New Car

I carry a small plastic wedge for the doors. Helped half my neighbours at one time or another last year. First car I had with power windows was the Celebrity wagon. First car to have the windows unopenable from freezing too. Also the last for both classes, as I'm not big on repeating mistakes.
 
Nothin worse than walking at an almost run because you're in pain and freezing to death, only to get to the car to find it frozen shut. :(
 
'Specially when you have to take your gloves off to work the keys. Then you pull the handle and see the door flex and start worrying about breaking the handle off .... Ah, winter fun.

Nix, have you worked out where you're gonna park all winter?
 
Leslie said:
Nothin worse than walking at an almost run because you're in pain and freezing to death, only to get to the car to find it frozen shut. :(
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Remote car starter :)
:canada:
 
Last winter, I had to boost three people with those damn things. Mum's got one. Biggest problem with it is ...... you have to have left the heater switched to hot, and the fan full to get any benefit. The trouble being, if you set it like that last time, the first thing you did when you got in the car was to turn the heater down, and the fan to low.

Presuming that you did use it right, and you did set it to hot and full fan, and even to auto start every 2 hours because it was forecast for damn cold and snow last night. Well, at midnight, it started, ran for 10 minutes, melted half the snow, and turned off. At 2am, it started, ran for ten minutes, started melting some of the ice left by the 12am start, and turned off. At 4am, the snow had stopped and the temp plunged. Since it was dark, the lights had automatically switched on during the last two runs and ten minutes really wasn't enough to fully recharge the battery enough. It didn't start. And at 6am, when you tried to leave, the battery's dead, and the car is coated in a sheet of ice.

As I drove off, he was beating down on his car where the door and roof meet with a brush from the house, cursing a blue streak, with the words literally freezing as they left his tongue.
 
Professur said:
Last winter, I had to boost three people with those damn things. Mum's got one. Biggest problem with it is ...... you have to have left the heater switched to hot, and the fan full to get any benefit. The trouble being, if you set it like that last time, the first thing you did when you got in the car was to turn the heater down, and the fan to low.

Presuming that you did use it right, and you did set it to hot and full fan, and even to auto start every 2 hours because it was forecast for damn cold and snow last night. Well, at midnight, it started, ran for 10 minutes, melted half the snow, and turned off. At 2am, it started, ran for ten minutes, started melting some of the ice left by the 12am start, and turned off. At 4am, the snow had stopped and the temp plunged. Since it was dark, the lights had automatically switched on during the last two runs and ten minutes really wasn't enough to fully recharge the battery enough. It didn't start. And at 6am, when you tried to leave, the battery's dead, and the car is coated in a sheet of ice.

As I drove off, he was beating down on his car where the door and roof meet with a brush from the house, cursing a blue streak, with the words literally freezing as they left his tongue.
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I've never heard of an remote starter that starts the car all by itself overnight,usually you point it at the vehicle first thing in the morning and let the vehicle run for several minutes (several tens of minutes for you {chuckles} Easterners)and then its all toasty when you get to it.I see no point in a starter that repeatedly starts and shuts the vehicle off:confused:
 
The idea is that is keeps the battery from getting down-charged by the cold. Personally, I've a battery heater and block heater that I plug in if it's worrying cold. But most of the auto-starters I've seen have a sequence of button presses to program it to start at a timed interval. Msot people don't know how to do it, because that would involve actually reading the manual.
 
They got some that auto-start every X hours??!?

Sounds like a waste of gas t'me. :shrug:

10 minutes...that's all I need. Fan off. The car heats up faster that way once I get in.
If the drivers door doesn't open, I'll use the side doors, but that's happened rarely.

I havn't needed a boost in over 15 years. Left the lights on. :rolleyes:

Frozen battery? Turn on your lights before starting the car. The lights get brighter and brighter as the battery warms up. Once the lights are full up...Vrooom! No boost...just a trickle of power flowing through the battery is enough to unfreeze it. :nerd:
 
MrBishop said:
They got some that auto-start every X hours??!?

Sounds like a waste of gas t'me. :shrug:
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the entire damn affaire does to me. Hell, you're already dressed for the weather. Fuel injection doesn't need to warm up at all. Heck, most of last winter, I drove with the car's thermostat failed open. Didn't hurt me or the car none.

10 minutes...that's all I need. Fan off. The car heats up faster that way once I get in.
If the drivers door doesn't open, I'll use the side doors, but that's happened rarely.
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I went in through the hatchback a few times.

I havn't needed a boost in over 15 years.
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Neither has Nixy. And for much the same reason.

Left the lights on. :rolleyes:
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and now they've systems that'll even leave the lights on for you.

Frozen battery? Turn on your lights before starting the car. The lights get brighter and brighter as the battery warms up. Once the lights are full up...Vrooom! No boost...just a trickle of power flowing through the battery is enough to unfreeze it. :nerd:
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Bad news for ya. That's a myth. The lights getting brighter isn't because of anything you're doing to the battery. It's the lamps themselves (the gas inside) warming up. If your battery was in any way weak, that would just compound the problem. But, hey, keep doing it. What ever make you sleep well.
 
Professur said:
'Specially when you have to take your gloves off to work the keys. Then you pull the handle and see the door flex and start worrying about breaking the handle off .... Ah, winter fun.

Nix, have you worked out where you're gonna park all winter?
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If I live here I'll be parking in the driveway...
 
Professur said:
Bad news for ya. That's a myth. The lights getting brighter isn't because of anything you're doing to the battery. It's the lamps themselves (the gas inside) warming up. If your battery was in any way weak, that would just compound the problem. But, hey, keep doing it. What ever make you sleep well.
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If the battery was weak, it's because you didn't check it. It gets a once over along with everything else before the snow flies. The light's thing has worked on numerous occasions for myself and others..especially in shopping malls. People think they've drained their battery and need a boost, when the batt's just frozen. If the 'myth' works, use it.

"and now they've systems that'll even leave the lights on for you"

whatever for? Safety?

My lights switch off automatically after a few minutes. Stops people from draining their own battery with forgetfulness.
 
And when the relay sticks open? I like a simple system that, when you turn the key off, you turn everything off. No damn nonsense.
 
Professur said:
And when the relay sticks open? I like a simple system that, when you turn the key off, you turn everything off. No damn nonsense.
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Do they actually have that though,in older vehicles if you left the lights on they would kill the battery,newer vehicles will turn everything off saving the battery.Turning the key off "never" shuts everything off ,even if you've left the glovebox open or one of the doors the light could conceivably drain tha battery if you left the vehicle long enough,newer vehicles prevent this.
 
I won't speak for all cars. but in my van, there's a timer on the dome light. 10 minutes, even with the doors open, and it shuts off.
 
Professur said:
I won't speak for all cars. but in my van, there's a timer on the dome light. 10 minutes, even with the doors open, and it shuts off.
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Isn't that the same thing Bish was saying,


My lights switch off automatically after a few minutes. Stops people from draining their own battery with forgetfulness.
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