You know it's REAL cold when...
 

Your accelerator is frozen on full throttle!

I've tried kicking the pedal, jiggling the cable, and yet nothing! I had to borrow another guy's car here in the dorms to go get myself food :(.

Check out the Temps:
http://maps.wunderground.com/data/64...cn_st_anim.gif

Have other people had major setbacks (other than poor FE) due to the cold weather?

It's likes to kill my car battery, but that's about it, :p

Did you try holding the throttle wheel and yanking it?

No, I haven't tried that yet. There's no under-hood light, so I might check that out tomorrow. But yeah, that's the first time an accelerator stuck on me before in any of my cars.

On the upside, I got to drive a 1990s Sunfire... and wow! That car was much less worn out than my Geo :D. I felt like I was driving a luxury car :p.

-20 F this morning here. The TDI started unplugged but is was borderline. It ran so rough I should have recorded it! The clutch felt like it was soaked in molasse for a good 10 minutes of driving.

It beats walking when it's -13 and serious windchill :(

It's warmer in Greenland right now than South Dakota! :eek:

My gas pedal magically became unstuck overnight somehow. It's pretty amazing that a gas powered car would even work in this weather. I can't imagine an EV that could survive these temperatures.

My old Dodge Omni couldn't hack it under -5
Either the battery would die, or the engine would have to have a serious dose of starting ether sprayed down the intake manifold.

Ether works wonders :D

-5 and beyond
 

Cold soak with -5F as the low for about 6 consecutive days at the lot -- covered in ice, went to start it during a +3F warmup (2 HOT summers, EOC-ing over that time, and about 4-5 years on the batt). Cleared the ice/snow first (my personal coolant is on "C" now). Really slow cranks, 4-seconds later, and it fires! Acura stock replacement... worked well so far. Still waiting for that day to call AAA.

High idle at about 2000 RPM, "D" selected -- 2 seconds to engage, very slow to shift to 2nd (forced manual). The fluids have to be thick. Meanwhile, I'm frozen! After about 5-10 minutes on the highway and it's warm (gotta hand it to the rad-block -- simply a cookie sheet modified to block the frontal area of the rad area). Crummy mileage on that tank, tho -- despite the tune up.

More cold on the way, not quite the Dakotas or the Canadian Plains, but still windy and cold.

RH77

I was working at a warehouse on Friday.

There are only a few parking spaces in back there, the rest is overhead doors for semi's. All the spaces were taken, so I just had to park out in the open, my car not sheltered by the others the way penguins huddle together.

Could not get the car to start to save my life. The battery was OK, it turned over, just wouldn't catch.

We put it in neutral and pushed it into the warehouse overnight to warm up.

I came back the next day and put some HEET (alcohol) in the tank. Started right up after that.

Does anyone know if a little E-85 would do the same thing? HEET is just isopropyl alcohol. The "85" in E-85 is Ethanol alcohol.

Would adding just a little E-85 help keep my fuel lines from freezing up?

Hmmm - come to think of it, gasoline in my area already has up to 10% ethanol in it.

Maybe I should start a new thread about this....

Failure to Start
 

Just polling, what is the most common reason for the failure of vehicles to start in extreme cold? Fuel-line freeze up, coolant frozen-up, battery shot, etc?

The coldest I've had to start a car was -20F in Minnesota with a year-old Taurus a while back. Only problem was a slightly sticky throttle, but no big deal -- it started and went. The most problems that I've had was was with a junk carb in a '77 Olds that needed to idle for 15-minutes in anything colder than 35F or it would stall-out cold. Good-old Quadrajet (grumble)...

RH77

I would think that the fuel vapors would simply not want to ignite in extreme cold. I remember one deep-freeze, my Escort wagon wouldn't start until I figured out that if I turned it over for about 20-30 seconds straight, the engine would (weakly) sputter to life.

The Geo often does the same thing, except that it hasn't taken more than about 5 seconds of cranking.

Cold, Kalt, Call it what you want
 

I lived in northernWest Germany in the 80's. Every car I knew had a block heater in it. You oil would freeze in the case if you didn't keep it plugged in. In the military we kept the vehicles running when overnight predicted temps were > -40f. One Feb. our high for the day got all the way to -15f. BRRRRRRRRR. F...in Brrrrrrrrrr.
On this side of the water the worst thing that I ever ran into was my own stupidity. :p

I took a trip north to visit my Mom (in the Poconos). Feb. 1989. In Rich. Va. temps were ~ 40f. :)
I drove a 1974 Mercury Capri, (Germ. Import, 2.0L4, 5spd, ran great, got killed by a Buick, man I miss that car. ). Some Dumass didn't put antifreeze in the cooling system. Hi my name is Dumass.:o
Moms overnight temps were in the -10f range.:eek:
Car wouldn't start, engine was locked up.
Who woulda thought?:rolleyes:
Dad had a torpedo style kerosene heater, we aimed it at the front of the car and let it do it's job.:thumbup:
An hour later the car started and seemed to suffer no Ill effects. ;)
That little car got incredible mileage for what it was.:turtle:
It always ran, unless it was frozen.:D
I miss that car.
S.

I would say that around MN that a frozen/weak battery is the most common cause for a no start condition.

But given that all things are equal and all parts of the motor are new and fine. We know that combustion needs three things: Air, Fuel, and spark. And we also know that fire needs three things to occur: Air, fuel, and enough heat to ignite.

I hypothesize that when temp are, say, -40°F that the fuel has a hard time atomizing well. That would lead to a non ideal Fuel/Air ratio. Also the fact that the air coming into the combustion chamber would be a chilly -40°F would contribute to poor ignition of the fuel/air mixture. This may explain why some vehicles require a few seconds of cranking time as this will warm up the combustion chamber somewhat due to friction from the piston and the spark from the spark plug.

Now when you throw a weak battery on top of all that jazz, you can see how most cars would be unable to crank any longer after the initial warm up and become stranded or require a jump start.

So there you have it...my two cents on the matter of what happens when it's really cold, lol. And knowing is half that battle. :thumbup:

I was told by some people with classic cars that in the early days, there was no antifreeze. If you owned a car and wanted to use it in the winter (many didn't - no plows either), you drained the water from the cooling system after using the car and refilled it for your next drive.

From articles I've seen, the CAA says battery failure is the most common call from its members in winter weather.