I went out at 7, cleared the wife's car off, fired it up and shoveled the driveway while it warmed up. Hopped in and "screeeeee, clunk...stall". Snapped an idler pulley off and wraped the serpentine belt into a knot around everything. Well, crap. Lets fire up the diesel truck in -1F weather, shall we?
Um, no. Today is the day it throws it's first code in 120k miles of use. Bad glow plugs.
At least the driveway is clear so the cab can get to the house.
I drove 250 miles in -7 temps by 0900 this morning, stick shift Elantra with snow tires FTMFW
That blows, but thanks for the laugh. It's hovering around 0-3F here in SE Michigan, the new snow was last night. Coming south on I75 was a trip though. We were doing 40mph an no one passed us last night.
Sorry man! For comparison, it was 19 today here and I was very cold. Uhh, and it was... windy. A bit.
Can't help but wonder about some Michael Schumacher karma going on here...
Does your diesel have a block heater?
11F here this morning. Took the Megasquirted RN Truck in, 40 miles.
Another fan of snow tires. Fired up the Malibu at 2;45 and made it down an unplowed parkway 85 miles to work in a tick under 4 hours. I would have made better time if people could figure out how to put their Jeeps in 4wd and not stop halfway up a mountain
Adrian_Thompson wrote: That blows, but thanks for the laugh. It's hovering around 0-3F here in SE Michigan, the new snow was last night. Coming south on I75 was a trip though. We were doing 40mph an no one passed us last night.
Here in central Illinois on New Years day, it was snowing, and there was snow on the interstate--but not bad. Safe cruising probably would have been about 55mph, whereas it is normally 75. The idiot person who looked like he was from a different country in an Acura was doing 13 miles an hour at the end of the on ramp. I was leaning on the horn out of fear for my life.
Glad to say the roads are clear here and what was running yesterday is running today. May be an interesting weekend. Don't freeze your hands off on the repairs.
Basil Exposition wrote: Can't help but wonder about some Michael Schumacher karma going on here...
Nice, you bastage. That was the whiskey talking. (Sorry Mike. Get well soon!) There is definitely some "should have spent more time on daily drivers instead of playing in the garage" hindsight going on. I do have one running race car now ;)
Block heater engaged.
GPS - not fun!
Glad to be working from home today, school was canceled for today as of last night, so they haven't done anything except plow some of the roads. To be honest, I'd rather they leave the 5-6" of snow there than leave 1-2" of hard-packed snow on the road. I picked up the babysitter this AM, and the only other vehicles on the road were plow trucks. One almost t-boned me plowing a driveway, it looked like he wasn't planning on stopping before he plowed all the snow across the street. Thankfully, some horn action woke him up, and the other lane was open for me to use.
Stay warm and safe, everyone!
My truck read -11°F this morning. Monday is supposed to have a HIGH of -15°F and a wind chill of -35°F. They are talking about canceling schools.
It's actually ABOVE zero for the first time in about a week here, all the cars still start, but the wife is terrified to go anywhere because the wind nearly knocked her over on the way to her car.
In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:
I plugged in my Dodge Diesel last night, though the low was only 28 degrees. Nice that the heater works right away. Sunny and dry this morning. On most days I hate living in Houston, but today was not one of those days.
That sucks GPS. On the bright side my car said it was a balmy -2 on my way to work at 8:30. Oh and yes snow tires rock.
I totally agree with you guys, the weather was crazy today.
64 when I woke up ... It took me 5' to make up my mind and get out of bed. Good thing the car was in the garage and I did not have to set foot outside.
I was just want to broadcast to all the folks I passed last night in the height of the storm:
SNOW TIRES BITCHES
at least your idler snapped in the driveway. ours snapped on the turnpike at 9:30, 4 miles from the exit that was another 8 miles to a parts store that closed at 10. had to keep shutting it down and coasting when the temp gauge got to the shut it down mark. got to store at 9:58, and they kept the door unlocked and computer on in case i needed something else - which i did.
idler pulley and new belt in autozone parking lot with nothing more than vise grips as it was so close to the strut tower that one could not get a socket/ratchet in there. in the snow, sub 10* temps.
i'm feeling vulnerable without true winter backup.
Drove the farm truck(99 f250) into work again today......and block heaters are epic for instant warmth. Dad hasn't had any starting issues with his '13 F350 though....monday might test that.
Both are powerstrokes btw.
patgizz wrote: at least your idler snapped in the driveway. ours snapped on the turnpike at 9:30, 4 miles from the exit that was another 8 miles to a parts store that closed at 10. had to keep shutting it down and coasting when the temp gauge got to the shut it down mark. got to store at 9:58, and they kept the door unlocked and computer on in case i needed something else - which i did. idler pulley and new belt in autozone parking lot with nothing more than vise grips as it was so close to the strut tower that one could not get a socket/ratchet in there. in the snow, sub 10* temps. i'm feeling vulnerable without true winter backup.
Well... that is certainly worse than my morning. I have to wait until this evening to get a pulley, and I have to change it in the freezing cold... but my tools are nearby and so is a warm house.
AWD + Fuzion UHP tires = wheel spin in fourth gear
Misjudged a severely off-camber right hand corner and put it into a snow bank, no harm done.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, working in the cold is the worst.
Our cold weather is coming in a few days. Sunday is a low of -21°F, Monday is a high of -8°F, low of -16°F, and Tuesday is -2°F/-7°F.
In the same boat as you GPS, my Accord decided it wants me to replace it's radiator today.
I passed a flipped over plow truck on the drive in to work this morning, with the second truck stuck in a ditch behind it. Not some landscaper pick-up, but a full-on, tandem-axle plow/salt truck. That guy is having a bad day.
Fortunately, other than that, the drive in was uneventful and pleasantly free of traffic. I waited until light to clear the driveway and by then the roads were clear. A half-vacation day well spent, IMHO.
The TDi will start pretty well in single digit temps, although it's happier when I can plug in the coolant heater. The Cummins didn't like starting in freezing temps at any time, plugged in or not.
sorry for the problems, but I'm glad that my fleet aren't the only cars that wait to take a dump until the temp is below freezing.
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