[Indian2003]

As some of you might know I went away up to the mountains for a weekend and the day after, ended up in hospital. Car had not been prepared for extreme temperatures. It was about -5 when I arrived and had no artic diesel in the tank as I was planning to return on Sunday.

The car was parked for a month due to a driving ban and temperatures dropped down to the -30s. All doors were frozen stuck. When I arrived after a month I used a blower to heat up the side door to place the blower inside the car. Same night I connected a Ctek charger.

The next morning I started the car. It struggled a bit at first but ran fine after a few seconds. The car has passed 400,000 km so far and the engine has not been opened. All repairs and maintanence is done by myself. Clutch was replaced at 345,000 km and shocks at 300,000 km. The car is in original shape other than the leather seats which I had done in Poland.

No external heating source for engine heating has been used. I dont use additives but add a can of LiquiMoly Diesel Purge into the tank about once every 100,000 km. Hopefully this will keep my injectors clean.

I run on Castro Edge 5/40. I dont follow a maintanence schedule but look into the car sometimes and repair as needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zowsU1d7C7Q&t=88s

[Jeroen]

Sounds good. At minus thirty diesel might be giving some problems. Although these days with modern diesel much less than say 20-30 years ago.

As long as an engine is maintained regularly and you have a good charge in the battery it is will fire up. Whenever we have a really cold spell in the Netherlands the Dutch Wegenwacht (equivalent to UK AA) will have endless calls from people not being able to start and 99% of the problems tend to be battery related.

A battery might still be fine around 5-10oC, but when subjected to an overnight severe frost, that might kill it.

I spend some time in Yakutsk, Siberia. Many years ago and I was there during the summer which was fine. But 9 months of the year the river Lena is frozen solid and temperatures will drop to -45 -50oC easily. They told me that for instance the police and fire department never shut their engines down. They just leave it idling weeks, sometimes months. Don’t know if it was just a tall story or some truth into it. An engine idling for such a long time is likely to incur an awful wear and tear, especially if the cooling fluids don’t reach normal operating temperature.

We drove some old Classic Alfa Spiders to the North Pole in the winter. minus 27, simple carburators, never a problem. Every morning we put the hood down and started and they fired up, not a problem. Getting them into gear for the first few kilometers was a bit of a thing though. Very carefully.

Jeroen

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Sounds good. At minus thirty diesel might be giving some problems. Although these days with modern diesel much less than say 20-30 years ago.

My car is 19 years old and have a conventional diesel. Not common rail. When I arrived in Norway it was much colder than today. Temperatures could drop to -45 and I could see some trucks idling overnight.

In 1979 I had a Mercedes diesel van with the glow plugs connected in series. It was a nightmare to start on very cold days. If 1 plug blew, none would work. It got better after I installed the "Schnellstart" kit with paralell connections. This was a kit the Beru supplied for cars with serial glow plugs.

A few years ago I drove to Røros and I arrived at -42 degrees. It was so cold that I had to fire up the auxilary heater and cover the grill with aluminium foil to stay warm inside the car. I had filled up with artic diesel locally and parked for the night. The next day the car fired up at -36.

[Jeroen]

As I work for Ericsson I have spends lots of time in Sweden. Many Swedish cars used to have heaters to keep the cooling fluids and thus engine warm overnight. I remember on some cars they were just essentially little built in petrol burners! More common were electrical ones. Many offices and residential parking would have electrical connections available, decades before the first Tesla was spotted. I might be wrong but My feeling is I see fewer and fewer of these electrical heater charger points?

Modern cars, be it diesel or petrol, do much better in cold than a few decades before. Also, temperatures are on the rise in the Nordic countries too

Do cars in Norway come with these electrical built in engine heater too?

Jeroen

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Modern cars, be it diesel or petrol, do much better in cold than a few decades before. Also, temperatures are on the rise in the Nordic countries too

Do cars in Norway come with these electrical built in engine heater too?

Jeroen

I have seen these electrical plugs outside blocks in Finland about 5 decades ago. Seen them in Sweden. These are not common in Norway

Many cars used to have these electrical heaters. I dont have one. It is up to the owner top fit one.
I have a diesel burner in the car that I hardly use, only if I am freezing.

The "Nordic" models are fitted with better soundproofing and these burners only to heat up the cars faster. They start automatically after you start the car in temperatures under +5 degrees.

