Cold weather battery tips

[Cosmo Cruz]

Hasn't snowed here (philly) in a couple of years so I forgot to put the scrapers in the cars... we got the whole deal: snow to freezing rain back to snow then 10 degrees F overnight. That's not liquid = everything you see is frozen solid. It's in the teens (F)!

I also forgot to TURN THE WIPERS OFF.
Had them on auto so as soon as I turned the car on they dragged back and forth across the icy lumps frozen to the windshield.

I'm wondering if anyone else has the "frozen louver actuator" noise from the front of the car? I haven't heard this since last January.

 

[joec]

Hasn't snowed here (philly) in a couple of years so I forgot to put the scrapers in the cars... we got the whole deal: snow to freezing rain back to snow then 10 degrees F overnight. That's not liquid = everything you see is frozen solid. It's in the teens (F)!
View attachment 17726

I also forgot to TURN THE WIPERS OFF.
Had them on auto so as soon as I turned the car on they dragged back and forth across the icy lumps frozen to the windshield.
View attachment 17729

I'm wondering if anyone else has the "frozen louver actuator" noise from the front of the car? I haven't heard this since last January.

This is why I always keep my wipers set to "OFF". I kept forgetting to turn them off on icy days, or even when drying the car after a wash in the summer.

Don't forget to use the awesome de-icer feature on days like this. No need to scrape that windshield. The de-icer works wonders while you set comfortable and warm inside the car.

 

[stratus]

Got to 10 degrees F last night here in the Philly 'burbs.

Anyone else getting the 'stuck louvers" sound from the front intake ? It bothers me but I have to guess it's not going to break ?

We had the classic sticky frozen slush icy salty crud spraying everywhere ... I've worried about all those slots and crannies getting filled with it.

This is the second winter I've heard this noise after particularly (for us) cold weather. We didn't have snow last year so it's just the cold.

I get it frequently in winter, and besides the noise, it hasn’t been a problem.

 

[GearHead]

If you want to ensure that your battery is receiving some sort of "maintenance" while parked in the cold while connected to a Level 2 charger may I suggest waking the car up via the app and turning on the heat and allowing it run for 5-10 minutes, this act will have the car calling for charging. I have done this several times during the current bout of cold weather when the car has been parked for the night.

Great idea! I'll give that a try.

Pete

 

[Chillywill75]

Hasn't snowed here (philly) in a couple of years so I forgot to put the scrapers in the cars... we got the whole deal: snow to freezing rain back to snow then 10 degrees F overnight. That's not liquid = everything you see is frozen solid. It's in the teens (F)!
View attachment 17726

I also forgot to TURN THE WIPERS OFF.
Had them on auto so as soon as I turned the car on they dragged back and forth across the icy lumps frozen to the windshield.
View attachment 17729

I'm wondering if anyone else has the "frozen louver actuator" noise from the front of the car? I haven't heard this since last January.

I e been getting a loud clicking at the bottom front of the car since the recent cold snap. Is that what I’m hearing? And what is a louver actuator anyway?

 

[hydbob]

I e been getting a loud clicking at the bottom front of the car since the recent cold snap. Is that what I’m hearing? And what is a louver actuator anyway?

It's the flaps underneath the car that open and close to provide airflow for the batteries if needed to be cooled. Icy/snow make them freeze up.

 

[GearHead]

In all my testing of various options I've discovered something new on the charging graphic of the iPhone app.

While charging the graphic shows wavy "electrical lines" starting at the front bumper and flowing to the charge limit indicator. (This was not new to me.)​

​

When the power is limited due to a cold battery, a blue bar is shown near the charge limit line.​

​

When the battery is discharging, i.e. warming the battery or running the climate control, the graphic shows the wavy lines mostly from the charge limit to about the B pillar of the car.​

Maybe this is old news to some but it was new to me.

Pete

 

[Electrified]

Another cold weather tip I tried this morning; I woke the car up and the message on the app said charging complete, I then turned on the heat and while it stared to heat it didn't activate charging......so I then increased the charging limit and this got the pre-conditioning going and then about 13 minutes later the car started to charge. Looking at the screen shots you can see the climate control was warming up the interior while pre-conditioning, the out door temp at 6:30 this morning was 13F.
I wish I would have taken a screen shot before raising the charge limit, but I will tomorrow.