Will driving a car in extremely cold weather damage it [need answer fast]

Factual Questions
21

Sure, a jump can be done in a minute. Hook up the cables to the other car, and try starting the car with the dead battery. Should be good to go.

Trickle chargers, on the other hand, can take a couple of hours to build up the charge in the depleted battery.

But, it may be that the OP’s battery is hooped. Extreme cold can be the last straw for an older battery. If it doesn’t have enough of a charge left, it can freeze. I had one a few years ago where the outer case actually buckled from the cold, and there was presumably damage to the cells inside as well, from expansion due to freezing. No charge left at all.

22

It’s really a chemical process - and like most such is affected by temperature (as Machine Elf notes).

23

My point is that it got cold yesterday too. Yesterday afternoon when it was about -15F without the wind, I was able to start the car up. I’m not sure what happened between then and this morning to kill the battery.

24

How does this work - do people leave their cars running constantly during periods of extreme cold (I mean like 24/7) until the weather gets warmer?

25

Did you just start it and shut if off or did you drive somewhere?

26

One solutions we used to use that no one has mentioned - there is an electric engine heater that plugs in at night to keep the engine and parts from freezing. There are variety of types and prices.

Electric Engine Heater

27

I started it, got it loose from the snow, drove it to a place that was plowed and let it idle for a couple minutes. Then I shut it off, and when I came back the next morning it was totally dead.

28

This isn’t really enough to reliably replace the energy consumed in starting a cold car.

29

What is the disadvantage of running your antifreeze/water ratio at 60/40 or even 70/30?

30

Was the sun out? In my experience, that seems to make a difference.

31

OP are you using a block heater at night? Most cars in frigid climates are equipped with them. There will be a electrical plug for an extension cord coming out of the grill.

The battery is the most common cold weather failure.

32

No. You plug in your car. In Fairbanks Alaska where I grew up lots of parking lots have electrical outlets. You plug in your car when you park. The plug-in goes to a battery warmer, which is just an electric blanket that goes around your battery to keep it warm enough to turn the engine over.

You can also get a block heater to keep your engine block warmer, and a trickle charger to top off your battery.

Turning off your engine isn’t a problem if it’s only for a few minutes. The problem comes when your battery cools down below a temperature where it can turn the engine over. Then you need to get a jump from the guy next to you. I was shocked to find that here in Seattle there are actually people who don’t always have jumper cables in their car. If you’re just stopping for ten minutes you’re fine. For half an hour and your car has probably cooled off and might not start. The other reason people like to keep the car running is to keep the windows from frosting. Yes, you can scrape the frost. That doesn’t help much when the windows have frosted over again by the time you’ve finished.

The temperature below where your battery won’t turn the engine over depends on a lot of factors, how cold it is, how old your battery is, how much energy your engine needs. Usually around 20 below is when car batteries start failing unless your car was plugged in or in a warmish garage. And since temperatures are lower at night, starting your engine in the morning after sitting outside overnight for 12 hours is when you cane expect the most trouble.

As noted above, wind chill doesn’t factor into this. Your car will equilibrate to the ambient temperature.

As for other things, generally people winterize their cars and put in stronger antifreeze mixes and lighter engine oils. Your radiator can freeze and crack if it’s super-cold. Modern oils do a lot better over a wide range of temperatures, so your engine oil turning to jelly not such a big concern anymore.

In extreme cold you do have to worry about tires losing their elasticity. That’s like 40 below though. Also at 30 or 40 below you need to remember that materials tend to get much more brittle. Plastic gets very fragile, so plastic parts in your car can crack very easily. I used to have a cheap-ass car with plastic interior door handles, and one day the whole door handle just broke off. I had use the tiny little sharp plastic nubbin to open the car door from then on, I developed a callus on one finger. Vinyl seat covers can crack. Even metal gets more brittle, although plastic parts are the worst.

Anyway, driving at cold temperatures is not a problem since your car’s engine puts out a lot of heat and warms the car parts pretty quickly. It’s starting your car and the first few minutes of operation before everything warms up that you have to worry about.

33

I bought a new battery and now the car runs (so far). So that is good. Since the temps will be in the teens tomorrow hopefully I will be ok.

34

I stand corrected. This is one of those “facts” that people here seem to quote all the time: “Ottawa is the coldest capital city in the world.” I’ve been hearing that since I moved here 25 years ago. And it looks like -38.9°C is the coldest temperature recorded here (in 1933), although it gets pretty close to this every few years.

Block heaters aren’t absolutely required on newer fuel-injected cars. Although there’s certainly nothing wrong with getting one!

35

Also, use your ears. Back in the days before 10W30 and 5W30 oil, cold oil was like sludge, and had to warm up before it could coat the cylinders and also lubricate the valves. We could hear the valves clicking for the first minute or so after starting an engine. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear this on a really cold day with modern oils, and I wouldn’t drive off until it goes away.