[akshay4587]

I have Started my Diesel Thar at about -25 degrees in Kaza/Spiti India, in January 2020 and February 2018, all I did was add diesel antifreeze, Park away from the direction of wind, like behind a wall, covered the engine with a gunny sack and a old bed sheet overnight, and it started up fine the next morning.

Only issue was erratic idle for about 15-20 minutes after starting, after which it went back to normal.

A friend's thar wasn't as lucky as mine and every morning we had to light a fire below the fuel tank (metal tank) to start it up.

[sagarpadaki]

I think having glow plugs in good condition is an important factor along with the low temperature diesel on how fast a diesel car starts in extreme cold temperatures. Glow plugs go weak over time. They are usually not looked into unless the glow plug light remains on indicating a malfunction in glow plug circuit. My Hyundai i20 diesel takes a longish crank of around 4 seconds to start when the morning temperatures are a modest 12-13 degrees here down south. Cannot be termed 'cold' by any means. But starts very quick on a summer morning. I suspect the glow plugs have gone weak.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

I think having glow plugs in good condition is an important factor along with the low temperature diesel on how fast a diesel car starts in extreme cold temperatures. Glow plugs go weak over time.

My glow plugs and injectors are as old as the car which has done 400,000 km. I have never checked the glow plugs but have had a new set the I bought 5 years ago on standby.
In the winter I never let the tank drop under half to prevent condensation and icing.

[vox_alienus]

Back in the winter of 1998-99, I left a 1984 Camry hatchback (or is it called liftback? I don't know the difference) with about 170,000 miles (miles, not km) in a parking lot in the US Midwest for about two weeks. The day I parked it there, the temperature was -20 C. When I returned after a couple of weeks, it was a little warmer but still well below freezing. Had I been religious, I would have said a prayer before turning the ignition key. But not being religious, I simply turned the key. And the engine started. Simple as that. I couldn't believe my luck.

[contactgauravg]

Friend you still are lucky to have a 30 Day's rest in between, we used to get it sometimes after 2 nights at Boston & burlington. Searching your own car in the parking becomes an adventure at times . (Attaching a similar memory)

[Motard_Blr]

Originally Posted by Indian2003

...
I run on Castro Edge 5/40...

I'm curious to know if it is recommended practice to change the engine oil to a lower viscosity in winter, as that might help with better lubrication at cold starts.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by Motard_Blr

I'm curious to know if it is recommended practice to change the engine oil to a lower viscosity in winter, as that might help with better lubrication at cold starts.

In the old days with single weight oils, yes. In the early days of the multi weight oils, the lowest was 20/50 and they asked you to use a 5 or 10 single weight in extreme cold. In those days, electric motor heaters were used to warm up the motor. It was a common sight to see people starting up with jumper cables.

With todays synthetic oils I use them all year. If I go for 0/40, I am looking at another price for the oil. The place I live does get cold but it does not stay for long periods like up north.

You can put different types of oils in test tubes in the freezer overnight and see how they react. The mineral oil will be like butter while the synthetic oil can be poured out.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

Only issue was erratic idle for about 15-20 minutes after starting, after which it went back to normal.

A friend's thar wasn't as lucky as mine and every morning we had to light a fire below the fuel tank (metal tank) to start it up.

When I drove an oil tanker in 1977, temperatures could drop to the 40s and all we had was technical alcohol to prevent condensation but nothing to prevent waxing. I put in some petrol (about 4 liters in a 400 liter tank) into the diesel tank and some 2-stroke oil for good measure. This was the artic diesl of those days. Even oil companies did that. They called it winter diesel. At night the truck was connected with an electric heater.

It is when diesel stays for prolonged periods in parked cars that causes waxing and blocks the filter. Normal diesel should tolerate temperatures down to -25 but I dont know about the diesel or cetanes in India.

[Jeroen]

I don’t quite know how it works in India or in Norway. But in the Netherlands we have summer and winterdiesel. All the pumps change to winter/summer around the same time. Winterdiesel is what you get from early November till March or thereabouts.

Winterdiesel is just regular diesel to which a few additives are added to ensure the paraffin components don’t cristalise into a wax layer. This works fine till about -22oC. Which again is fine for the Netherlands. In the old days our winters were colder and they would just add a little petrol or similar. With modern Diesel engine that will ruin them.

But I believe all Scandinavian countries add special diesel additives and antifreeze for the winter months. Countries like Switzerland do too.

Jeroen

[Ragul]

Interesting reading about your experiences. Does petrol have similar problems? Are there additives or winter versions for petrol too?