-8

[scotty73]

Brrr was bloody cold in that car first thing, even my homebrew cider in the shed is frozen.

[Welly]

even my homebrew cider in the shed is frozen.

Not enough Alcohol content - must try harder

-6 in Leicester but my windscreen washers still worked mind you the concentrate is more or less 100% screen wash

I bet it was fun for those cranking a Veg oiled XUD this morning

[scotty73]

Anyone for an alchoholic slush puppy?
My washers didn't work and i must have a good 75% concentrate in there... damn water no good for anyone.
You must have it milder there today than us because when it was -5 yesterday morning my mate from Leicester text to say it was -5 there too.

[Doggy]

-5 'back east' this morning.

I didn't try the washers, as a goodly spinkling of water, (in powder form), had accumulated on the Dogmobile's windows overnight.

[rwb]

-5 here also

20120203_083600.jpg

Starting took what felt like ages, and I had lots of noticeable smoke for the first time ever.

After 15 minutes of driving the car had only got up to 80

20120203_085024.jpg

and it only just made 90 by the time I arrived at work.

thermostat problem or just normal?

[rwb]

And how crap is this:

20120203_085830.jpg

[Welly]

The only time I ever saw blue smoke on mine was when starting it at around -5 deg - it would chugg and miss-fire and puff out blueish smoke (unburned diesel) for about 10 seconds. It's a miracle that any diesel starts in this weather when you think of the process involved.

My Volvo was quite superior sparking into life this morning with barely a completed revolution of the starter

[lozz]

Anyone for an alchoholic slush puppy?
My washers didn't work and i must have a good 75% concentrate in there... damn water no good for anyone.
You must have it milder there today than us because when it was -5 yesterday morning my mate from Leicester text to say it was -5 there too.

a Drop of vodka works,

[scotty73]

mine took a while to start too and also had the un burned diesel smell (couldnt see black smoke.... well it was -8 ffs i couldnt see outside the car) .... on mine though the diesel light goes out almost instantly so i'm sort of guessing when its safe to start so i put it down to that... Is that normal?

Or do i need new glow plugs?

[OdinEidolon]

pfft that's a lot!
I've left Trieste this morning, -8 with 90mph wind, beat that.

However last week it was -15°C when I went mountaineering, the car started just fine, of course wobbling and smoking but at the first crank.

[Gary406]

was -7 here this morning at 7.30am when i had to drive shop for bread, milk & cheese .

my 1.9 xud fired 1st turn no problem and running smooth. no lumpyness. just noisy like farmer giles setting out to do the harvest in his big diesel tractor

[sirwiggum]

I remember my old XUD ZX hated winters. I think that it was due to the garage only replacing 3 glow plugs that I had to get them replaced the winter after too.

The HDi took ages to start one morning it was -12 last winter.

The Honda however, laughs at cold weather, and just guzzles fuel like Belfast is in the middle east.

[Doggy]

-7 last night when I took the dogs out for their evening constitutional - the glow plug warning light stayed on for nearly a whole second.

[Welly]

the glow plug warning light stayed on for nearly a whole second.

Wow, you're really pushing the boundaries there.

I don't know why they bothered fitting a glow plug light, they cause more confusion than anything else and people mostly think they're broken in some way.

[Welly]

Just reminded myself of the Nissan Sunny D van I had the miss-fortunate use of once;

The starting procedure was:

Key to ignition
Lift Bonnet
Frigg up twin and earth cable to Glow Plug bus bar directly from Battery
Run back round and crank it

(repeat as necessary)