When starting, especially on a very cold day, drive GENTLY until the engine warms up. If you make a lifelong habit of this, I suspect you’ll get a lot more mileage out of your cars – assuming you keep them until they drop, as I do. I haven’t had a car I had to let go before 150K miles since my '82 Escort (including my wife’s cars). Pretty much all our cars we’ve let go when the transmission started acting up.

36

You probably will be. It sounded like the cold killed a less-than-healthy battery to me, too. Cold does that.

That’s probably a debatable subject; below a certain temperature, we still plug our newer fuel-injected cars in - the last I heard on the subject, you don’t strictly need to plug the block heater in, but it’s easier on the cars if you do.

As for idling the car after I start it, I usually idle long enough to scrape my windows and clean the snow off. :slight_smile:

37

check to see if it’s charging.

38

If the situation dictates it yes. Usually people have better options though. Electric heaters as mentioned or parking the vehicle in a garage where the temperature does not get as low. In areas of extreme cold service vehicles are left running for the duration of the mission only being shut down when it’s parked back at base.

39

Of course if your car or truck is a diesel there are different problems. Diesel fuel waxes - http://www.bp.com/retail/liveassets/bp_internet/retail_new/retail_new_australia/STAGING/local_assets/downloads_pdfs/0_999/Winter_ADF_Problems.pdf - in cold weather.

The fuel companies put winter additives in to stop it happening, but they only work at medium cold temperatures. It is also a problem if you don’t use the car much, and have summer fuel left in the tank, or buy from a filling station that doesn’t sell much.

In the olden days, truck drivers would add paraffin (kerosene) to the diesel to ‘thin’ it out, and in seriously cold weather, it was not unknown for them to light a fire under the fuel tank to warm it up.

When a diesel engine is running, fuel is constantly being pumped from the tank, and returned, slightly warmed by the engine. This is deliberate as warm diesel works better than cold. In really cold weather a sensible truck driver will leave the engine running all night to keep the diesel warm and the battery charged (and warm). Modern trucks in Europe are often fitted with electrical heaters on the fuel lines.

40

I lived for a while way up north in Canada many years ago. Cars worked just like in real temperatures, even if it was below -40.
Most cars would have block heaters and battery blankets. The older cars you risked not being able to start without plugging in; but fuel-injected, electronic ignition cars started just fine. (My BMW does not have provision for a block heater, for example; but requires synthetic oil so it does not congeal as easily).
A friend at that time had a late-60’s car with a Ford 302 engine, recently rebuilt. The rebuilt engine was very tight, if it was left unplugged it would be too tight to even turn at -40.
Batteries must be maintained. At the time, open (not sealed) batteries were common. Deep discharge/recharge tended to cause the fluid to evaporate/electrolyze. The less fluid in a cell, the less effective that cell and the entire battery. Leave a cell low on acid for too long, the metal corrodes and the cell (and battery) is no good. Normally the acid in the battery will not freeze, but discharge it and leave it out and it will freeze. The cells are parallel plates of metal, when the electrolyte freezes it warps them, possibly they touch - effectively ruining the cell, even if you thaw the battery. Eventually, it may not hold a charge.

Plus, as mentioned, the electrochemical process that produces electricity is significantly less effective at lower temperatures, so a less than optimum battery will give no end of grief at lower temperatures. The old carbureted cars would rely on automatic choke and air flow in the carburetor to get gas into the engine, so slow cranking would mean difficult start, weaker spark. Best car for cold starts I had was the really old (85) Honda Civic, with a manual choke. full choke, crank engine while pumping the pedal, keep pumping for first 30 seconds after it fires…

Boosting cars was common. It is possible (Warning!!) to blow up a battery. The discharging of the battery creates hydrogen. Boosting could create a spark. One co-worker had a battery blow up in his face while trying to boost a dead battery. There’s a safe way to hook up two cars.

It was recommended to let the engine run for a minute or two to get the viscous oil all through the engine before putting a load on the engine by driving. Otherwise, your engine wears faster, dies sooner. Anything longer is likely just for comfort - plus for carbureted cars, running cold a lot - frequently start, drive short distance, stop - you get carbon buildup in the engine, and a good highway run will help burn that stuff off.

Antifreeze should be for the rated temperature. It turns to slush before rock ice; so not likely to do extreme damage unless you have a really bad mix or mostly water. However, you will get blockages in the radiator so the engine will overheat. Stop out of the wind and let the heat percolate in the engine compartment enough to get the blockages thawed. Worst case I experienced was driving several hours at -40 with no heat due to an air bubble in the heater core.

Plus, some people had electric car heaters in the cabin; improperly installed, every so often these would start a fire, and then insurance would not pay for damages.

Front-wheel drive, the rubber boots would crack (not sure if that’s better nowadays). My civic needed new boots every year or two. If the cracked open and dirt got into the CV joints, odds are you’ll need new CV joints too. Avoid parking with the wheels turned in cold weather, that stresses the rubber. coat the rubber with silicon gel to help with the flexibility.

And square tires. Old steel-belted radials, sitting in the cold overnight, the “bulge” froze and for the first few blocks, until the tires warmed up, thumpa-thumpa-thumpa-thumpa…