First frost of the winter today for me so I thought it would be good to have a sticky as people tend to have some easily resolved issues with their 500's during harsh winters.
Firstly the washers LOVE to freeze up. Halfords washer fluid is especially crap and you tend to end up like this which isn't good.
I tend to use Holts High Performance screen wash which when used neat is good down to -36. Make sure you mix it slightly stronger than the conditions you're expecting. The rear washer on the 500 is particularly prone to freezing up as it doesn't have the engine bay to warm it up. If the rear washer freezes and the weather continues to be cold there is no way to defrost the rear washer...... You also run the risk of the pipe that connects the washer bottle to the rear washer disconnecting and possibly cracking the pipe too.... You have been warned!!!!!! Premixed stuff only works down to a certain temperature and then you're boned. Don't be lazy, buy some good quality concentrate and mix your own, it's safer and it's far far far cheaper too.
The washer jets on the front also like to slide out of the little washer jet body they sit in if the washer fluid freezes up. Go to the stealership and they'll sort you out quickly enough. Running the right concentration of screenwash in your washer bottle helps to stop this. If this happens you have no front washers and fluid will just dribble out and not even hit the front screen. No washers in a British winter is a recipe for disaster!
One thing I found (I seem to remember others mentioning it also) in the cold weather was that a patch of dirty windsceen would start off in the bottom right hand corner and if you didn't wash the screen frequently it would get bigger and bigger and encroach on your vision and when driving at speed you simply could not wash that corner of the screen and you'd have to stop to do it. Don't be sparing with the screen wash, keep a spare 5 litres in the boot and whenever the screen gets even a bit dirty, give it a good splash. Carrying a funnel in the car makes filling the car up with screenwash a doddle and removing the filter in the screenwash bottle means you can fill up much more quickly.
Icing up on the inside of the screen. This was something a lot of people complained about last year. Basically it works like this, the warmer air is, the more moisture it can contain. So if you heat up the inside of your car so it's nice and toasty warm and I don't heat up the inside of my car and we both park up next to each other and leave our cars overnight, you've got a much higher chance of coming back to find ice on the inside of your front screen. That's because once there is too much moisture for the air to contain, it must condense on something and the windows being the coolest surfaces on the inside of the car will be where it condenses and then freezes . The best way to manage this is when you're gettting near to your destination, open the windows just a little bit and turning the heat down gradually whilst having the fan on 4. This will slowly cool down the inside of the car and force the warm moist air outside so. Removing any snow on the inside of the car or any damp or wet clothing, shoes or cloths or mats will help minimise the amount of moisture on the inside of the car also. I've still had my screen freeze
Don't use your wipers if there is a thick coating of ice on the screen or the washer blades are frozen to the screen, you run the risk of doing damage to the motor. The same applies to your windows, if they're frozen shut don't try to use the electric window motors to unstick them!
Another thing, I would advise against running your car to clear the screens. Whilst you may think that warming the car up is kind on it, that is not really true, idling the car doesn't produce a huge amount of heat and means that the car willing be running whilst cold for longer and you will actually experience more engine wear. Of course if you're one of those people that can't get into a car unless it's tropical inside I suspect you won't heed my advice, but it was worth saying. Just remember that it's not just the engine that needs to warm up, brakes need to get up to operating temperature, wheel bearings, tyres, the gearbox and even the dampers. Just because you've idled the engine for half an hour doesn't mean the whole car is warmed up, just the engine. Personally I de-ice the car, get in, belt up and drive off gently. Idling your car without you in it is also a massive waste of fuel and money.
Your fuel economy will fall during cold weather, reckon on getting at least 10% lower fuel economy during the winter. You will loose more fuel economy if you like having the heater on too. Personally I only run the heater when absolutely necessary and if possible, only when the water temp gauge is at its normal point. If you let the car warm up before you put the heater on you'll get better fuel economy
Finally (and predictably!) if there is heavy snow or lots of ice on the road, you may find that the tyres which the 500 comes with are less than optimal in terms of braking, steering and traction. This is because the tyres fitted as standard and by 99.999% of tyre shops in the UK are summer tyres and as such don't perform very well at all in the winter. I won't go further into it on here because people will laugh and there's also an 1100+ post epic with all that information in it already https://www.fiatforum.com/500/166084-winter-tyres-people-going.html
A video which shows the benefits very clearly
If you do buy winter tyres you can get 3% cashback on them through topcashback 3% might not seem much buy on £400 worth of winter tyres and wheels, it's £12 which is not to be sneezed at Sign up using this link -> http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/306maxi and I'll get something like £2.50
Safe and happy 500 motoring
Firstly the washers LOVE to freeze up. Halfords washer fluid is especially crap and you tend to end up like this which isn't good.
