I just checked the forecast, and my little slice of Northern Illinois will be a whopping -16 degrees Fahrenheit tonight before warming up to a balmy -6 degrees by daytime on Friday. Then, it’ll dip back into -11 degrees tomorrow night. Wind chill? Glad you asked! It’s going to be -40 degrees. How do you prepare your car for this?
Deep freezes can have a profound effect on your car. Let’s start with diesel vehicles. Diesel struggles to remain a liquid under 32 degrees. Diesel vehicles are basically doomed in sub-zero temperatures without liberal use of anti-gel. But even if you can keep your diesel a liquid, it could be so cold that your starter just can’t crank your freezing diesel engine and its syrupy fuel fast enough to actually fire the engine. A block heater and maybe an engine wrap are necessary here.
In the coldest regions on the planet, like Yakutsk, Russia, the risk of an engine failing to start is so huge that some people run their engines nonstop all winter. Others take measures to insulate their engines from temperatures that can drop below -50 degrees Fahrenheit. Even gasoline cars struggle when temperatures drop below zero. Engines crank slowly, batteries struggle, and if you’re as unlucky as I am about once a year, your car is staying where you parked it because the battery and starter just can’t get the job done.
EV owners aren’t totally safe, either. Aside from losing some range, some EV models may not even charge at certain crazy low temperatures, and some chargers may not be particularly responsive, either. What I’m getting at here is winter can be a menace to a machine just like it can be to your mushy, fleshy body. Oh yes, that’s a big deal, too. You don’t want to get snowed in while driving, and if you do, you have to make sure your exhaust pipe is clear.
Anyway, I get concerned whenever there’s a deep freeze. I fear one of my cars has condensation in its gas tank, wonder if its battery will survive the freeze, and worry my sunroofs and such may not be leak-free enough to not leave huge chunks of ice waiting for me on the other side.
I often prepare for a freeze by running my vehicles to operating temperature, removing as much snow as possible, and making sure the battery is topped up. Then, I flip up the windshield wipers, make sure everything is closed up, and hope for the best. The photos in this story show how bad things have been at home lately. It’s so cold and snowy that everyone’s car is messy and icy.
I tend to buy cheap batteries, and this is when they usually let me down. If I need to drive somewhere when it’s -10 degrees or colder out, chances are that super cheap Walmart battery is not going to be ready for the job, even if I had only recently purchased it. One time, this led to a weird situation where the only vehicle in my fleet that started was a motorcycle. So, I bundled up in snowmobile gear and went for a ride.
As you can probably tell, I’m not looking forward to the next couple of days. How about you? If you live in a place where winter exists, how do you prepare for what’s about to happen?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Toss on the winter tires and make sure I have a few jugs of windshield washer fluid on the shelf. Drag the snowblower out of the shed. Check the gas and fire it up.
After two years in Detroit and twelve years in Minneapolis, I moved to southern California. That was eighteen years ago.
Seriously though, common-rail injected diesels should start in very cold ambient temps if their systems are in good condition and if the fuel is correct for the season. I recall a trip to Sioux Falls, SD during the winter of 2003. I was driving a new 2003 Ram 2500 diesel (5.9L common-rail) and had parked it outside of the hotel. I didn’t plug in the block or battery heaters. The ambient temp was showing -12 deg F that morning when I cranked the engine over. The engine fired, chugged twice, and then quickly brought itself up to a clean 1000 rpm idle with no white smoke (no misfire). Why did this work so well? The fuel was locally purchased winter blend. I did not add any anti-gel or other magic sauce. The batteries were nearly new and well-charged.
The cars in Maine? Park them in the garage about October, plug in the battery tenders, and there they sit until June/July. If it ever gets to 0F where I live in Florida, the end times are upon us. It’s only gone below 0C about three nights in the nine years I have lived there.
But that said, my Mercedes BARELY turned over Monday morning at 38F when I headed to the airport at 5:45am. Really didn’t think it was going to start. First time it ever gave me any trouble starting. But it did, and ran fine the hour to the airport. Hoping it starts at the airport tomorrow, but it will be in the 70s by the time I get there. I see a new battery in my future this weekend. Probably both the main and the aux battery. That’s gonna leave a wallet mark. Sigh. NAPA has them both in stock at least.
