People In Cold Climates: Car Q

8pm and still no snow. It IS snowing in Beloit 15 miles away.

 

Hey, as long as I can get a pie at Al's Pizza, I'm good. :--)

gpz11, lazlo, thanks for the PM's with your contact info and offers of aid if needed. As of now, Mon evening-Tue in NW Indiana don't look too bad. I get into Lisle Tuesday evening. The low temp Wednesday of nine degrees F is my only concern for the week. My jump starter should be sufficient if there is an issue with the battery.

And to think I may relocate to this region. Though I've been to Chicagoland dozens of times over the last 25 years, this trip will be a true test.

 

Worst of it is from 9PM till tomorrow morning.

 

I wouldn't under estimate nature, she'll make a fool of you. The last storm we had in April was 3 feet in our county and I was all about it in the tow truck. I could go from 1 foot of snow at in one spot and hit 2 feet in about 7 miles travels and that's no elevation changes. Crazy shit. We pulled cars that were buried by snow plows weeks later because you couldn't see them.

 

Didn't go through the whole thread but make sure your A/C is working... hoping that you have A/C in your Camry.
A/C in winter is your best friend, to defog your habitate.
For the rest, you should be fine. If you had winter tires would be best but 4 seasons are fine, just take your time and no sudden pedals. A little like racing a bike in the rain... nice and smooth !
Battery is fine (5 years is nothing) mine is well over that and I live in Montreal, QC. Can't get much colder and snowier then here, except for higher up North.

You have a cell, you'll be fine.

Happy travels.

 

It all depends how that battery was treated too. Couple of “oops I drained the battery cuz I left the lights on” takes years off of a battery.

Anyways. Today I woke up to heavy snow fall and my John Deere lawn tractor with snow blower attachment is still in my shed.
I pulled it out 2 weeks ago to top up fuel and start it. Started fine even after sitting all summer.

Today I went to start it and was greeted by the slow uuunh, uuunh, stop on compression. It’s 32f currently.

Batteries may seem fine until it’s cold and you require high current.

If anything id go out there and start it every 6 hours or so to keep the engine internals warmer than ambient

 

We barely got a dusting. Got to Beloit, white around 2-3".

 

O'hare was hit pretty hard, a lot of delays.

 

You're basing that info on one or two vehicles you own? The average is out there, just look it up. 5 years is geriatric unless it happens to be an AGM battery or other construction.

 

Sunny and 75F today in Phoenix!

 

More then one... over 6-7 vehicules.
That is counting mine, my better half and my parents...
Won't get into my friends

Like Rebel635 mentions, if there are a few ''oops my bad, I left the lights one'' a few times, then yes you're five year old battery might be at end of it's life for cold temperatures !
But I've done that and it lasted over 5 years also... just don't take it for cash either ! lol

 

Hey @YamahaRick - How did your northern driving journey work out?

 

So far, so good. The journey up on Monday was totally uneventful, outside of delays from wrecks caused by black ice. One looked pretty bad; looked like a car had flipped and landed upside down on the far side of a guardrail.

No issues with starting the car this morning. Butt warmers in the front seats are fine.

The anticipated snowfall in NW Indiana for Monday (during my drive) never happened. This morning, however, the hotel parking lot was iced over. It was snowing a bit, but man, ~all~ the roads were cleaned up by the time I left at 9 this morning. I was astonished on how clean even secondary roads were.

I'm now in a western Chicago burb. Tonight's low will be 7 degrees F. Seven. That's cold for me. I've got the battery booster charging as I type.

More snow predicted later this week, but shouldn't be an issue.

I'm just glad I didn't fly up, nor had to travel just north of here. Some areas got 12 inches and had to deal with gusts up to 60MPH. 175,000 lost power and I believe 1100 flight delays and 1300 cancellations at O'Hare alone.

 

Flew from Portland, through O'Hare and on to Wilkes Barre Monday evening....Chicago airport was nuts! Was oh so lucky to get a seat outta that airport with hundreds of thousands just milling around. 19 hours total travel time. Damn, I swear I'm never flying again.

 

Dude you are not to far from me. Just saw this post. If you need anything PM me. Haven't seen ya in a while, how long are you in town?

 

This seemed relevant:

 

I thought I would bring this back since my truck wouldn't start this morning, so I had to walk to school. I don't know what the issue is, but realized that this truck only has a block heater and an oil pan heater on it, but no battery trickle charger. It almost started, but couldn't quite catch before I ran the battery down. It should start tomorrow since it will be about 10 degrees warmer and I have a charger on it. It was only -47F this morning, but we should warm up to about -36F by tomorrow morning.

 

I’m gonna have to go with a Hard No! On that one!!

 

-47, and no wind chill in that reading? Where are you? Antartica?

I hope your truck starts soon.

 

That's not WI.

Where's the Barn Quilt? ;-)