General Colder Weather

[306maxi]

Oh how I love forums, everyone has there own way of thinking and most of the time it gets off topic. Very entertaining for the Friday morning.

RaR

Me too

No steam coming from my ears You should have seen me yesterday when I'd set up an iPad all nicely for a young boy here at the college and he said "that's just rubbish" when I said that we weren't going to buy him all the apps, music and comics on it that he wanted. I tried to explain that would mean that if we were going to buy him music and comics and so on that we'd have to "buy Bruce (not his real name) over there an Xbox live subscription to be fair and that we'd have to give Brucina (also not a real name you'll be surprised to know) over there more credit for her Blackberry so she could text her friends", he still wasn't happy which annoyed me a little bit, but one of my trademark rants wouldn't be well received if it was on a quadriplegic person I suspect

 

[Chrisilda]

Erm, colder weather DOES increase the performance of a turbo engine...... colder denser air means more oxygen to burn which means more power. If the car has an intercooler then the effect is magnified as there's that cooler air to cool down the intake air even further.

Thank you maxi! I've never had a car with a turbo engine so its quite difficult to draw my own conclusions. I said that because my boyfriend has noticed a great difference in performance by driving his car (Golf gt) during a hot summer day and during winter in -8 c.

 

[loveshandbags]

Ok i'll drop my case.

If you go back to the Opening Post I'd imagine that is an optimum working temperature for a car and from personal experience on the turbo charged car that I had it was much faster in the wee hours of the morning when it was colder. Even though you have more power does not necessarily mean more economy unless you are using the boost in a 'nice manner' as opposing to using the welly. In relation to intercoolers the bigger the intercooler results in more lag but it will result in more power but overall the car is heavier on juice (RS500 verus standard cossie). It might also be the reason why the A500 and the TA use tiny turbos. I hope chas379 feels he is getting value for money from the drop in mpg with his increase in performance.

 

[alfatastic]

Engines which are up to their optimal working temps will be more efficient with colder "denser" air i.e. more oxygen per cubic metre, but as is the case for a large portion of a short journey the engine will take longer to get the oils and water up to operating temp so will drag the start of journey mpg down a lot I believe

 

[bluejohn125]

Blank off the middle half of your lower grille with duct tape or similar during the winter months, the car will warm up much quicker and save fuel as well as emissions and wear and tear.

People used to fit these radiator blinds all the time, nowadays everyone just expects the car to take care of everything... but there's a big difference between thrashing around Sicily in August and pootling around a chilly Britain in December.

 

[RobinPJ]

The only people I see doing this are London taxi drivers.

Am I right in thinking that there is more reason to do this with a diesel? Lower operating temperature (longer to warm up) and the bigger risk of the fuel freezing?

 

[Geddes]

Am I right in thinking that there is more reason to do this with a diesel? Lower operating temperature (longer to warm up) and the bigger risk of the fuel freezing?

Definitely with you re: warm up time. The fuel _shouldn't_ freeze unless the filling station had some old-stock summer diesel in it.

 

[306maxi]

Definitely with you re: warm up time. The fuel _shouldn't_ freeze unless the filling station had some old-stock summer diesel in it.

Yeah, I think all diesel after a certain date has to be of a different composition to avoid the fuel solidifying. That said, if it's -something silly the fuel is still going to solidify!

 

[Andy Monty]

Blank off the middle half of your lower grille with duct tape or similar during the winter months, the car will warm up much quicker and save fuel as well as emissions and wear and tear.

People used to fit these radiator blinds all the time, nowadays everyone just expects the car to take care of everything... but there's a big difference between thrashing around Sicily in August and pootling around a chilly Britain in December.

That was in the day before thermostats where the coolant continuously circulated through the radiator surely

Yeah, I think all diesel after a certain date has to be of a different composition to avoid the fuel solidifying. That said, if it's -something silly the fuel is still going to solidify!

It doesn't solidify Maxi (well i suppose it could if left long enough at a cold enough temperature it "gells" or "waxes" when parts of the Diesel begin to sepperate out and cause crystals to form These usually then block the fuel lines/ filter until it warms up and "melts" (had fun last winter with the forklifts at work..... )


EN 590 is the spec that covers Diesel and its classed A to F Uk winter diesel is usually class F which is -15^C (Cold Filter Plug Point)

 

[306maxi]

That was in the day before thermostats where the coolant continuously circulated through the radiator surely





It doesn't solidify Maxi (well i suppose it could if left long enough at a cold enough temperature it "gells" or "waxes" when parts of the Diesel begin to sepperate out and cause crystals to form These usually then block the fuel lines/ filter until it warms up and "melts" (had fun last winter with the forklifts at work..... )


EN 590 is the spec that covers Diesel and its classed A to F Uk winter diesel is usually class F which is -15^C (Cold Filter Plug Point)

That's what i mean. I don't mean it turns into a solid block like ice, just that it becomes more solid

 

[Hellcat]

Definitely with you re: warm up time. The fuel _shouldn't_ freeze unless the filling station had some old-stock summer diesel in it.

Do you think on a fuel station forum there is a thread called "winter diesel" with people discussing which winter diesel to choose, and with this mild weather if they should hold off?

I wonder if they will have their own version of Maxi preaching the virtues of winter diesel to the masses?

 

[frupi]

Do you think on a fuel station forum there is a thread called "winter diesel" with people discussing which winter diesel to choose, and with this mild weather if they should hold off?

I wonder if they will have their own version of Maxi preaching the virtues of winter diesel to the masses?

Who knows eh? Tbh, last winter, my own diesel Caddy performed with zero problems and the overnight temperature dropped to minus 15 degrees C over a couple of consecutive nights. No block heaters involved, no garaging, no sticking blankets over the engine, just went out, turned her over and she fired up immediately. This is however in stark contrast to when I first had experience of diesels as a diesel fuel injection engineer nearly 25 years ago, when diesel appeared to wax quite easily in extremely cold weather and cause all sorts of problems.

 

[Hellcat]

I had the multijet nuovo Bravo last winter. Overnight was somewhere around -15 to -18. No issues starting up either.