How do you de ice in the morning ?

senario ..... spend 20 mins scraping ice/snow off , start engine - be careful not to let it idle for more than 30 secs engine / blower hardly warm , nose to misted windscreen down street to main road , stuck in traffic jam , engine stands idling ....... switch off ?

I work nights and when everyone at work pours warm water over their windscreens the car park is turned into an ice rink ready for the day shift.

The unburned fuel going into the catalyst can also do bad things. Driving a car is the best way to warm it up - with one of my cars if I just leave it idling with the heater on full then the temperature gauge never gets out of the first blue segment! [as proved in the recent snowstorm when I hit

1MPH stop-start traffic 100 yards out of the office car-park and then took a couple of hours to do the 3 mile trip home].

Hibernate.

Go to bed at the first sign of frost and get up when the clocks go forward.

Steve

Get in car, start engine, turn on both heated screens and wait a couple of mins.

How long does it take to warm up? I always though that it was like

5-8 miles.

Is it? 30s is a long time, I usually wait 5-20s to let the revs drop to idle but I've never waited 30s.

Why does the oil cool when idling in traffic?

Recently I've been turning the engine on, and putting the header half way on the windscreen. Then I get out and close the door and scrape the ice off the front/side/back windows.

5 minutes later I get in, it's warm, but the engine is cold.

The reason I do this is because it takes a couple of minutes for the heater to warm up. And driving isn't an option as just wiping the condensation causes it to freeze up on the INSIDE meaning I can't see where I'm driving.

What option does this leave me with if I'm not supposed to let a cold engine idle?

--Nick.

I've seen this mentioned several times before.

Is it HOT tap water, I mean, the hottest the tap water will get, or is it just warm?

--Nick.

Nick ( snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

How hot does your hot tap get? If it's a lot hotter than you can stand sticking your hand in, then it's probably too hot. For the front and rear windows, I put the wipers on once the worst of the surface snow/ice is gone.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet is clearing snow from the headlights, and clearing snow from just behind the wipers - even if the washers work, the wipers aren't going to do anything useful if they're covered in frozen slush and not able to flex.

start the car turn on the heated rear screen (which does the mirrors as well) turn on the heated front screen (which does the washer jets as well) turn the blower on full turn the heated seats on go back inside come back out 2 minutes later and do the side windows with the scraper/squeegee screen off seats off wipers on air on off I go

with the van it's start er up fan on full blast to windscreen go back inside to get boiling hot water from the tap liberally apply it to the windows (front and doors) use squeegee to wipe away excess water drive away as fast as possible with the engine ragging all the way to 4k in first and second

5 miles to work and it's just about warmed up

But you always read in newspapers that 'modern' diesels don't smell, are clean and whisper silent...

The message from Nick contains these words:

If you pour warm water over the screen it'll be warm enough to stop further condensation on the inside untill the blowers have warmed up. Or at least, that's what happens on my diseasel Maestro.

The message from Nick contains these words:

I use the hottest it'll get, which is about 65wotnots in our house.

The message from Adrian contains these words:

I mentioned squirt freezing on the wipers up there ^ somewhere.

Guess it depends on the car. I start mine up, turn the heater on full on the screen, rear demister on and go to work on the rest of the car with the scraper. By the time I've finished 2-3 mins later I can use the wipers to clean the rest off, the heater is blowing nice warm air and the temp guage is half-way and I drive off.

But then mine's a K-series engine Rover 200 so with such a tiny coolant capacity it warms up super fast :)

You use boiling hot water? Look out for a cracked screen there!

Hmm... I guess this is a works van then?

Dave P

systems?

features a second

mine though. I

the normal

I'd be interested in those. If they are, I'd be grateful if you could let me know. Cheers. Mike.

Tell me about it. I've been freezing my nipples off the last few mornings scraping my car (no heated windscreens etc for me :-(

Cheers

David P

The message from "Andrew Ratcliffe" contains these words:

Bet if you check the manual it'll tell you to drive off at once and not let it warm up.