Cold starts. Very cold starts

[Howard]

Thought I'd enquire as to how you lot get going in the mornings when it's 7am and frosted up... Particularly those without the luxuries of uberheated windscreens

I know starting the car and leaving it running for 15 minutes while you go eat breakfast is bad, but my method is to start it up then scrape the ice off the side windows, then the back and front as they're almost melting..., it's only idling for a couple of minutes then, and by that time mine's actually got pretty warm.. Is this good or bad practice?

[MadduckUK]

take this morning for example.. i push it backwards out of the driveway and onto the road which is bastarding difficult with no power steering and a wome turning the wheel... lots of backwardsing and forwardsing... then along the road till im at running speed, where hopefully my flatmate will lift the clutch and turn the ignition at the same time and the car will live!!

its going in somewhere if i have to do that again tomorrow

[Howard]

Haha... What car?

[MadduckUK]

rover 420

there were loads of people walking past too, but i was angry enough with the situation not to care

[99Flake]

1) Unlock car
2) Get in car
3) Push heated front screen and heated rear screen buttons
4) Use wipers 1 minute later for front screen
5) Drive away

[mycarsavw]

1. Unlock car
2. Get in car
3. Reverse down driveway, over postman
4. Realise I can't see anything, press heated rear screen button and turn on windscreen demister thingy
5. Drive back over postman and set off peering through tiny demisted gap in front screen.

[Konan555]

I'm just going to refer to an earlier thread

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-automo...ph-sprint.html

[Moby-Dick]

The turbo timer in the 200 was handy for early morning warm ups

or you do what I did the othewr day in the Sigma.

1. Unlock Car
2. Start Engine , put heaters on.
3. Realise Windscreen is Icy , so get out of car to scrape it down.
4. *clunk* - Central locking throws a wobbler and locks - engine running
5. Feel Stupid
6. Call AA
7. Wait for AA to arrive
8. AA Man breaks into car
9. Drive off

At least the screen was clear

[99Flake]

My car does that when cold, the locks click a lot and then suddenly will either lock/unlock themselves. Very odd.

[Konan555]

I know someone that puts a fan heater on his parcel shelf, runs an extension lead inside and puts a timer on it for the morning.

[Vimeous]

1. Get to car five mins before due at work to discover the weather report was worth watching after all.
2. Adreniline rush as double handed scraping swings into action doing side-windows, rapidly demisting rear, then main screen.
3. Watch the world go by as stubborn wiper refuses to unstick despite aircon recirc on full.
4. Hop in and peer through the one gap in the misted screen on the drivers side while the passenger side is happily clear!
5. Grumble.
6. Arrive late by 1min, get docked 15mins and mutter unutterables under ones breath

7. Do it all again tomorrow!

[Shad]

I normally start the Volvo and let it idle and scrape ice off, but I don't really care too much about that car. I took the 7 today but that's in the garage anyway.

4th gear wheelspin kept me on my toes, very very cautious drive to work!!

[Tumble]

It took me ages to get the van started this morning. It just wouldn't catch. I think the heater plugs may be on their last legs actually - it's due for a service in about 500 miles.

[shelley bda]

I was a bit worried about starting my car this morning as i've never started him up in the freezy frost! luckily he started no trouble, which was brilliant! so I left him running while I turned the heaters on
( which seems to throw out air colder than the air outside and when it does eventually warm up it barely takes the chill off ) while I got lukewarm water for the windows

[Neo_VR]

100k miles and my Skoda still starts within the first Revolution of the crank... ahh, 1.9PD engine.. pure reliability!
Trying to get rid of the ice on the inside windscreen was a different matter tho

[0iD]

Look out of window, detect frost
kick wife out of house to de-ice car whilst i finish my cuppa
Await wife's confirmation car is de-iced & warmed up.
get in & drive to work.




wake up, realise it's a dream, curse, virbally abuse pets, grump off to do it myself.