I’m in Greenville, SC at the moment – getting out of Dodge before the icepocalipse comes. They were already spraying something on I-85 today when I drove up from North Georgia where I was working. It’s in the 50s currently, going to still be well above freezing when my flight leaves in the morning.
Any Autopians in the path of the storm – take care out there and stay safe and warm!
A few things. I make sure tires are at proper psi, as you lose 1-2psi 32deg F down to 0. Maybe even a pound of two above recommended for good measure. Also check battery, make sure voltage is good, I check it with a multimeter at terminals. If the cars sits, throw it on a tender to top up charge (both cars garaged at home), check all fluids and top off as needed, do throw a jump pack in if we’re going anywhere not local, emergency kit and blanket. We also do not let fuel level go under about 1/2 when it’s this cold, but also do not “brim” top off, but I don’t do that anyhow since it’s bad for modern fuel evap canisters.
Like Mercedes said, let stuff get to temperature and drive it. I usually wait at least a minute before putting in drive and venturing off, maybe even 2-3 minutes if I have the time. Also short 1mi drive when it’s really cold is not good at all for charging and the car. It’s a massive pet peeve of mine how remote starts blast the defroster fan, this “feature” makes it all take longer to get warm. I try to get in at least a 15 minute + drive, ideally highways. Disable start stop like always, oh yeah if your using heated seats, defrosters, stereo, headlights etc on a short trip your not actually charging you battery that much – if at all. So give it a while to run and above idle too on the drive so alternator puts out more voltage.
I put it in the garage.
Not much, because zero degrees here is in centigrade. I might wear a jaunty scarf.
Pack up all my shit and move to Tucson. (That’s what I did and weather was a major, though not the only, factor).
GummiPfleger on door seals, it keeps door seals from freezing to the car but also conditions and protects the rubber. Make sure that washer fluid is topped off. Top off gas tanks. Make sure to have a flashlight and a blanket onboard also jumper cables or a jump box.
Gummi what?
It’s as fun to spell as it is to pronounce. It’s a rubber seal cleaner and treatment. My fleet is anywhere from 8-24 years old so I try to treat the seals in the winter to keep them from freezing and once in the summer to help protect the seals from UV. Not sure how well it works but it helps me sleep better. That’s worth $15 to me!
I had to look up the pronunciation.
They describe it as a water based silicone.
Seems worth checking out.
I live in San Diego.
The most boring job in the world – Weatherman in San Diego.
75 and sunny with no relief in sight!
LOL!
I really do love San Diego. One of my favorite clients is the Scripps Marine Institute, and I did a lot of work for a UCSD department whose offices are right on the beach in La Jola – nothing like keeping a surfboard in your office and going out at lunchtime to catch a few waves. But I don’t love Ramen Noodles enough to want to live there, because that is the only thing I would be able to afford to eat if I did!
Oh come now, surely you’d be able to afford saltines too. Every other day.
I’d need a good raise to afford that level of extravagance out there!
The trick to batteries in cold places: buy a heavy-duty battery (more than the factory one on rated cold cranking amps) that has at least a 4 year warranty for the daily driver.
It means the battery will actually likely last a while and won’t be junk in a year, because manufacturers don’t want to eat warranty costs.
When I used to have engines that could take conventional oil, I’d run conventional oil in the summer and synthetic in the winter, because synthetic flows so much better at low temperatures.
Finally, for really cold places: block heater. A hour or so on the block heater before I leave in the morning and the engine just snap fires on the first try.
Edit: Winter tires, too.
Unless you live in a place where it’s -20F or less regularly and for a long time all you really need are:
True winter tires aren’t a necessity but they really do make a big difference too.
“How Do You Prepare Your Car For Subzero Temperatures?”
I don’t do anything special. My car has quality all season tires that are good enough for winter… so nothing to do there.
I keep my fluids topped up and I plug in every night (as it’s a plug in hybrid). But that’s not specific to winter. Plugging in not only charges the HV battery, but the 12V battery as well.
