Be Excellent To Each Other

It's a bit cold in the 'Ford at the moment, so I'm bumping this thread because it's got some good stuff in there and I'd like some advice anyway.

I'm a complete noob* when it comes to car stuff, and browsing websites has confused me more. How do I find out if my car has sufficient coolant and antifreeze going around to prevent the tubes snapping or the engine overheating? Any other advice that isn't covered in this thread?



*Although I can change a tyre - I learnt how to do that in the Scouts and around ten years later found that I had remembered my training, albeit took a while for me to realise that alloy wheels do not have hubcaps

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165469

Oddly, I was thinking about writing a new version of this thread on the way into work this morning.

Except when they do. Mine have a little hubcap which needs a fiddly torx bit to remove.

And remember: now is the right time to purchase salt/grit and snowchains, not february.

Thanks!

At this point in the year, it's a good idea to get your battery and anitfreeze tested (like Kern sensibly wants to do above), and check all your fluid levels. Check that your mobile phone car charger works, and replace any chocolate you put in the car last year for emergencies.

I'm off to update the first post.

Not if you own an electric car, though, surely? You can just use the energy generated by the wheel rotation to power a heater under the front of the car and just melt the snow.

Don't talk to me about heaters

Having the car overheat and lose all power on the A420 very late on a January night was not an experience I'd recommend.

We have little things to warm the engine here.

That's not going to help if you don't have any antifreeze.

The other point that I keep making is: Join the AA. It costs less than £2.50 a month, and if you need them, you really need them.

Where can you get folding spades from (plastic sheetign , lime and a gaffer tape)?

[vote:KovacsC]

There's a link in the first post.

I get auto assistance from the AA, from my bank, and from my car leasing company. I keep meaning to cancel the AA but forgetting.

If you have Tesco clubcard vouchers you can use them to pay for RAC cover. Therefore, arguably free.

Not even frosty in Manchester this morning and no snow on the hills surrounding us either. I think we must be in The Land That Weather Forgot.

That doesn't mean that now isn't the time to get all that stuff done

I don't think we've had any frost in Bedford yet.

As I discovered last year when I got free breakdown cover with my insurance, you have to cancel your AA membership within the first 14 days of renewal (assuming you pay annually).

Oh no, I know that, it was merely an observation about the current weather conditions in this here city.

I always carry a lot of the items on your list plus a survival bag I was given when I completed the Kielder Challenge a few years ago, some old towels (I like to be the kind of hoopy frood who always knows where his towel is) and some plastic or surgical gloves as used by vehicle technicians everywhere to ensure me hands don't get mucky if I have to change a wheel or delve into any other grubbiness. In fact I always have some plastic/rubber gloves in my bag as well as the car because you never know when you might need to put your hands somewhere you'd rather not, but your timely reminder is welcome as some consumables do need to be replenished.

Regarding rock salt supplies, one of my friends keeps cat litter in his boot. We didn't need to use it, but is it an acceptable alternative if we can't get any grit?

Christ knows. What's it made of? Does it melt snow?

I wouldn't have thought so. I've used it for oil spills before, though.

Yes, in a sort of token effort way. The vermiculite (sort of clay) stuff, not the paper stuff. It's not salt and won't melt ice, it does add some traction though.

For salt to do any good you need to either: spread it on the road before it freezes or snows (not very helpful) or spread it on top of ice and wait a long time (not very helpful). It will do next to nothing on snow.
So it's best to carry some grit in the car, and keep salt or salt/grit mix for your driveway and steps etc.

Or just don't worry about it.

Cheers £12 is not too bad..

That's what Zardoz said

...

puts Davpaz on my list

Oh, another important point: Don't defrost your windscreen by pouring boiling water onto it. What are you, stupid? Or what?

I always do that. Well, not boiling though. But yes, I am stupid if you must know.

Also: check your antifreeze. I was messing about at 11 last night trying to figure out why the heater wasn't working. Turns out it had frozen solid.

That's Step One.

I learned the hard way yesterday that despite being four wheel drive, and even having a lockable rear diff, a Scooby is not that good in the snow.

I got caught in the snow and was trying to get home before all the roads that'd get me there became impassable (which they later did), the Scooby did fine on the flat, on bends, on slight gradients and so on, I just locked the rear diff and basically drove as Grim... suggested at the start of this thread. Nice and smooth, highest gear possible, use gear braking instead of the actual brakes, leave a large gap between me and the car in front, and so on. Some people were already abandoning their cars (stopping on hill in such conditions can pretty much mean you're fucked).

