below zero cold starts

redmed · Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:39 pm

DesRado wrote:I know my dad used to use a trickle charger, that way at least the battery was strong enough to turn over the engine.

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If your car is driven at least once or twice a week you should not need a trickle charger. A good battery should be able to handle a below zero start. Trickle charging will extend the lifespan of a battery that is unused for extended periods. I do use trickle chargers for four vehicles that sit unused for extended periods. I trickle charge my 1951 International Harvester tractor and 1993 Ford F250 all year round. Both are only used for specific purposes once or twice a year. In the winter I trickle charge my Honda Foreman and lawn tractor both of these are used most of the year but sit idle through the winter. Before I started using trickle chargers my F250 battery only lasted 3 years before it would not hold a strong charge and I had to replace it. Now I trickle charge the battery with a Batteryminder charger that desulfates and the battery is now 8 years old and is fine. The Batteryminder charger has also brought back storage capacity to a few "dead" batteries.

My 2010 Kizashi has sat unused for four days and it started without hesitation the other morning @14 degrees.

Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:54 pm

RedGeminiPA wrote:I was told years ago to turn on the headlights for about 30 seconds to get the battery flowing before a very cold start. I'll admit I've never actually tried it.

You can do a native indian rain dance too...Doubt that will help. Keep you battery up. Using any more energy before it's needed is not going to help in a cold start.

Petr · Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:01 pm

If the battery is OK, he will lead the car and -22, like mine in Siberia. If the battery is weak, remove and store it home. In the morning put a warm battery and have forged in any frost.

WIKizashi · Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:36 pm

Petr wrote:If the battery is OK, he will lead the car and -22, like mine in Siberia. If the battery is weak, remove and store it home. In the morning put a warm battery and have forged in any frost.

Also a good theft deterrent!

redmed · Sat Feb 13, 2016 7:49 pm

Petr wrote:If the battery is OK, he will lead the car and -22, like mine in Siberia. If the battery is weak, remove and store it home. In the morning put a warm battery and have forged in any frost.

That's a lot of work trying to avoid getting a new battery when your battery is weak. A trickle charger that also desulfates the plates of your battery may restore some capacity to your battery, if it's not too far gone. But if your battery is so weak that your not sure of it. A new battery (or a set of jumper cables) would be a good investment to avoid missing work and money from lost time.

WESHOOT2 · Mon Feb 15, 2016 5:18 pm

Mine sat overnight Saturday in our hotel parking lot.
It was -17F when we left.
It started, but it didn't like it.......

44,299

pakizzie2015 · Tue Feb 16, 2016 1:28 pm

WESHOOT2 wrote:Mine sat overnight Saturday in our hotel parking lot.
It was -17F when we left.
It started, but it didn't like it.......

44,299

on Sunday Morning I had to start it. temp was -5. and as you said it started but wasn't happy.. I just sat there for about 15 minutes until it started to sound normal again.. I was surprised how fast it warmed up inside. My explorer took forever. The kizzie engine is louder than my four cylinders I have had. but again after the 15 minutes of warming up it was back to normal.. I took it slow driving it as the tranny was cold as well. After about 2 miles I noticed it was back to normal driving.. I guess I have been lucky to not have to drive in snow yet. I thought I would yesterday but now the rain came and it is gone..
I used the awd in a downpour once , road was really bad I felt the difference and a bit more safe. but with snow I may have to wait until next winter.

Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:08 pm

pakizzie2015 wrote: on Sunday Morning I had to start it. temp was -5. and as you said it started but wasn't happy.. I just sat there for about 15 minutes until it started to sound normal again.. I was surprised how fast it warmed up inside. My explorer took forever. The kizzie engine is louder than my four cylinders I have had. but again after the 15 minutes of warming up it was back to normal.. I took it slow driving it as the tranny was cold as well. After about 2 miles I noticed it was back to normal driving.. I guess I have been lucky to not have to drive in snow yet. I thought I would yesterday but now the rain came and it is gone..
I used the awd in a downpour once , road was really bad I felt the difference and a bit more safe. but with snow I may have to wait until next winter.