Oh at the start of winter, I do take my snow brush and compact shovel out of storage and put it in my car. So there’s that.
Well, if you’re Ted Cruz, you leave your car at home and hop a flight to some place warm the minute the governor declares a state of emergency for cold weather.
It can’t be your fault when the power grid can’t keep up if you’re not there.
Nah, it’s the evil windmills’ fault!
Green power; the evil you least expect.
They are killing the whales!
Switching to winter tires in the middle of October. A bit in advance , as after the first freezing day (we call it “body shop day” here) tire shops will have long queues. Also I used to change windshield fluid in advance cause if the damn thing freezes and you try it, you get a blown fuse in the best case or a burned water pump in the worst. Now I have a heated underground parking so it’s not a big issue. Maybe throw a brush in the trunk. Aside from all this – nothing else.
Um, don’t drive in such cold temperatures.
Prepare for a cabin-ation by getting plenty of food and water, make sure you have plenty of fuel for your emergency generator.
Heat your garage.
I keep my cars in a well-insulated garage. In the winter months, I keep a brush / ice scraper and a set of tire socks in the trunk, just in case.
This is true, and it’s worth explaining why. Lithium batteries like to be around 75F during charging/discharging for the optimal electrochemical ion exchanges to occur. This means when the batteries are very cold, the car actually needs to warm them up before charging, and this eats into the available charging current for the batteries.
I saw this firsthand trying to charge my Mach-E outside on a trip in -10F temps using a 120V charger. Nearly all of the wattage when into the battery warming, leaving only 100-200W for actually charging the battery. The car estimated it would take something like 4 entire days to charge while still drawing that 1500W maximum from the outlet. It’s like setting a space heater outside in a snowstorm.
I ended up just driving to a DC fast charger which had plenty of overhead to power the battery warmers while still charging the batteries at a fast rate, but it was really interesting to see how much power it takes to keep a big battery pack warm like that.
As a lifelong MN resident, I don’t do anything special to our garaged cars and they start just fine down to -30F+ (outdoor temp, likely warmer in garage but still very cold). This includes our 2012 Touareg TDI since the diesel here is adjusted for winter temps. As mentioned in the article, having a good battery is well worth the peace of mind in cold winters. Our 2011 Outback is parked outside and starts every time in the dead of winter with a decent battery. However, starting is just the first hurdle. After an older vehicle is started it’s always painful to listen to the engines/belts/accessories make awful noises to voice their discontent at being run so cold.
Fellow MN resident. I had a 98′ TDI Jetta as a DD for 12 years in which time I drove it 160k miles (on top of the 100k it had when I bought it used).
I found especially in temps about -10 F it did Not like starting. I’d cycle the glow plugs at least 3 times by turning key to the start position and wait for the glow plug light to turn off before cycling the key off and back to the accessory position again & repeat.
Happy to hear VW improved their TDI cold starting system in the span of 14 years!
Depends on the vehicle. For my wife’s car I put winter tires on around the end of October. I will also make sure there is deicer in the wiper fluid or add methonol or some kind of rainx addictive that’s probably just methonol. I keep bottles of heat in all gas cars. I always make sure I have a shovel of some type they make some compact ones that fit in most vehicles ,some kitty litter and I’ve taken to keeping these rubber tread things for traction too. If I know I don’t have treated or winter blend diesel in a truck I’ll add some treatment. Typically I’ll check all the batteries during the first hard freeze. And always have a few jump packs ready to go. The $30 to $40 Chinese lithium ones have treated me well and I have several around. When the vehicle is outside I’ll leave it unlocked and wipers up and make sure I have a brush and scraper inside.
1) In my RAV (and similarly in the car it replaced, a GenII Prius) I get in, start the car, and drive away.
2) In my old Toyota truck, I get in, pump the gas about four times, give the key a twist.
2a) Say a bad word when the engine turns but nothing else happens.
2b) Pump three more times. This is usually enough.
2c) Twist and listen while the engine struggles. Stab the gas to get the choke to set properly.
2d) Go inside and finish doctoring my coffee while the engine warms up.
2e) Shuffle back to the truck, get in and drive away.
