It seems to have been a bit quiet recently, so here?s something that everyone can comment on:
At this time of year I start to miss the heated seats of the various Volvos we?ve had in the past. It makes me realise that for half the year, a major priority for me is - how well does the heater work? It?s not a subject the motoring press seems to write about much, so have backroomers got any particularly glowing or chilling experiences to report?
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About ten years ago we had some Japanese neighbours. The bloke's wife used to come out in the snow in her dressing gown to start up the guy's Volvo and switch on the heated seats for him so they would be nice and cosy by the time he got out to the car.
HJ
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Many. Many years ago when I used to do a paper round I was soooo jealous of the guy in one house who had a remote start on his Granada. Used to watch him lean out of his bedroom window and start the car so it would be nice and warm.
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Andrew Smith wrote:
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> Many. Many years ago when I used to do a paper round I was
> soooo jealous of the guy in one house who had a remote start
> on his Granada. Used to watch him lean out of his bedroom
> window and start the car so it would be nice and warm.
Ah, but I think in the long run you had the better of him, Andrew. Starting from cold leads to really serious engine wear, if only because choked fuel is richer than an ordinary mixture and tends to wash oil out of the cylinder bores etc. If you start the car and immediately drive it way, making the engine do some work, it gets to a normal running temperature much more quickly. Your neighbour's Granny, on the other hand, was probably worn away by the ewnd of the winter.
My advice: by a fleece. Or better still, read the next thread.
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A guy I worked with years ago used to leave a hair dryer in the car overnight, connected to a living room socket via an extension lead. While he was having breakfast he used to switch it on at the mains, and he claimed that the car was as warm as toast when he got in it, with all the windows nicely defrosted.
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Some time ago I had trouble with the handbrake cable freezing on after a wet day followed by a hard frost. I found an effective cure was to load a 'super soaker' (large water pistol) with hot water and spray the cable where it ran along the exhaust tunnel under the car. I freed the cable, and the heat from the exhaust then dried the water during the subsequent journey.
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My Renault 16 used to freeze its handbrake cables. Needed a fan heater placed under the car to release them. This was no problem because we were visiting my mother & stepfather and he was a great advocate of the fan heater on the parcel shelf on a cold morning to warm up his Granada, so the whole assembly was ready-connected. See previous thread ...
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An American once told me that in winter in Oregan (coldest American state?) they had to drain out engine oil after every journey and leave it on the stove overnight. Then next morning pour it back in and start up before the oil went cold.
Otherwise the oil became so stiff it was impossible to turn the engine.
Presumably the same applied to the cooling water.
Oil technology has probably moved on since those pioneering days.
Cliff Pope
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Cliff Pope wrote:
>
> An American once told me that in winter in Oregan (coldest
> American state?) they had to drain out engine oil after every
> journey and leave it on the stove overnight. Then next
> morning pour it back in and start up before the oil went cold.
> Otherwise the oil became so stiff it was impossible to turn
> the engine.
> Presumably the same applied to the cooling water.
> Oil technology has probably moved on since those pioneering
> days.
>
I guess this was B.K. - Before Kenlowe - of sump heating fame.
/john
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About 15 years ago I bought an old Volvo 240. It was summertime, and I didn't know about seat-squab heaters. But the night of the first cold snap, I came out of the pub, drove off down the road, and within a couple of minutes that warm feeling crept around my nether parts. I thought, surely I haven't had enough to make me wet my pants!
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Martyn,
My Saab had heated seats and, like you, I was never sure if the feeling was a comfort or a little disturbing.
David
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In deepest Siberia, (seriously) in the depths of winter they just leave the trucks ticking over. Not sure how long the engne ticking over season lasts.
(I trust you all realise this is a genuine comment and not one from Whitley Bay ;-)
Plus I recall a colleague breaking off the key in the hire car door lock somewhere in Canada because the lock had frozen. "Oh we never lock cars this time of year" was the reply from the hire car engineer who came out to sort him out.
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About 7 years ago, I left my car, a 3 series, parked at home in the mountains at Lake Tahoe while I travelled for two weeks. When I came back I still knew roughly where the car was, but had to wait for the snow to thaw before it could be pinpointed and reached - 14ft of snow !! (and two bloody weeks).
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My father-in-law, who was a farm worker, said it was common practice to set fire to a straw bale underneath the engine of the old TVO tractors in the depths of winter - just to warm the sump and its few gallons of oil through.
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My dad had a Morris 12 in the 1950s. It had a front seat heater. One day the battery under the driver's seat short circuited and set fire to the horsehair seat padding. Unfoprtunately this thread is starting to look like something Ladafan cooked up.
HJ
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honest john wrote:
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> Unfoprtunately this thread is starting to look like something
> Ladafan cooked up.
>
> HJ
but HJ the comments in this thread are from genuine old f*rts and not virtual ones, with all due respect to other backroomers of course.
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I had expected people to talk about cars with particularly good or bad heaters!
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Paul Robinson wrote:
>
> I had expected people to talk about cars with particularly
> good or bad heaters!
Paul you ought to realise we will twist any thread in about two posts,
But this could unusual and be a record attempt to see how many posts we get before somebody mentions those engines which run on a fuel not requiring spark ignition or those from a formerly eccentric manufacturer other side of the Channel. NB I did not mention the d or C words.
Mark (Brazil) your above post with the link to another thread has me foxed, must be losing it, please translate.
cheers,
S
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See your e-mail account.
Consider this comment from HJ
"Unfoprtunately this thread is starting to look like something Ladafan cooked up".
Consider the definition in the other reply I referred to.
M.
p.s. the spelling and usage of "Unfoprtunately" is copyright HJ.
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My Singer Chamois was awful, I used to freeze all the way up the A12, wearing the same gear as I used to wear on my bike, but without the crash helmet.
However, my Mk III Cortina was endowed with an exceptional heater guaranteed to warm on even the coldest day. If it had been possible to switch it off without the engine over-heating it would have been ideal.
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In 1963 when we had the second biggest freeze up of the century the diesel was waxing and there were thousands of lorries grinding to a standstill at the side of the road. This was before the advent of winter fuel.
As you drove past them you would have hought many of them were on fire as the drivers had lit fires underneath their fuel tanks. Whether it did any good I'm not sure because the waxing was generally taking place in the filters.
However our bulk diesel tank in the works had frozen and I remember our lads all over the tank with blow lamps thawing it out.
It worked anyway.... And then we discovered parrafin.
Alvin
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I don't have time to check for keying mistakes unless they're going into print. But here's another cold weather story. Decades ago, before the BPC nicked the name, an outfit in Northumberland called 'Top Gear' got hold of an ex motorway contractor's Mini Moke to do up. It was delivered in mid winter after a 300 mile journey and the unfortunate delivery driver lost a toe from frostbite.
HJ
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