

There's a can of de-icer in the boot, so I took it out and the bloody thing was low on gas, even though it seemed to be fairly full of liquid. No good.

So I found the old reliable ice scraper that I have for years. Doesn't look exactly like this but you get the idea:



And then I remembered the really cold winters of a few years back, when even warm water was no good to get the ice off your windscreen because it would freeze immediately. The only thing for it was the ice scraper.

There are probably a lot of things you could do to prepare for the cold weather but this was €2 well spent.

Anyone else?

Turbulent Bill

Yep, my morning routine is to start car, turn on heater, scrape off ice (starting with windscreen) and off I go. Perfectly effective and gets me some fresh air.

Another motoring-related one is to check your traction on a quiet bit of road in cold weather, i.e., how good is your grip.

lazybones32

Check tyre pressure and tread-depth (or get it done); leave a high-viz bib and a cheap led flashlight in the boot in case you need to change a wheel. To have a 20 euro note in the glove box for 'emergencies' has been on my list for a while but it doesn't stay there for long...
And drive slow; the Gardai might be seeking quotas again this Xmas.

Pawwed Rig

Dig out my gloves and hat. They always go missing over the summer

skallywag

Making sure your windscreen cleaning fluid has antireeze in it, otherwise risk having it freeze instantly on your windscreen as soon as you hit the lever, great fun when you are zooming down the motorway ...

Seriously?

Above all don't be one of those lazy sods who leaves their car running in the morning unattended to warm-up and defrost the windows.

The inconvenience of sitting in it for a short time beats having someone simply working out how to open the door and drive off.

paulmclaughlin

skallywag wrote: »

Making sure your windscreen cleaning fluid has antireeze in it, otherwise risk having it freeze instantly on your windscreen as soon as you hit the lever, great fun when you are zooming down the motorway ...

Do not put anti-freeze in your windscreen washer reservoir!

If you want to protect against freezing, make sure your anti-freeze in your coolant system is fresh and at the correct ratio. And you should add windscreen washing fluid (not anti-freeze) to your windscreen washer reservoir.

Pat Mustard

paulmclaughlin wrote: »

Do not put anti-freeze in your windscreen washer reservoir!

If you want to protect against freezing, make sure your anti-freeze in your coolant system is fresh and at the correct ratio. And you should add windscreen washing fluid (not anti-freeze) to your windscreen washer reservoir.

There are windscreen wash products that have very low freezing points, maybe -10 or -15.

I have noticed that some of those products can wear the rubber on my wiper blades, so I prefer ordinary screenwash.

Henry Ford III

I have a heated front screen. Simples.

yeppydeppy

Seriously? wrote: »

Above all don't be one of those lazy sods who leaves their car running in the morning unattended to warm-up and defrost the windows.

The inconvenience of sitting in it for a short time beats having someone simply working out how to open the door and drive off.

I live in a small town - the only problem with doing this is it disturbs the neighbours for the few minutes I have to leave the car running while I'm inside getting ready - fair play to them though, they've never complained.

Pat Mustard

Henry Ford III wrote: »

I have a heated front screen. Simples.

Not everybody drives Fords, Henry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickclear

paulmclaughlin

yeppydeppy wrote: »

I live in a small town - the only problem with doing this is it disturbs the neighbours for the few minutes I have to leave the car running while I'm inside getting ready - fair play to them though, they've never complained.

How loud is your car?

And there's also currently a thread over on the Motors forum of a person who did just this and had their car stolen. It was not covered by their insurance company either.

yeppydeppy

Admittedly it's a diesel engine ticking over but it's not like I'm out there revving it. Where I live, the chances of it being stolen at that hour of the morning are nill.

skallywag

paulmclaughlin wrote: »

Do not put anti-freeze in your windscreen washer reservoir!

If you want to protect against freezing, make sure your anti-freeze in your coolant system is fresh and at the correct ratio. And you should add windscreen washing fluid (not anti-freeze) to your windscreen washer reservoir.

Sorry, I should have been more precise with my wording, I did not mean to say explicitly add anti-freeze to the fluid, but meant rather to use a variant of the fluid which was still liquid at minus temps

Kevin McCloud

Forget the de icer and scraper and install remote starting, remote start when you get up and 5 mins later after breakfast come out to a nice warm vehicle.

Pat Mustard

Kevin McCloud wrote: »

Forget the de icer and scraper and install remote starting, remote start when you get up and 5 mins later after breakfast come out to a nice warm vehicle.

Sounds good:
1. Which system do you use?
2. How much was it?
3. Where did you get it?
4. Do you find it good?
5. Are there any problems with it?
6. What is the range/effective distance?
7. How much was the cost of installation?

(Please excuse the barrage of questions but I find the idea of remote start interesting and I had not even heard of it until you mentioned it).

D'Agger

Henry Ford III wrote: »

I have a heated front screen. Simples.

Got a great kick out of this given your username Henry

It's the one thing I miss from my old car - absolute lifesaver to have a heated front screen....that said I've heated seats in the CC so 6 of one really and I'd nearly prefer my own comfort over convenience :pac:

Pat Mustard

D'Agger wrote: »

that said I've heated seats in the CC

The CC?

D'Agger

Passat CC - it's my baby :pac:

Daenarys

I use cold tap water on an frozen windscreen first, requires less effort with the scraper then. Haven't used warm water since discovering the Mpemba effect has some truth in it!

I always carry jump leads, you'll always meet someone over the winter period with a flat battery and no leads.

Pat Mustard

D'Agger wrote: »

Passat CC - it's my baby :pac:

Good old VW. I always wonder if there is some reason why Irish and Germans do so well. Maybe it's just me!

D'Agger

The Mustard wrote: »

Good old VW. I always wonder if there is some reason why Irish and Germans do so well. Maybe it's just me!

It's probably because the Germans are really good at most things

Pawwed Rig

Daenarys wrote: »

I always carry jump leads, you'll always meet someone over the winter period with a flat battery and no leads.

Me too. Jump leads and a tow rope. Came across a girl last week who had run out of petrol. She was so grateful that someone stopped to help

Kevin McCloud

The Mustard wrote: »

Sounds good:
1. Which system do you use?
2. How much was it?
3. Where did you get it?
4. Do you find it good?
5. Are there any problems with it?
6. What is the range/effective distance?
7. How much was the cost of installation?

(Please excuse the barrage of questions but I find the idea of remote start interesting and I had not even heard of it until you mentioned it).

Remote starting is for colder climate countries to be fair about it. Saw it in cars in Canada years ago. To answer those questions,

1. It was a cheap universal unit.
2. Was €30
3. America
4. Its novelty wore off but its a super job on a frosty morning, just have to remember to have heater set to warm and fan on.
5. No problems working 100%
6. Aboout 30 metres
7. Nothing but time, i do auto electrics.

Ideally should be only fitted to an automatic and wired in sync to work when car is in park or neutral, if it were a manual and had it in gear it would start and drive on. Can fit a switch to sense neutral alright to combat this.
In my jeep the second stick for 4wd system it has a neutral slot so i wired it in such a way the remote start don't work unless its in that position also its wired via the handbrake so it wont work if handbrake isn't pulled either. I have other parts to make the system work and it took a nice bit of wiring and time but still worth it for the few frosty mornings we get.