Winter Car Prep. Tips

[PCM]

Starting to think about Winter, on the year's hottest September day.

Just cleaned out my and my wife's Pollen Filters. They were dirty!

• Tyres fine.
• Antifreeze fine.
• Battery new.
• Hi Viz in the boot.

Anything else?

[sorcerer]

Washer bottle topped up with winter screenwash in it

Put the hi-viz in the cabin rather than the boot - you need to be visible the moment you step out if you break down in an awkward place.

[rayaans]

23 minutes ago, PCM said:

Starting to think about Winter, on the year's hottest September day.

Just cleaned out my and my wife's Pollen Filters. They were dirty!

• Tyres fine.
• Antifreeze fine.
• Battery new.
• Hi Viz in the boot.

Anything else?

de-icer, scraper and a telescopic shovel

[NemesisUK]

Warm blanket, thermos, Kendal mint cake

[Guest]

Dragon glass.

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

[rich1068]

Winter tyres!

Yay! Do I win?

[Spacewagon52]

And a trailer to carry all the extra gear!

[Farqui]

Treat your paintwork, I started on mine today.

[rich1068]

It's about now The Daily Express do their snowmageddon story isn't it?

[stevet]

9 hours ago, rich1068 said:

It's about now The Daily Express do their snowmageddon story isn't it?

So true. Last year we were supposed to get 5ft snow drifts from November to February! Guess what.............not a single drop!!! In fact it only ever dropped below 7 degrees on a coup[le of days.

[Verbout]

Artic ration pack and satellite phone.

High altitude fluorescent ballon so you can be spotted by the nimrod fleet looking for you.

[rich1068]

Apart from the OP cleaning out his wife's pollen filters and putting a copy of Viz in the boot, I don't think people are taking this thread as seriously as they should.

[rayaans]

If you have the space in the boot, a multi fuel stove, a 25kg bag of coal and some quick burning fire fuel would keep you warm in winter.

[Spacewagon52]

1 hour ago, rayaans said:

If you have the space in the boot, a multi fuel stove, a 25kg bag of coal and some quick burning fire fuel would keep you warm in winter.

A large trailer!

[rayaans]

Nearly forgot the mince pies as well seen as though christmas is coming. 

[stevet]

And get the sprouts boiling, they should just be ready for Christmas .

[rich1068]

Sprouts. Good call.

[sorcerer]

Just in case you suffer a breakdown of the sort that renders the car immobile but the engine still runs alright, you may wish to have a copy of this book in the glove box (I've got the paper version of the book and tried it with an old car and it does indeed work well!):

[rich1068]

In all seriousness, about this time of year I do make sure I have a decent de-icer (Halfords in a trigger spray, not the aerosol muck) and keep the screenwash topped up. Other than that not much else unless I'm planning a journey then it's the Kendal Mint Cake, dragon glass, warm coat, sprouts etc.

However, the other car on the fleet is a 2014 XC90 and winter or all season tyres are a wonderful thing on the odd occasions the white stuff comes down. Unfortunately these days we do have this ridiculous marketing spread of winter, summer and all season tyres. Most cars come with what seem to be classed as summer tyres due to our current obsession with large alloys, ridiculously low profile tyres and the ability to do the Nurburgring in less than 10 minutes even though most of the time we're doing 5mph on the way to or from work. For the last few family wagons I've run the factory fit tyres until it's justified to get rid and fitted winters or all seasons and run them year round. Sounding a bit Wurther's Original but it's how tyres used to be 

[Guest]

On 26/09/2017 at 1:58 PM, rich1068 said:

current obsession with large alloys, ridiculously low profile tyres and the ability to do the Nurburgring in less than 10 minutes even though most of the time we're doing 5mph on the way to or from work. 

As someone with an obsession for large alloys, ridiculously low profile tyres and the ability to lap the burgerking in less than 10 seconds - I most definitely agree with you, Sir! It is silly. I had an 4WD Isuzu truck for a while. It was great the 2 days we had snow. What do we do? Buy 4 cars each?

 

[rich1068]

36 minutes ago, Comedian said:

What do we do? Buy 4 cars each?

 

You say that like it's a bad idea 

[Guest]

That needs a new topic :)

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

[DanD]

From my own experience of having lived in Germany for 9 years:

Together with the warm coat: wellies or walking boots, gloves and hat.

A soft brush (the type you get with a dustpan). Much better than a scraper for removing snow.

Torch and spare batteries. Spare phone charger (I recommend Anker ones, they're good).

A bag of salt or grit. (Sprouts with no salt taste foul)

Don't over-inflate your tyres: you want as much contact with the road as safely possible.

A cloth of sorts or tissues to keep you lights clean back and front. You want to see, but more to the point you want to be seen.

When you park up, stick you wipers up so they don't stick to the glass

Lubricate the door rubber seals with silicone.

A flask. With schnapps. (Coffee will eventually get cold!)

One thing we used to do - and I don't know if you can do that with a Lexus or a car with key less ignition, was to start the car, lock it with the spare key, and go and have breakfast. The car would be nice and warm by the time you'd be ready to go :-)))

[rich1068]

6 hours ago, DanD said:

One thing we used to do - and I don't know if you can do that with a Lexus or a car with key less ignition, was to start the car, lock it with the spare key, and go and have breakfast. The car would be nice and warm by the time you'd be ready to go :-)))

I think the boys in blue are about as keen on this as your insurance company but yes, I used to do this with my BMWs. You didn't even have to use the spare key, just get in and start it then get out and lock it.

[PCM]

... and lots of spare screen wash.

( And sprouts ).