I live in Alaska. I don’t do anything special. My cars are parked in the garage though. When I didn’t have a garage, I’d plug in the block heater an hour before driving if it were below 20 degrees F. When parked away from the house out in the cold, I don’t worry about it. I never drove my car to work (as a bike/run/ski commuter), so I’ve rarely needed to leave a car out in the cold for more than a few hours.
When it’s below zero F, snow is less of a worry in terms of sticking to the car or making the roads slippery than when it’s around 32 F because it’s dry.
The diesel is all treated before it gets to the pump here, so no worries, even when I was driving the old diesel F-350 work truck for -20 F environmental field work back when I was working. I didn’t even know diesel could gel until reading previous articles here.
I think about extreme cold more on winter road trips, but that’s more a matter of having a winter camping gear. I already keep up the maintenance.
The one thing mechanical to consider for the handful of people that use aftermarket, unheated catch cans is to uninstall them and not use them in extreme cold. I had one a Gen 3 Prius and I needed to check it every fuel stop (about 500 miles) which was every day on a cross Canada winter road trip. Extreme cold condenses water vapor passing through and it freezes up. It would fill to as much as 1/3 full in a day. If you don’t check, it can potentially cause a blockage. Unscrewing a catch can with frozen threads in -40 temps is not fun.
Can you expand about ‘catch cans’?
The only auto examples I can think of the use of a catch can would be on turbocharged cars having a catch can for oil cooling of the turbo, which of course a Prius would not have, at least not stock, from the factory.
There was theory popular on Priuschat that the head gasket issues of the 3rd Gen Prius was related in part to oil from the PCV system being dumped into the intake and subsequently being clogging up the EGR cooler after being burned. Some of this is true. Oil does end up in the intake. A catch can does intercept some oil even though there is a simple baffle in the engine block ahead of the PCV valve. The EGR cooler does get clogged up at higher mileage, as well as the small EGR passageways in the intake that lead to each cylinder. The Gen 4 design doubled the cross section of the EGR cooler to mitigate the clogging problem and there were frequent of revisions (something like 8 part number changes) of the intake manifold design just in the 3rd Gen. But after trying it, I think the benefit is probably overblown. The catch can does collect some oil but not that much oil in my opinion and more water than oil. It’s too much work for the typical owner and the benefit isn’t proven. If I still had a Gen 3 Prius, I’d clean the EGR cooler at some interval (I did it once in my car) and call it good.
Interesting, thanks for the tip!
I have a 3rd gen Prius (2012 Prius Plug-In) with high miles (about 260k), so I will have to check out the EGR valve.
Ohio guy. I have left cars unlocked because I’m not dealing with frozen locks in -10F weather. Wipers in the fully upright position if there’s any chance of freezing rain. Otherwise it’s just winter to me. Might take the snowbrush in the house the night before so I can remove 8″ of snow before I open the door and it all falls on the seat.
fellow ohio guy. I have a spare brush in the garage so I can do some of the main cleaning before opening the doors. let the car warm up and wait until the snow/ice against the glass is nice and soft & melty. then do a quick clean of that stuff.
I’ve also found it helps to do a bit of cleaning part way through a big storm too. only deal with 2-3″ of snow at a time rather than 6+. basically every time i do my driveway I do the cars too.
Swap the nordic winter tires and put the snow brush inside around November. The brush has a ice scraper, and Skoda has hidden an additional scraper inside the tank flap for emergencies. Mix the correct wiper booze mix. What more can you do?
Ok, during winter (and we have winters, -25 C two weeks ago): Wipers are lifted up or at least in the service position.
Start up? Since there is no block heater, the Webasto has a programmable timer or I just use the remote while having coffee… 10 minutes is usually enough to defrost the windows. If not, fire up the engine and turn on the electric windscreen defroster/heater? Also steering wheel and seat heaters. Yes, I’m just a big toasty cinnamon bun during the winter…. Of course the mirror and rear screen heaters are switched on if necessary.
If there is snow, it will be brushed off. There usually is. Also some shoveling or snow clearing may be needed as well.
