Winter blues

Do you have the option of plugging in an EBH at home? Have you tried stuffing your grill?

 

I got my EBH in on Monday, and started using it right away. It really helps. My top grill is already blocked, but since I got my SGII yesterday I feel more comfortable blocking the upper part of the lower grill as soon as this hot spell is over. Keep checking tire pressures since they drop in colder weather - I think 1 lb for every 10 degrees or so. I was also burdened with mostly short trips this week - only 52.2 for this tank fill. If you're not already doing these little tweaks you might want to add them. Only 5 more months until spring ( I hate winter ).

 

Damn cold weather, I'm trading in for an 08 so I don't have to look at that damn snowflake light LOL.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(orenf @ Oct 5 2007, 04:38 PM) [snapback]521951[/snapback]</div>

Same story for me last winter here in Wisconsin. I was able to stay above 45 or so (for a full tank) until it was below zero Fahrenheit. I certainly wouldn't turn the engine off and back on when you're stopped... for one thing, the engine is trying to get warm so it's more efficient (do you really want to fight with that?), and you'd also put yourself through another stage-1 warmup on that restart, which pulls a ton of power out of your battery while the engine basically just idles (search for the engine stages here if you're really interested in that sort of thing).

 

Tell me about it. Temps suddenly dropped into the 30s at night here and the weather forecast is predicting 20s by the end of the week. As of October 1st I fully blocked the radiator openings and started using the EBH. Yesterday I installed my snow wheels/tires. In the first couple minutes of the drive I could already tell I had more rolling resistance.

 

When I got my new winter capable tires last week I reset the mileage meter. Now I'm struggling to keep it under 4.9 l/100 km. Got both grills blocked, and I park in a well insulated unheated garage (currently about 10C in there), but I don't drive every day, so after the first overnight the coolant temp now falls to 40C or lower, and after the second overnight of no use, it's down to ambient. I didn't realize how much the anti-Prius (2001 Pathfinder) heated my garage! The Prius doesn't heat it much at all. I don't use the block heater, as I can't really predict when I'm going to use the car, and I'm too cheap to leave it plugged in all the time.

The downside of not spending much on fuel.