Winter Tips

[beardedskins]

Hello all

I'm new here having moved in with the girlfriend and inherited her Yaris T3 VVT-I. I'm actually a fairly new driver at 34 years of age too! Only obtained licence 6 months ago so vehicle care is all a new learning experience for me.

With the cold weather creeping in I wanted to see if anyone could provide some sound advice on looking after our Yaris, getting it going without issue in the mornings, keeping ice off the windscreens etc. Any advice would be appreciated

I've searched for a windscreen cover to start with but don't want one that attached to the WS wippers as the scallies round our area are liable to rip off the sheet and the wippers with it! Any good alternatives?

Thanks in anticipation

[korat102]

Ello.

I found the problem with windscreen covers is that they tend to freeze to the screen! The best way to clear an icy windscreen is to use a plastic scraper or, if you can't face that, use a de-icing fluid or lukewarm water. Don't pour hot water on the screen, it's too risky. I found this scraper quite effective: http://www.amazon.co.uk/ICEPLANE-Twin-Bladed-Car-Scraper/dp/B005U3EK7G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412604202&sr=8-1&keywords=windscreen+scraper

A modern car should have no issues with anything the UK weather can throw at it (apart from floods obviously) so don't worry about that. Just ensure your coolants antifreeze is up to date and at the correct level. Make sure the Battery is kept charged - takes more current to tun a really cold engine over. Also make sure you have an appropriate antifreeze additive in your windscreen washer bottle - lots of muck gets thrown up in the winter and you need to be able to wash your screen without it instantly freezing over. Make sure your wipers are actually free (not frozen to the screen) before you try using them...if they're stuck you might damage the motor.

Remember the only thing keeping your car on the road is those small rubber contact patches so make sure your tyres have a decent amount of tread on them...the legal limit is dangerously low for winter use.

Your engine will warm up a lot quicker if you drive the thing so don't be tempted to leave it idling on the drive while you go back in for a cup of tea. Apart from the risk of finding the car gone when you return, that sort of thing won't do it much good at all.

Watch out for black ice - it's called black ice because you can't see it. You can, however hear a change in noise...if the tyres suddenly go quiet, you need to treat the controls like they're made of glass - no sudden direction or speed changes.

Apart from that, just drive the car like you would normally...just be aware that road conditions can change quickly and that traction might be an issue on some roads...so just drive at an appropriate speed for the conditions.

------

Edited for an afterthought: Patches of wet leaves offer about as much resistance as ice so watch out for those as well! That's something learned the hard way from years of riding bikes as well as driving cars...

Edited October 6, 2014 by korat102

[Madasafish]

Just ensure in winter you keep well clear of people who drive fast or leave braking until the last minute....

[Catlover]

Keep de icer in the car for spraying windscreen, get a mini spray for the key locks (unless you got remote door lock). Spray some light oil into locks, wont freeze as easy.

Keep washer bottle topped up with stronger solution as tubes from washer bottle to windscreen can freeze easily.

Inside of windscreen can easily mist up until engine produces warm air, so always carry a dry cloth.

When roads may be icy, change down gears smoothly and not when still travelling fast, nice and gently does it, dont want wheels to lock up even for half a second - easy put you in a spin/slide.

Gentle with steering actions too.

Basically you have to think a lot earlier then on nice dry roads.

[Cyker]

Ever since I put the PIAA wipers on my Yaris the ice can't stick to the screen anywhere near as hard, at least over the path of the wipers where all the silicone's been laid!

That being the case, a coating of RainX or similar might have a similar effect!

The Yaris is pretty bulletproof if it's looked after so I don't think you have anything to worry about reliability-wise.

If you live further north, might be worth getting some winter tyres, but I've never felt the need to down here in London!

If the inside of the windscreen mists up, set the blower to the windscreen and fire up the AC*- It'll clear in a matter of seconds!

*That's Air Conditioning, not Alternating Current!!

[beardedskins]

What a superbly comprehensive response Korat102! Really appreciated.

