I live in Wisconsin, which gets a good amount of snow- and I can deal with that- but not a lot of ice storms. But we are getting one today/tonight. I leave my daily commuter- a "96 Plymouth Breeze- outside. Any tips on making it reasonably easy to get in, so I can get to work somehow? I know ice events are more common in other parts of the country.
You could lightly spray the door seals with WD-40 or a food-release product like PAM. For that matter, you could coat the whole car with something like this, which would be messy and icky, but would probably keep any ice from forming on the car at all…
Good food to eat.
Good wine to drink.
DVDs to watch and books to read.
Candles and camp stove in case the power lines go down.
Propane heater.
Call to work saying that you will not be able to make it in.
Instead of either WD-40 or Pam, I would suggest spraying the door seals with silicone spray.
And, don’t lock the doors.
Also–leave your wipers in the elevated position, rather than in contact with the windshield.
Remove all snow and ice from the windshield before using the wipers.
Fill your windshield washer reservoir with winter-type WW fluid.
Fill your gas tank.
While I like twotone’s suggestions better, I took most of VDGdrivers. Sprayed a lithium lubricant around the door seals; left in unlocked ( I mean, if a car thief is out in this weather and wants a '96 Plymouth…) and raised the wipers. I always thought that looked stupid, but now’s the time to look stupid I guess. And have plenty of Scotch around.
If you have a tarp that is large enough, you could cover the roof and windows. You could tie it down or weigh it down so that it doesn’t blow away.
Is your window scraper capable of breaking through ice? If not, get a new one that is.
Spray door weatherstrips with silicon spray just as VDC stated and spray wax or liquid wax the metal door frames that these weatherstrips touch up against.
Install the new beam style wiper blades and get rid of the blades that allow ice to collect in the superstructure.
Increase your following distance and slow down.
It is going to be warming to above freezing overnight, I don’t know where in WI you are, but in SE no worries for me.
I think the TV weather guys are overplaying this one- but still good ideas. Once I get the car doors open, time and a decent defroster should take care of the rest.
If you don’t wreck your car, someone else will…Take twotone’s advice…
If it gets bad, I don’t go in and just work from home. No point killing yourself over getting to work. It’ll stll be there tomorrow.
If I have to park outside, I have a windshield cover that goes around and is held in place by both front doors. It goes under the wipers. Never had a problem with sticking door, but you may want to silicon spray your trunk lid seals.
Driving is treacherous. Many years ago I was driving my dad’s big Buick Roadmaster and pulled up to a gas pump to tank up. The car disobeyed any steering or brakes inputs and slid straight into the pump, taking it completely off its base and spilling gasoline. This was a 2 pumpstation (one premium, one regular), and the owner was furious since it was a Friday night and he would miss a weekend’s sales.
The best tires for ice storms are good winter tires, like Michelin X-ICE.
Trust me, I won’t put my life- or anybody else’s- in danger getting to work. It’s not that important. It would just be a shame to be frozen out of my car.
My weather man predicts a low of 52 here but I always believe in playing things safe and following the good advice above bought a fifth of Kentucky’s finest. I think I’ll fix a drink now, come to think of it. Be safe…
I remember a few years back we had a pretty good ice storm in central Ohio. While my car was parked in a garage at the time, I still had to walk outside to get to the garage. I had just locked the house door and turned to walk down the steps and slipped and fell, throwing my keys in the process. After finding my keys in the yard, I unlocked the door, walked back inside and called off work; only my pride was hurt when I fell. I figured if my back yard was like that, I wasn’t going to chance driving on the roads.
A full car cover or tarp.
I realize that I am a day late on this one, but for future reference, Rain-X your windshield and back window before the ice storm, it will make removing the ice much easier.
There are many years when we had more snow followed by ice events then I care to remember. Being at home, curled up by a stove with a back up generator for our back up,generator is necessary where we live. When car is left out at work, do not lock car doors and place cardboard against the the windows to save scraping.
Never even think about starting the car till ALL wiper blades, front and rear are free. You never know when you left them in the on position or inadvertently turn them on befor you start. Because we do live on a dirt road, every one here has awd4wd with studded snow tires which allow cars/trucks to go where you can’t even walk. When driven slowly and correctly, you can travel slowly on glare ice if you must. But then, our 1.5 mile road could be glare ice after a storm for days on end and we still had to go to work.
Have ice grippers available if you must walk or best; a dedicated pair of boots with short hex head sheet metal screws screwed into soles. If you must out, fleese topped with water proof, breathable fabrics like Gortex are excellent in freezing rain. We also keep ice melt just inside the door to dump on steps ahead, and plent of sand in buckets in the garage.
We live in these conditions for much of the winter and just deal with it…anyone can but you must be prepared ahead and not expect to make adjustments when everything already is iced up. These Conditions are not forgiving.