I tend to use Holts High Performance screen wash which when used neat is good down to -36. Make sure you mix it slightly stronger than the conditions you're expecting. The rear washer on the 500 is particularly prone to freezing up as it doesn't have the engine bay to warm it up. If the rear washer freezes and the weather continues to be cold there is no way to defrost the rear washer...... You also run the risk of the pipe that connects the washer bottle to the rear washer disconnecting and possibly cracking the pipe too.... You have been warned!!!!!! Premixed stuff only works down to a certain temperature and then you're boned. Don't be lazy, buy some good quality concentrate and mix your own, it's safer and it's far far far cheaper too.
The washer jets on the front also like to slide out of the little washer jet body they sit in if the washer fluid freezes up. Go to the stealership and they'll sort you out quickly enough. Running the right concentration of screenwash in your washer bottle helps to stop this. If this happens you have no front washers and fluid will just dribble out and not even hit the front screen. No washers in a British winter is a recipe for disaster!
One thing I found (I seem to remember others mentioning it also) in the cold weather was that a patch of dirty windsceen would start off in the bottom right hand corner and if you didn't wash the screen frequently it would get bigger and bigger and encroach on your vision and when driving at speed you simply could not wash that corner of the screen and you'd have to stop to do it. Don't be sparing with the screen wash, keep a spare 5 litres in the boot and whenever the screen gets even a bit dirty, give it a good splash. Carrying a funnel in the car makes filling the car up with screenwash a doddle and removing the filter in the screenwash bottle means you can fill up much more quickly.
Icing up on the inside of the screen. This was something a lot of people complained about last year. Basically it works like this, the warmer air is, the more moisture it can contain. So if you heat up the inside of your car so it's nice and toasty warm and I don't heat up the inside of my car and we both park up next to each other and leave our cars overnight, you've got a much higher chance of coming back to find ice on the inside of your front screen. That's because once there is too much moisture for the air to contain, it must condense on something and the windows being the coolest surfaces on the inside of the car will be where it condenses and then freezes . The best way to manage this is when you're gettting near to your destination, open the windows just a little bit and turning the heat down gradually whilst having the fan on 4. This will slowly cool down the inside of the car and force the warm moist air outside so. Removing any snow on the inside of the car or any damp or wet clothing, shoes or cloths or mats will help minimise the amount of moisture on the inside of the car also. I've still had my screen freeze
Don't use your wipers if there is a thick coating of ice on the screen or the washer blades are frozen to the screen, you run the risk of doing damage to the motor. The same applies to your windows, if they're frozen shut don't try to use the electric window motors to unstick them!
Another thing, I would advise against running your car to clear the screens. Whilst you may think that warming the car up is kind on it, that is not really true, idling the car doesn't produce a huge amount of heat and means that the car willing be running whilst cold for longer and you will actually experience more engine wear. Of course if you're one of those people that can't get into a car unless it's tropical inside I suspect you won't heed my advice, but it was worth saying. Just remember that it's not just the engine that needs to warm up, brakes need to get up to operating temperature, wheel bearings, tyres, the gearbox and even the dampers. Just because you've idled the engine for half an hour doesn't mean the whole car is warmed up, just the engine. Personally I de-ice the car, get in, belt up and drive off gently. Idling your car without you in it is also a massive waste of fuel and money.
Your fuel economy will fall during cold weather, reckon on getting at least 10% lower fuel economy during the winter. You will loose more fuel economy if you like having the heater on too. Personally I only run the heater when absolutely necessary and if possible, only when the water temp gauge is at its normal point. If you let the car warm up before you put the heater on you'll get better fuel economy
Finally (and predictably!) if there is heavy snow or lots of ice on the road, you may find that the tyres which the 500 comes with are less than optimal in terms of braking, steering and traction. This is because the tyres fitted as standard and by 99.999% of tyre shops in the UK are summer tyres and as such don't perform very well at all in the winter. I won't go further into it on here because people will laugh and there's also an 1100+ post epic with all that information in it already https://www.fiatforum.com/500/166084-winter-tyres-people-going.html
A video which shows the benefits very clearly
If you do buy winter tyres you can get 3% cashback on them through topcashback
3% might not seem much buy on £400 worth of winter tyres and wheels, it's £12 which is not to be sneezed at Sign up using this link -> http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/306maxi and I'll get something like £2.50 Safe and happy 500 motoring
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