Thank to all for the other comments too, I certainly feel a lot more comfortable about handling the winter now and have plenty of simple things to tend to there.

Bought the ice scrapper recomended and will look into PIAA wipers too as the current ones seem to clear on the upstroke but blur / smudge on the down stroke.

Regarding the windscreen steaming up, this has already proved a problem and I appreciate it's been addressed above already (thanks Cyker). Am I right in saying it's cool air that de-mists? That's what I've been applying of late and it works but takes a good while. When the cold really kicks in, blowing cold air into the car isn't goin to be much fun!

[korat102]

Dry warm air demists fastest, that's why you want the aircon running - it dries the air. The system in your car can supply warmed dry air, just turn it on and let it do it's thing if it's automatic, or turn it on and turn the heat up if you have to do it manually. If you have your system recirculating air, you'll definitely want the aircon on otherwise you'll just be blasting increasingly wet air at your screen. Under those conditions it'll mist up almost instantly and stay that way.

If you've never driven on snow before, remember that the problems are caused by your cars inertia (when trying to get moving) and momentum (when you're trying to turn or stop). Treat the car like it's made of glass, be gentle with the controls and you should be fine. Snow gets packed into ice when it's driven or walked on, so fresh snow offers more traction - just watch it doesn't lead you off the road and that it's not too deep (rare in the UK, especially in the South!). You want to be in the highest gear possible (if your car gives you any choice in the matter) when you're on snow and ice, especially if you're trying to get up a hill; low gears tend to break traction due to the torque. If you can't control the gears then you'll just have to be extra gentle with the throttle and trust the traction control!

Oh yes, if you're trying to get up a steep hill, never follow someone else. Wait till they've cleared it before you take a run at it. If you're behind them and they start sliding back...well, it can leave a nasty dent.

[Cyker]

Fresh snow is quite easy to drive on (Well, unless it's a 6ft drift ).

The problem is when it's 2 days old and has been packed down to a hard icy layer by all the cars - That's when you have to be super gentle and where us manual drivers have a huge advantage over automatic drivers since we have far more control over smooth fractional torque delivery!

The horrible slushy stuff makes the car really dirty but is usually okay to drive on, esp. cars like ours which have narrow tyres to cut through it! Its main danger is that it can hide a hard icy layer of black ice.

Down here we're usually pretty well served by gritters on the main roads; The most dangerous roads are the side streets. Last snowfall the roads were great except for my street which was an icy death trap! (The problem is down here, very few people are in the habit of clearing their drive and road segment so you end up with a lot of hard-packed snow in most side streets)

Luckily, snow is pretty rare down here, maybe a few days a year of snow and very little settling.

(I assume this is why the Subaru quotient increases the further north you go )

[MikeSh]

Oh yes, if you're trying to get up a steep hill, never follow someone else. Wait till they've cleared it before you take a run at it. If you're behind them and they start sliding back...well, it can leave a nasty dent.

More often they will foul up and just stop, after which they can't start up the hill again and have to come back down. If you are behind them you'll have the same problem, so waiting till you have a clear shot is also your best chance of getting up the slope.

[korat102]

Oh yes, if you're trying to get up a steep hill, never follow someone else. Wait till they've cleared it before you take a run at it. If you're behind them and they start sliding back...well, it can leave a nasty dent.

More often they will foul up and just stop, after which they can't start up the hill again and have to come back down. If you are behind them you'll have the same problem, so waiting till you have a clear shot is also your best chance of getting up the slope.

That's a good point. Once you're moving up a steep snow covered hill, do everything you can to prevent the car coming to a halt. Just keep it gently moving, probably in second gear on minimal throttle. Unless you have good traction (which usually means winter/snow tyres and/or 4WD), you won't get moving again...not in the right direction anyway.

[Uncle Buck]

Lots of good common sense coming out here, great for inexperienced drivers to learn from. I've used winter tyres for the last 4 years now & they warm up quicker so not just for snow use.

