Winter Driving?

[1Cor10:23]

Originally Posted by automatic

Oh boy...-24 this morning.

Windows frozen, car cranked slow, clutch pedal sticky, radio not turning on. Fun drive into work.

Yeah...sucks when the electronics stop working. My DVR won't turn on half the time now. Kinda defeats the purpose of it all...especially given that accidents occur more often in inclement weather...

[Kazuya]

My car started and everything worked just fine at -20 this morning.

Gave her a good 20min warmup though.

[CB390248]

I have a stock FRS with OEM size Blizzaks.

I survived driving through Philly last night at Midnight in the recent snowstorm and went 30 miles only needing a good push uphill once by a friendly stranger in a forester (thank you!) after what I assume was snow freezing between the tread on the tires as it got progressively worse with what appeared to be same road conditions. I assume this because my wipers were clear to begin and developed tennis ball sized ice chunks during the hour or so of driving. I can't compare them to anything else (only snow tires used to date) but it appeared my car was doing better than the average heavy FWD sedan with likely all seasons. I definitely fish tailed a lot especially up hill but braking was superb and handling also excellent.

[krayzie]

I haven't driven my car since Sunday so I figured I will go start it up for a bit since I won't be driving it next week either (snowstorm coming in 2 days). It lives in the garage with an insulated garage door. Temp was 1 degree and outside was about -13. Within 5 seconds after I cranked it up the motor knocked quickly twice (POP! POP!), but didn't do it again for the next 15 mins (thank goodness) as it warms up to temp. WTF?! Is this even normal for a boxer during cold weather starts?

My car is about 2.5 months old only 2500km on the odometer.

[PMPB]

Our cars are more known for misfiring and/or backfiring at low engine temps, are you sure you heard it knock?

Originally Posted by krayzie

I haven't driven my car since Sunday so I figured I will go start it up for a bit since I won't be driving it next week either (snowstorm coming in 2 days). It lives in the garage with an insulated garage door. Temp was 1 degree and outside was about -13. Within 5 seconds after I cranked it up the motor knocked quickly twice (POP! POP!), but didn't do it again for the next 15 mins (thank goodness) as it warms up to temp. WTF?! Is this even normal for a boxer during cold weather starts?

My car is about 2.5 months old only 2500km on the odometer.

[krayzie]

The two popping sound seemed to have came from under the hood and shook the car quite a bit. It could have been just misfiring but seemed kinda violent compare to my previous cars (two Hondas and a VW) when it comes to misfires. I could even smell the fuel being dumped into the exhaust lol!

[Steve]

Mine pops almost every time on cold start, when below freezing, for the second winter now. The colder the more violent.

[Muskokan]

if its below -20 i noticed mine won't do the cold start popping.

[drewbot]

I read elsewhere here that those pops are intentional to get the cats heated up downstream.

My pops were nice and violent last morning.

[Evil Jesus]

I think the pops he's talking about are different. Mine does the cold start coughs/backfires regularly but also does something else once in a while. Sounds like a fucking massive explosion in the engine bay.

[PMPB]

Originally Posted by Evil Jesus

I think the pops he's talking about are different. Mine does the cold start coughs/backfires regularly but also does something else once in a while. Sounds like a fucking massive explosion in the engine bay.

Knocking is quite subtle actually. Most people don't even know what to listen for, and there are tools specially designed to amplify the sound so that techs can listen to see if an engine is knocking. Unless you knocking like 180deg from TDC, I doubt the knock would sound like an explosion.

Most likely it's the front catalytic converter getting dumps of fuel, and then igniting.

[wparsons]

I get some pretty big misfires when it's below -15 out on a cold start, but only a few until the idle settles down a bit.

[Kazuya]

How many of you are out right now drifting like me? LOL

[drewbot]

Originally Posted by Kazuya

How many of you are out right now drifting like me? LOL

My workplace is located in a pretty industrial area. There's this dead end with a round about that I've visited everyday this week.