Ok, esp. with the auxiliary heater and cold temps you must pay some attention to the battery, as the heater arsenal does consume relatively lot of electrons. But as I drive longer trips basically every week there have not been any issues.
That was an inconvenience of my former Golf of remembering to leave the wipers in the raised position if there’s chance of ice.
What kind of webasto?
I thought I knew who they were, but they seem to make every kind of heater.
Why no block heater?
Gas heater, a factory option that was typically ordered by the importer as a mandatory but free option, as it is quite popular. Probably 700-1000 eur/usd in VAG group cars typically, when fitted by the factory. Quite a bit more aftermarket. This car was bought second hand, so it was there. No block heater had been fitted, adding one would be extra cost, and there would be some faffing with the cables when you want to use it. And I would need to get an outlet with a timer. With the Webasto you can use the timer built in the infotainment or just use the remote, wherever I want, no cables needed. Also the engine runs primarily on CNG/CBG (methane – dual fuel), so it warms up fast. So the preheating is mainly convienience.
The factory spec heater is quite clever, for the first minutes it probably heats up the cooling circuit, but then it switches on the climate control by itself and starts to blast heat from the vents for 20 minutes or so. I think the main aim is to heat up the cabin and defrost the windows, but engine also warms up somewhat.
Downside is that it probably pollutes the air more than a modern engine. And eventually needs servicing. So no block heater due to laziness, costs and convienience.
Does yours heat up the cooling system, or directly heat the air?
The only freestanding heaters I’ve seen for cars before heated up the cooling system to warm the block.
I’ve seen more elaborate systems for lorries and RVs but mostly difficult and costly to use on smaller things.
I assume you’re in a colder area?
I find advantages to preheating my diesel in even slightly cold conditions, so I’m interested in any advantage I can get, so oil and transmission heaters are next, but a freestanding heater is a wonderful thing!
What I really need here is a self powered ac. Though not today.
I’ve been removing ice blocks from my vehicles.
Also, on older cars with a cable driven tachometer and speedometer, don’t be surprised at below 0F the needles on the dash won’t move from their resting spot until the lubricant on the cables warms up.
Which is why in northern climates the diesel from the pump is treated to remain liquid down to whatever low temperature that region generally sees. Around me that’s -20. Further north they go down to -40 or -50.
I guess my answer to the question is that I built a new house with a large enough attached garage to park all of my vehicles inside. Unless I venture out into the frozen tundra this weekend they won’t be exposed to the bitter cold at all.
The only other thing I do is block the grille on my Prius. That tiny aluminum engine struggles to stay warm in really cold weather, to the point where you can feel the heat getting cooler. Blocking most of the ventilation in front helps a significant amount. I don’t bother with the truck because it’s got active shutters that do the same thing, and it’s a big V8 that stays warm much better.
As a young mountaineer in California, we would go into the Sierra in winter without much thought about cars except for the need to carry snow chains. Then in the winter of 1975 we rented a cabin in Alpine County to use as a base camp for a week. It got down to very low temps for CA (-8F was the high one day). The VW Thing would start right up (we drove around in it wrapped in our down sleeping bags), but the big Ford station wagon would not start because the dad we borrowed the car from used only 40W engine oil. So we lit a Svea white gas single burner stove under the drain plug, set out pots to catch the warming goo, and then brought the pots into the cabin to be heated further on the wood burning stove (BTW, the toilet bowl in the cabin froze solid) and then we poured the oil soup back into the crankcase of the Ford.
In 1991 we moved to western Montana, and that first winter it would get to -20F and the CRX was parked outside. I would bring the battery into the house at night to warm over a heater vent, and no problems. Door lock frozen? Heat the key with a cigarette lighter. Windows wont go down because the seals are frozen? Apply graphite spray after they’ve warmed up. Oil too thick (and no block heater)? Light a camp stove under the oil pan.
Also, when it is very cold, tires will roll square for the first few miles.
Sweden has some very nice quick release battery connectors, likely to move the battery indoors.
They will operate while you’re wearing mittens.
I’ve seen aircraft engines that need the oil cycled through a heater and pumped back in, like an ICU operation, before they will run in Alaska.