Winter car issues / moans

Tee Hee Johnson said:
The M140i heats up quick, which is nice. Heated steering wheel and seats make it my choice when its cold!

But the 2010 Fiesta has it beat in one aspect, heated windscreen!
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Yep no issues heating up my M140i

I do have a weird issue though, when it's cold and I manoeuvre at low speed with full lock on I get a clunking noise. does yours have this too?
 
MissChief said:
Yes actually. And they're very, very cold to first sit on. And then in the Summer, very, very hot if they've been in the sunshine.
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The summer of ‘76 - vinyl covered seats were the thing. Dad told me he had to drive with a bath towel on seat so his legs didn’t scold on the vinyl. Plus drapped another towel over steering wheel, when parked up, as they were hard plastic.
 
TheVoice said:
My SEAT Leon 1.4 TSI takes a good while to warm up too, it's a great car but it hates winter and all sorts of niggles start to appear when the temperature plummets like the rear wiper getting stuck and one headlight not levelling correctly. It'll also ice up on the inside despite doing everything I can to prevent it.
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That's weird, same car and engine and I was about to post that it heats up pretty quickly!

I start my one up while I have breakfast and no matter how solid the ice is it's ready to go by the time I jump in.
 
cheesefest said:
The summer of ‘76 - vinyl covered seats were the thing. Dad told me he had to drive with a bath towel on seat so his legs didn’t scold on the vinyl. Plus drapped another towel over steering wheel, when parked up, as they were hard plastic.
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I have memories of my parents red Vauxhall Viva with no seatbelts and exactly this, scalding hot seats in the summer.

Regarding cars taking a long time to heat it it's likely a sticky thermostat. What's supposed to happen is the water is kept in the block when the engine is started, heating it very quickly. As it warms up the thermostat opens allowing the warm water to cycle through the cooling system and radiator. If the Thermostat isn't closing properly then the water isn't kept in the block and the cooling becomes almost too efficient, especially when cold. A Thermostat is usually a cheap and quick replacement.
lordrobs said:
That's weird, same car and engine and I was about to post that it heats up pretty quickly!

I start my one up while I have breakfast and no matter how solid the ice is it's ready to go by the time I jump in.
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I have a neighbour that starts her Corsa at 8am sometimes, then leaves it idling for 30 minutes. I take issue with that as it's excessive. The noise and air pollution is unnecessary, not to mention the waste of fuel. I don't really get that.
 
jaybee said:
I have a neighbour that starts her Corsa at 8am sometimes, then leaves it idling for 30 minutes. I take issue with that as it's excessive. The noise and air pollution is unnecessary, not to mention the waste of fuel. I don't really get that.
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You think that's bad, at our old place our neighbour used to idle a 70 seater coach in a residential cul-de-sac for 40 minutes starting at 6:30. The guy was a complete moron. Unfortunately he was also a bipolar drunk so there really wasn't any reasoning with him either.

His record was 1 hr 15 mins. What made it worse was that these things were complete sheds and used to chuck out clouds of diesel smoke so you had to make sure the windows were closed or you'd smell it in the house for hours.
 
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jaybee said:
I have a neighbour that starts her Corsa at 8am sometimes, then leaves it idling for 30 minutes. I take issue with that as it's excessive. The noise and air pollution is unnecessary, not to mention the waste of fuel. I don't really get that.
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That is excessive 10/15 mins max is more than enough.
 
Demon said:
But, that's just a quick hit, the EV will not only defrost the windscreen easily, the cabin will be toasty in no time as well...

First world problems eh?
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Far cheaper not to buy an EV though right?

Yeah definitely a first world problem :D
 
Heated steering wheel is one thing I'd quite like as my hands are like ice until the blowers have warmed the car up enough so I can start pointing them at me instead of the screen.
 
Pre-conditioning started on my BMW phone app
Heated seats
Heated steering wheel
Heated arm rests and door panels

Love EV's :)
 
Start my focus up on the app, it'll run for 5 minutes to get the cabin to temp and heated windscreen / teering wheel / seats turn on if I don't get in within those 5 minutes and start it then it'll turn off.
 
SDK^ said:
Pre-conditioning started on my BMW phone app
Heated seats
Heated steering wheel
Heated arm rests and door panels

Love EV's :)
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OK, now stop rubbing it in! Heated bloody arm rests? That is awesome.. I assume that's the iX from your Sig? I so wanted to justify getting one, by far the nicest EV I've sat in and suits my tastes, but the iX 50 111kwh (to be a good match performance/range wise to the Model Y) was over double the price of a Model Y so decided I could get a Model Y and a v8 something or other for me for the same price!
 
Uther said:
Yes been there, done that. I just go with cloth seats now.
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Alcantara (man made suede) if you can, its by far IMO the best car seat material. (Half leather so sides being leather for sliding in and out wear if you can)
Its pretty tough, its warmer in winter and cooler in summer (unless you have funky cooled seats). As its man made its pretty easy to clean.

Sure in 20 years leather would look better. But realistically how many cars at that sort of age do you really worry about the seats condition.
 
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