Modern cars don't need to be warmed up by idling for a significant amount of time. In fact, many experts agree that the best way of warming up a car is to just drive it. However, don't drive it hard until the car is at normal operating temperature. Idling it in your driveway is actually not great for the engine, not great for your wallet (idling is getting 0 MPGs), bad for the environment, is potentially harmful for your health, and simply doing little good other than making the car's interior warm for when you are ready to drive it. Modern computer-controlled engines with electronic fuel injection and multi-grade oils have largely made long idling warm-ups obsolete. I wouldn't warm up an engine for more than a minute unless I was in some absurdly cold region like -30 F. Even then, no more than a few minutes.

I also want to highlight the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning for people who idle their cars to warm up while doing things like shoveling snow or scrapping ice. It's a bad idea, especially if others are in the car waiting. The snow can block the adequate venting of the exhaust and cause carbon monoxide to build up in the cabin. A woman and her child died just a few weeks ago in the snow storm while the husband spent time digging the car out of snow. The car was idling so it would warm up.

Idling a car to warm-up for more than a minute is just really unnecessary and potentially dangerous. Just start driving it easy and it will warm up faster.

redmed · Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:29 pm

pakizzie2015 wrote:
WESHOOT2 wrote:Mine sat overnight Saturday in our hotel parking lot.
It was -17F when we left.
It started, but it didn't like it.......

44,299
on Sunday Morning I had to start it. temp was -5. and as you said it started but wasn't happy.. I just sat there for about 15 minutes until it started to sound normal again.. I was surprised how fast it warmed up inside. My explorer took forever. The kizzie engine is louder than my four cylinders I have had. but again after the 15 minutes of warming up it was back to normal.. I took it slow driving it as the tranny was cold as well. After about 2 miles I noticed it was back to normal driving.. I guess I have been lucky to not have to drive in snow yet. I thought I would yesterday but now the rain came and it is gone..
I used the awd in a downpour once , road was really bad I felt the difference and a bit more safe. but with snow I may have to wait until next winter.

Just curious if is common that a CVT is sluggish when first started? A friend has a Subaru Outback and he mentioned that it takes a few miles for the CVT to get more responsive.

pakizzie2015 · Tue Feb 16, 2016 8:07 pm

redmed wrote:
pakizzie2015 wrote:
WESHOOT2 wrote:Mine sat overnight Saturday in our hotel parking lot.
It was -17F when we left.
It started, but it didn't like it.......

44,299
on Sunday Morning I had to start it. temp was -5. and as you said it started but wasn't happy.. I just sat there for about 15 minutes until it started to sound normal again.. I was surprised how fast it warmed up inside. My explorer took forever. The kizzie engine is louder than my four cylinders I have had. but again after the 15 minutes of warming up it was back to normal.. I took it slow driving it as the tranny was cold as well. After about 2 miles I noticed it was back to normal driving.. I guess I have been lucky to not have to drive in snow yet. I thought I would yesterday but now the rain came and it is gone..
I used the awd in a downpour once , road was really bad I felt the difference and a bit more safe. but with snow I may have to wait until next winter.
Just curious if is common that a CVT is sluggish when first started? A friend has a Subaru Outback and he mentioned that it takes a few miles for the CVT to get more responsive.

in the case of my cvt. yes. it was sluggish and was not happy to be moving so I kept it slow until the it started to warm up. again took about 2 to 3 miles when I noticed it started to feel normal.. my neighbor has a forester 2015 and they said the same thing.. but to be honest my ford explorer had a 5 speed automatic and when it was very very cold out like it was this past weekend it would stay in low gears for awhile before it would go into overdrive.. and when it would finally go it was abrupt.. that transmission was well taken care of , fluid changes and all.. I talked to my friend who works on transmissions down the road here. he works on mostly Subaru's but works on most cars. he said it is very common for cvt's and regular transmissions to be this way. it actually is the transmissions way of protecting itself.. I told him my fears of cvt's and he said that as long as you don't abuse them like any other part of the car it will be ok.. Now I doubt we here in PA will have that kind of cold again this year. so I don't think this will happen again.. but I will continue to (waste some Gas ) and let it warm up a bit before I drive it.. I just don't like the way the car feels and the way the engine sounds at below zero.. But once it warmed up about 5 minutes later I left and went slow. I keep reminding myself we own orphan cars that we have to (baby) so to speak.. and a little cash out of the wallet for a warm up is a small price to pay..