Defrosting the car

[DustyLee123]

It really winds me up when people leave the engine running for ages, and windscreen wipers going full pelt, instead of just defrosting the car with water/scraper and going.

You need to get a life.

There are multiple fuses for the same systems on some cars (more than one heating element) so you might not be at full heat. Or the fans may well be blocked. I'm sure you having so much knowledge carry out all of these efficiency checks yourself. I manage it and I'm dumb as fuck according to you 🤣

What bits have you replaced for winter?

Our neighbours are champions of the ultimate defrost.
I timed it once at 35mins before they went out. I just don't understand it.
Usually it's running for 'just' 20 minutes. It must cost them and the environment a fortune to be toasty and defrosted...

All of that, and a clean chamois cloth to wipe the inside of the screen just before driving off. In order to avoid engine problems, standard advice has always been to defrost, start the car and immediately move off.

(You could take small comfort from the fact that while your neighbour's polluting the atmosphere with his idling engine, he's also damaging his engine.)

https://www.easternwestern.co.uk/mini/news/drivers-who-leave-the-engine-idling-risk-car-damage-and-waste-pound188-million/

Was reading through to see if anyone had suggested this.

Yes, fully opening the sun visors helps direct the air con towards the inner windscreen, which helps demist faster.

I'm doing a Live Action Defrost as I type. 7 minutes from Frost to Go. But I like full visibility so that's all windows clear plus lights (only had windscreen cover on last night)

But 2 mins is enough when using warm water on the outside and a cloth on the inside windows.

That's all very well but I'm often parked nowhere near my house. I'm not carrying a jug of warm water as well as my bags!

Embarrassingly, I can't reach the bottom of my windscreen to do this 🙈

Ice is easy enough with de-icer. But it's the fogging that takes time. My old car I had a squeegee and a chamois sponge, but it left the windscreen so smeared and annoying I'd have to stop again to clean it. New car I have to climb on seat to reach the windscreen (short arms, not big car.. but car's do have much bigger dashboards these days!), so I use the 'quick demist' setting. It still took 5 1/2 minutes this morning because of how our drive faces and the sun on it.

I leave my car running, in my driveway.

My car my prerogative. Takes no more than 5 mins, probably only about 3.

To scrape the car would take longer, i have 3 small children that cant be left in the house for that amount of time and i dont want to sit in a freezing car with them whilst it heats up.

So yes i do it and im entirely comfortable with it

Neither can I. I also struggle to reach the middle when I'm scraping the outside of the windscreen. I have a long handled scraper now but still can't do the inside properly! The bit of the inside I did yesterday now has smears all over it

But, I would never ever just leave my car running without being in it / scraping the outside. As someone else said, if your car was stolen insurance wouldn't pay out in this circumstance and I'm no way risking that!

That makes no sense. Even if you stand on the seat?! Unless you're a child you should be able to 🤣

Yep it's annoying and illegal. Report them to the council. I have. And they stopped. Give them the address the car is at, and the registration number and type of car.

is it illegal to keep your car engine running - Google Search

@DancingFerret that's absolutely right.

Drive off immediately should be tempered with waiting a few seconds for oil to reach the top of the engine. The Peugeot 405 and Citroen BX were, apart from the latter's hydraulics, pretty much identical. You'd often see older 405s with a bit of blue oil smoke in the exhaust. The BX took 10 seconds or so to acquire and settle at its ride height before one would sensibly drive off. You never saw one smoking.

I suspect the enforced wait for the ride height made the difference.

..................on a public road.

It's kind of my business when people are pumping out their toxic fumes into my child's face and they're too lazy and stupid to give a shit

My car fits in our garage...as long as you don't want to open any doors and get out!

Cars aren’t THAT loud. Not ideal to have neighbours running cars in the morning but some people need to grow tougher skin imo. Must be tough going through the world so aggrieved with everything

Yabu

Running the engine to warm the windscreen while scraping is a necessary evil for most cars

OP was commenting about people leaving the car running unattended for a prolonged period and leaving the wipers on to scrape over the ice which is an unreasonable method. It's inefficient, wasteful and does the car no good.

I don't like leaving it unattended while the engine's running just incase someone decides that there's a free car on offer.

At one time, I had a neighbour who did a regular demonstration of how not to handle snow and ice. High revs and wheel spins were not the way to do it.

1. For those with a multimeter or battery tester, a good time to see how much charge is in the battery. Don't want a flat battery when you need to be somewhere over the Christmas period.
2. Many cars use resistors to regulate the fan speed. When these cheap components fail, you end up with level 1 and 4 or sometimes just 4. Worth changing for winter if you can.
3. As for changing the heating system for winter, I am. A new radiator for Christmas - didn't want to, but shit happens.
4. Screenwash for those who normally just use water - has an antifreeze component.
5. Check coolant before we get to freezing, red is best, water alone can corrode internal thermostats on cars with multiple cooling circuits.
6. Check oil, you want the car to start as easily as possible to avoid an old battery letting you down.
7. Finally, don't bin those Prosecco corks, pop one under each wiper arm at the fat end and your wiper blades won't stick to the windscreen and tear.

Best thing ever (bought years ago) was a sort of fleecy warm-lined glove thing, with an ice scraper attached. Kept in the car year round, otherwise we’d never know where the hell it was when needed first thing on a frosty morning.

I'll make sure to not bother tomorrow, I'm sure if I run someone over because I can't see thanks to the mist on the inside they'll understand that I didn't want to have my engine running for 10 mins 👍