My daughter recently moved to Chicago, and I’m from the south, so I have no idea about this topic. Her car has been hard to start on very cold mornings. She has to park in a lot behind her apartment, so forget any electrical device, and she isn’t up for taking her battery inside at night. If a blanket might help, why not one of these under the hood? http://coz…esafe.html
Not what it was designed for, but any reason it wouldn’t work? And if so, should she heat it in the microwave and leave it under the hood all night, or would it be enough to heat it in the morning and leave it while she gets ready for work?
A blanket won’t work. No matter how hot you get the blanket, it won’t be as hot as an engine that is just shut off. So if the heat is stripped off the engine with it’s mass very quickly, a hot blanket with very little mass will lose it’s heat very much quicker. A blanket will slow down the loss of heat from the engine, but not enough to last all night.
Tester
This pet warmer won’t work. Remember, a living mammal produces heat. Under the hood of the car, the heat from this device will dissipate so rapidly that it will make no difference.
I don’t know what you mean by “hard to start”, but here are some suggestions:
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If the engine cranks slowly then
a. be certain that the engine contains the right viscosity (weight) oil as prescribed in the owner’s
manual.b. Make certain that the battery is a good shape and is of the right ampere/hour capacity for the car.
If the car cranks normally, but doesn’t fire up as quickly as it should, then
a. have the ignition system, particularly the spark plugs, checked.
b. make certain that she is using the gasoline octane recomended in the manual. In particular, if the car calls for 87 octane, use that. The higher the octane rating, the higher the ignition point of the fuel. A car designed for regular gasoline starts easier in cold weather on regular gasoline.
Chicago isn’t in the Arctic circle and any automobile engine in reasonably good tune should start right off.
Did the car come from the south? change oil? recent tune up? There are lots of reasons for a sluggish start but most cars start in Chicago winters.
also, how old in the battery on the car? it might be time to change it out.
A car can start easily in the South, but be very balky in the Northern states. As others point out, preparing for a Northern winter requires a good battery (load tetsed), cables, spark plugs and other ingnition items checked,the right weight oil, fuel sytem inspected.
If the car has fuel injection, the computer will set for the appropriate conditions. Million of people start their cars every morning in cold weather, so you daughter’s car should be able to do likewise.
Sorry, I didn’t give enough info. It’s a new CR-V, bought this past summer down here. So, new everything. It’s started so far, but she was worried because it was cranking slowly the last couple of mornings when it was around 0, though it started OK eventually. She had no problems later in the day or going out in the evening, so I told her it was just the cold after the car sat all night. I agree Chicago isn’t the Arctic, it’s just the few January days when it gets close to negative nunbers that’s she’s concerned with. (But I know nothing, coming from a state where we think it’s cold in the 30s, and if it gets to the 20s, people don’t go out.)
I didn’t think the pet warmer would get very hot (you don’t want your puppy at engine temp) but after I read stuff online about people hooking up a hose to someone else’s exhaust to blow on the engine and other similar stuff, I thought, well, what if you heated the warmer up and set it right on top of or next to the battery for half an hour or so in the morning?
Every car cranks slowly on cold mornings. I’m in Eastern Ontario, and know a thing or three about cold mornings. From what you’ve said, it seems the CRV is behaving completely normally.
Try to park where the sun shines on the front of the car. It really helps. I hope there are spots where there is some sunshine.
Thanks! She (and I) truly had no idea as record lows around here are in the teens. Average Jan. highs are in 40s and 50s.
I will pass this on to her.
If its new everything, then the weight oil should be checked. It should have 5W something in it for winter. It will crank slowly at zero though. Also, might want to switch to full synthetic oil like Mobil 1 as long as the car is new enough.