My motor lives out. The short driveway goes steeply uphill to the road. Obviously, these last few mornings windows have been frosted up. Being a noted skinflint I decided against one of those coldstart devices.
Conventional wisdom seems to be that you shouldn't run the engine at tickover before moving off. But in my particular circumstances what would you guys suggest is the better option:
(i) allow to tickover just whilst scraping off the ice, or
(ii)scrape off ice then start engine and go straight up the driveway.
Your advice appreciated!
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iii Start engine,put heater on full,go inside finish breakfast,go back to car and drive off.Works every time for me.[if you live in a dodgy area use 2nd set of keys to lock car doors]
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If it's been snowing and the drive is that steep I would go back to bed unless you've salted the drive the night before!!!
In the last real winter we had down here in Essex, when we actually had more than an inch of snow, had a workmate who's drive sloped down to the road quite steeply. He spent all day telling us how well his car had started that morning and how he hadn't had to scrape it off seeing as it was in his garage, went on about it ad nauseum.
Best bit was, he didn't manage to get the car back up the drive into his garage for best part of a fortnight :-)
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Small fan heater on extension lead for ten mins before departure. As per thread the other week. Mains flex can fit under car door OK on "first catch"
rg
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I was souindly b****d by Guy for doing this. Apparantly I am the major cause of global warming and killer of cats.
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We are not bothered by the global warming scam but we are very fond of cats.
One lives here permanently and we do daycare for several more, while their people are out at the ratrace. Not, obviously, that we have any rats.
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My cat, apparantly, would cost in the region of £600.oo from the local BMW dealer, pretty poor rat catcher though.
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Talking of cats, a site of the company I work for "shot" a few feral cats (feline) as they were cr*pping all over the Finished Goods. Headline in the weekly rag was "Cat Slaughter at local Paper Mill"
Seriously, leaving a car ticking over does completely knacker the cat along with the mota. My car lives "out" and I have never left the mota running to warm up. It starts first time, every time and all I need to do is scrape the ice of the windscreen and both driver door windows and then stick the heated rear screen on and then *DRIVE* - simple. The car warms up to 80degC oil temp within 3 miles and then no worries. The choke (auto via ECU) cuts out by mile #2.
Leave your car running as a stationary mota and it will take a lot longer to warm up than if you actually work it as it has been designed to work and will cause it to run rich for 10-15 mins - goodbye cat and no shotguns in sight.
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I live in Minnesota where it gets well below freezing for 3 months every winter, we have a remote starter (you have to remember to leave the heater turned on and the seats (Lexus) the car idles for 15 mins. No trouble with the Cat or Motor and have been doing this starting procedure for 4 years. We also have block heaters which keep the coolant luke warm which enables the heater to heat almost from start up.
Eleanor
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Clear the ice off the windows, then get in, start up and drive away. Cold idling is thoroughly bad for the car, as confirmed by all the manuals I have ever read -- Ford, Rover, VW, Audi, Mercedes all strongly recommend driving off without cold idling. Add to that the pollution and neighbourhood noise annoyance and there's no other option really.
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