winter car kinks

[Arrow]

so this is my first real winter with my own dedicated car and I'm starting to notice alot of things 20 degree weather does to your car.
questions...
tires are mushy... I'm thinking cause the air is condensed at the lower temps. do you fill tires up to regular pressure? or would this cause the tires to be over pressured when the heat up... i hate the mushy feeling.
engine "chugs" when warming up and I'm scared really to put it past 2k rpm till the engine is up to temp due to it sounding like a truck.

any other things you guys notice the cold weather brings?

i drive i 2000 celica 105k miles and still runs perfect.. the winter is just freeking me out

 

[vbgagnon]

Yes put your tires to reg pressure. I usually give my car 5-10 min to warm up before I go anywhere. Just give yourself plenty of time to get anywhere and take your time.

 

[Lessen]

I second what VB said.

 

[4u2nv]

another thing to consider is remote start (If ya dont have it already). Sure makes it alot easier on them cold winter mornings. But yeah I 3rd what Vb said.

 

[vbgagnon]

Thats why starting it 6 min eary is easy for me! Especially because my car sleeps outside. My wife's is in the garage which is semi heated.

 

[Revo Rancher]

My company leases me a car and this year I got a new 2006 Impala. It has the remote starting feature built into the remote key fob. Nice to have out here to COOL your car before you get into it!

 

[Diver6127]

Arrow, how old is your battery? You may want to have it checked. Cold temps tend to make batteries go south without warning. If your battery is over 4 years old, I'd think about getting it checked or even just buying a new one.

I had an 83 Celica GT-S for a year. Was great in the summer but when the first real bite of cold came, the battery was dead. I used it the whole day before with no problems starting. No lights were left on. The cold did something to one of the cells inside. Just a thought.

 

[vbgagnon]

hey revo......:thefinger:

 

[HeartBreak]

Arrow, how old is your battery? You may want to have it checked. Cold temps tend to make batteries go south without warning. If your battery is over 4 years old, I'd think about getting it checked or even just buying a new one.

I had an 83 Celica GT-S for a year. Was great in the summer but when the first real bite of cold came, the battery was dead. I used it the whole day before with no problems starting. No lights were left on. The cold did something to one of the cells inside. Just a thought.

Mine does this too, and all I have drawing current is my car stereo (the battery backup part of it that stores the presets and such), and the alarm... Total draw is like 5mah (literally a trickle) between the two of them. I finally rigged up a secondary battery in the form of a Gel cell (the little 7amp/hour batts used for a starter box... got one for $7, so why not, eh?), and invested in one of those 100amp car start/battery charger units, so I won't have to re-program the radio (tedious... takes 10 minutes to do), or worry about the alarm goin ape-snot when I open the door manually (has keyless entry with it).

My only big question is, since this is a brand new battery (not even four months old... one before it suddenly died during a 70 degree day. Dead short, car wouldn't even crank with it connected), how do I prevent it from freezing over? An overgrown trinity foam tire warmer? A float charger? I've tried putting a blanket over the battery; that did no good at all.

The coldest it gets here is about 30 degrees over the night.

 

[vbgagnon]

If your batt is only 4 months old and is doing this, bring it back to where you got it. Most batts have a 2-3 year warrenty and they should replace it free of charge.

 

[redneckracer1979]

If it only gets to 30 degrees then I wouldn't really worry about it that terribly much. I worry about my battery when it starts getting below zero. On my old truck I actualy had a battery blanket and all it was is a wrap that goes around the battery I do not know who mkaes it or where it came from because it came with the truck. But it did work really great in the winter.

 

[Diver6127]

Heartbreak, have your starter checked. I had that happen to my celica as well. The solenoid was bad and was drawing power the entire night. Kinda threw me for a loop becuase my batter was only a month old.

 

[Carls_Mammoth]

My company leases me a car and this year I got a new 2006 Impala. It has the remote starting feature built into the remote key fob. Nice to have out here to COOL your car before you get into it!

I'm with Revo... I have one on my truck to cool it off before scalding my A$$ on the leather, but I feel your pain in the Northern communities, I just moved down here from Detroit, and I had remote start on all of my vehicles up there... Really nice to get into a car which has already begun to warm up and defrost the windows!!!! Either way... let it warm up to temperature before trying to take off.. oil thickens up and doesn't get to lubin' up the engine components right away in the sub-arctic temps... Merry Christmas

 

[Revo Rancher]

Heeeey,VB, rieeeght back aaat ya!

(in a Rodney Dangerfield accent)

 

[HeartBreak]

Heartbreak, have your starter checked. I had that happen to my celica as well. The solenoid was bad and was drawing power the entire night. Kinda threw me for a loop becuase my batter was only a month old.

I've been thinkin about that since I posted earlier... Every once in a while, when I try to crank the car over, the starter will make a 'k-chunk', like it's hitting a bad spot or locking up... Letting go of the key and trying again usually gets it to crank. Wierd, eh? It's always done this for as long as I can think of. Also, the battery seems kinda low for being fully charged (the lights are dimmer without that little 7ah "backup" battery.