[RonBin]

OK, you turn the AC on and the windscreen demists but as soon as you turn the AC off (because it's too cold), the screen mists up again. I have my vent set to intake air from outside and not using recycled with the setting on Windscreen only. How do I stop the screen from misting up again, sit and shiver or have a couple of large whiskeys to keep me warm? Joking of course.....

Should I turn the heater on too??

RonBin

[Madasafish]

OK, you turn the AC on and the windscreen demists but as soon as you turn the AC off (because it's too cold), the screen mists up again. I have my vent set to intake air from outside and not using recycled with the setting on Windscreen only. How do I stop the screen from misting up again, sit and shiver or have a couple of large whiskeys to keep me warm? Joking of course.....

Should I turn the heater on too??

RonBin

Never switch the aircon off.

And always set it to Warm/Hot in winter...

At least that is what I have done for thirty years...

[RonBin]

My AC is a separate thing from the heater, that's on another switch so, are you suggesting I should put both the AC and the heater on together using the settings you have shown please?

RonBin?

[FROSTYBALLS]

We first had air conditioning in our cars in 1998 (bought a new Corolla and a new Primera), and we were shown the trick of using the air con and heater to demist the windows by the Nissan salesperson.

Since then we have always used the air con and heater combined to demist our cars and it works a treat - much faster demisting. We've had cars with manual air con - which had separate controls for the air and for the heater - and climate control - which had combined controls - and demisting in this way is much more effective than just using the fan.

[MikeSh]

Use the aircon until the heater has got warm enough to work at demisting.

I wouldn't leave the aircon on all the time as it does cost money to run.

Incidentally, some cars (not sure about the Yaris) disable the aircon if the outside air is cooler than a preset amount (usually about 5°C I think), so you won't always have the option of using it.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Incidentally, some cars (not sure about the Yaris) disable the aircon if the outside air is cooler than a preset amount (usually about 5°C I think), so you won't always have the option of using it.

With the Auris the air con may not operate if the temperature approaches 0 degrees centigrade, so I would presume the Yaris is similar.

[Cyker]

I think that mainly applies to cars with Climate control; If it's just normal AC I don't think it gets overidden so easy...?

[mrpj]

All cars' a/c systems will disable below a set outside temperature, probably around 3-5degC, to prevent the evaporator freezing.

[Cyker]

Didn't know that!

I wonder how it still clears the condensation...

[Uncle Buck]

Incidentally, some cars (not sure about the Yaris) disable the aircon if the outside air is cooler than a preset amount (usually about 5°C I think), so you won't always have the option of using it.

With the Auris the air con may not operate if the temperature approaches 0 degrees centigrade, so I would presume the Yaris is similar.

Hmmmm .... that's interesting. It was 1 deg C two mornings ago up here & the windscreen was misted over. I switched the A/C and heater on as usual to clear the condensation & it worked a treat within seconds. I then kept it on for about 10 mins at 17.5 deg setting to dry out the air, but switched it off after this & had just the blower on trickle.

[MikeSh]

Hmmmm .... that's interesting. It was 1 deg C two mornings ago up here & the windscreen was misted over. I switched the A/C and heater on as usual to clear the condensation & it worked a treat within seconds. I then kept it on for about 10 mins at 17.5 deg setting to dry out the air, but switched it off after this & had just the blower on trickle.

It's all in the psychrometrics

[RonBin]

I haven't worked out how my AC control works as far as temps are concerned, as far as I know, I press the button and it starts blowing out ice cold air, whether I can control the temp of the air coming from it or whether it just produces cold I will have to check out.

The temps here in West Sussex have been in the teens for the last few days so the screen hasn't been misted, but it is very clean!!! Gallons of water from on high....

Regards,

RonBin

[FROSTYBALLS]

Presume you have manual air conditioning, rather than climate control. In which case you adjust the temperature using the heater control. - ie blue to red.

[RonBin]

Thank you all for your comments and advice. I tried the AC and heater combo and it works a treat so now I do not have misted windscreens any more, GREAT !!!

Thanks a million for all your help.

RonBin