There was one hill in particular on the route that I knew would be make or break, get up that and it was relatively easy driving for the rest of the way, get stuck there, and it would be a 14 mile walk home.

Got to the hill, already one car wedged in a ditch half way up, one car had slid to a halt in the middle of it, word from up the top round the bend was a car on its roof and loads of cars waiting to come down.

Fortunately the DOT guys were already on the scene with a snow plough/gritter combo with wheel chains on, so with the help of the assembled members of the public (men like doing MANLY things when there women watching), we got the car that was stuck halfway down the hill safely back down to the car park (there's a pub at the bottom of the hill), managed to 'bounce' the car stuck in the ditch back into the road and get it down, and push the car on its roof out of the way.

The gritter then went up, came back down, and the plan was that as it went up for the second time, the cars assembled down at the bottom would follow it in convoy fashion.

Unfortunately a Mercedes Sprinter van went up behind the gritter, stupid big van, front wheel drive, wasn't carrying a load, at the steepest bit of the hill he lost all forward momentum and came to a halt. My super quick-thinking idea to avoid having to come to a stop was to gently move out to the right, carry on moving, and get round the outside of him.

The conditions on the right hand side of the road weren't as good though (there'd been a delay with the gritter getting up, down, and up again, and more snow had fallen), and the bastard Scooby just started scrabbling like a bastard, I was as light as I could on the throttle, riding the clutch so it wasn't 'snatching' too much, but at the end of the day, 300bhp going down to the wheels on a snow covered hill in sub-zero temperatures just doesn't seem to work well.

The Sprinter van eventually managed to get up, and I very gingerly rolled back a bit (wheels locked and I slid so had to do that carefully on and off), managed to roll to where there was more grip available, and very gingerly got back over to the left hand side of the road where there was more grip, got up the rest of the hill and got home. (The back end just wanted to step out all the time, not fun at all.)

Overall, the Scooby was pants in the snow (there was a guy in a 'normal' 4X4 who had a much easier time than me), the tyres (despite being in good nick with loads of tread) aren't designed for those kinds of conditions, and I think it just puts too much power down to be easily controllable.

It took me 2 /12 hours, but I did at least get home, I know a lot of people got stuck in Douglas last night, and there's pretty much a total shutdown on a lot of roads today as well. 4X4s only in a lot of places.

Winter mode button?

Mrs Chinny's posh friends are still insisting their sprogs christening is on tomorrow in the middle of the New Forest. They claim the roads are fine, but that lot all drive 4x4's to tow their horses.

Nah there's no winter mode, can't turn off traction control either.

It's just the rear diff that you can have in auto mode, or can put in manual (DCCD) mode and, well, here's a post from elsewhere that explains it well:

(EDIT LOL - It's the centre diff, I'm so clever with cars!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNin7QJEOZE

How NOT to get your car unstuck (keep watching)

The person filming really should have gone out and given her a hand, although, fuck me, she's stupid.

Heheh. I have actually done that. Except, y'know, pushed the door pillar and then jumped back in when it moved. The dick with the camera should have given her a push anyway, wtf.

Unless you've genuinely put on all your winter clothes and gone out to help each and every stuck motorist you've seen, get off your high horses before she runs into it and knocks you off.

I've only seen one and I did help dug them out akshully.

Yeah, and I've scraped the ice from a few neighbours and coworkers' cars when I've encountered them while getting into or out of my own car.

I don't go flying out the door to the rescue every time I hear a set of tires spinning out the ice outside.

I'd probably think the same if I lived in a town, so fair enough.

You probably didn't rush to find your camcorder and spend 5 minutes filming them having trouble though, either.

Maybe not camcorder, no. However, the house I lived in until the age of five was on a bend that people always took too fast, especially in the ice. I remember being held by my mother on winter nights, looking out the window and cars going past, the idiots sliding out of control.

To be fair, it was that or Emmerdale Farm.

She looked kinda foxy, so yeah I'd probably go and help. Although, I'm always worried about not being too much help, or worse a hindrance. Also, I know I've done stupid things before, especially when rushing or getting a bit frustrated so while I laugh a bit at her misfortune there's a little bit of sympathy there.

It also does show that the majority of people probably don't know enough about how cars do what they do, and how to react when they don't. Things like this should be covered in theory tests (I'm pretty sure they weren't when I did it in 97/98).

Who towed a bus up a hill on Saturday night?
ME, MOTHERFUCKERS!

Someone was taking photos, I'm hoping they'll email them to me.

In the meantime, observe the Tomcat parked on the pavement at the top of said hill:

A FUCKING BUS?! Awesome