Car Batteries and sub-0 temps

B

BAM-BAM

Silver Supporter
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
15,239
Reaction score
20,760
Location
A Burb of the Burgh
For the first time in decades I'm having to park a car outside overnight.

Just went out and started it up Subaru Forester .....no problem.

But a vague memory from my childhood.....many many moons ago..... of folks putting a lightbulb under the hood overnight to generate some heat on the engine..........

Bad memory, urban legend, good idea,bad idea?????????????

Need more coffee...........................
 
Register to hide this ad
Don't know about the lightbulb idea but in the colder parts of our country I know they install headbolt heaters for winter use. I just had to replace the battery in wife's car, they are not cheap, $160. Forunately, down here it doesn't get nearly as cold as the northern folks get but we pay for it in the summer.
 
HI OP, assuming you're getting the frigid temps flowing thru WI right now, just wait until Sun/Mon (our low may be -16 not counting windchill). How old is the car/battery in question? If relatively new it might be fine; just crank over slowly. But if say 4-5 years old or more, and judging by the snow and cold we've been having and its not even winter yet, may want to consider replacing it before batteries become harder to find quickly (can happen).
As for wind, i dont believe wind chill affects inanimate objects; but i can say parking it out of the wind if able can help in one way. That being if you have to go out yourself and replace the battery outside. Did that for our daughter's car some years back, in wind chills -30 or lower. Oh that kinda sucked lol.

Back in the day we would try the lightbulb trick among other ways to keep it somewhat warmer under the hood as no garages where we lived (old farmhouses and mobile homes), but we also had carbs in those days and chokes that didnt always do their job
 
I took my southern born wife back home for a visit with family back in South Dakota and she asked why there were electrical outlets in front of the parking spaces in so many houses and apartment buildings. I had to explain it to her, bless her heart.

-----

In my experience in SD, the heat under the hood in the summer would finish off an old battery, you just wouldn't realize it until the first really cold day in winter. So if you've got an old battery it's much more fun to replace it when it's still warm out than it is when it's -10F.

Head bolt heaters, soft plug heaters and tank heaters are all things I don't miss about the frozen north. But all of them work a lot better than a light bulb under the hood.

IMHO, a tank heater is the best way to go as it will both warm the coolant and keep it slowly circulating through the radiator and block and they tend to have a bit more punch than a head bolt or soft plug heater.

You can also get battery heaters that help the battery produce more electricity in the cold by keeping it warm - and it will keep it from freezing and cracking if its left almost dead - but it's mostly a crutch for a car that came equipped with too small a battery.
 
I remember a few times in college in the 80's I was in Nebraska and we had a few spells of sub-zero weather. I had a Ford Tempo and on a few occasions I would take the battery out and bring it into the house. It was a pain to reset the clock and radio...but the car started.
 
I buy my batteries only from Autozone. They have a deluxe model with a 3 year warranty for about $125 and when my battery is about 2-1/2 years old I take it to an Autozone and they test it for free. It always fails the test and they install a new battery for free. I had a 10 year old Nissan Titan pickup and they replaced the battery free at least 3 times before I sold the truck with 265K miles. You can go in any Autozone and they check the label on the battery and you don't have to save the receipt or show them anything. New batteries never seem to have any trouble starting in cold weather, it's the old ones you have to worry about. Also on my four wheelers and riding lawn mower I use a battery tender and that prolongs battery life quite a bit. Before I used the battery tender, winter time would kill my riding lawnmower battery every year then I would have to spend 75 bucks every spring on a new one.
 
Here in the 'burbs of the Burgh" sub-0 is the rare exception.... maybe once or twice a year at most ...... most years not at all......so was thinking about some extra insurance on those rare nights.

This started out as one of those 5am.... 'What if's"............the car won't start ?..... it's parked behind the Truck (in my side of the garage).

The ATVs and RZR at the cabin all have battery tenders.... could use a spare.... just hook a "tender" to the Subaru with the alligator clips when they are calling for a sub-0 night.I have an outdoor plug just a few feet from where I park.

??????????

Or LOL just put the Subaru in the garage and let the 2016 Nissan Frontier sit out!!!!!
 
Last edited:
A few years back my wife went out to start her car and it turned over slow, she didn't say anything to me, she went to autozone and had them put in a new battery, about two years later she went out and the car wouldn't turn over, I called AAA (not AA) they jump started it and said it had a dead cell, I took it to autozone, they said nothing was wrong with it, this happened three times in the next week, finally I took it to the Chrysler dealer and had them put in a new battery.:mad:
 
Not sure a light bulb would have helped last nite, ........not only cold but very windy.......... Make sure the cables and posts are cleaned properly....... if I keep a car out when extremely cold, I make sure the engine compartment is not facing into the wind. Were you heading out to hunt deer??????????

That's why I have the NE Ohio bunch when it's warmer, so you don't have a battery problem the morning we meet........ Larry
 
Ranger17 said:
if it applies here, whatever car a significant other may drive; that's the one that gets the garage space

;)
Click to expand...

LOL.....I'm good ....... her 228xi has the other garage bay ( With sign: "Barbara Parking Only")..........her favorite feature in a car/truck are the heated seats.........When I was looking a the Frontier this summer that was her 1st question..... about the passenger seat......
 
Jebus35745 said:
Not sure a light bulb would have helped last nite, ........not only cold but very windy.......... Make sure the cables and posts are cleaned properly....... if I keep a car out when extremely cold, I make sure the engine compartment is not facing into the wind. Were you heading out to hunt deer??????????

That's why I have the NE Ohio bunch when it's warmer, so you don't have a battery problem the morning we meet........ Larry
Click to expand...

Pa. deer season ended last Sat.

My 5am thought was....."If the Subaru won't start..... no big deal..... wait .... it's blocking the one garage door/truck."

Suppose to be in the 40s here Sat.
 
Spend $125 in September on a new battery when time and money isn't tight like around the Holidays. It pays off next January. I remember when I was a kid people would take the battery in the house at night. Then you had the guy that put a blanket over the engine at night and forget to take it off in the morning. Back then with carbourated engines with an "automatic" (ha ha) choke you had maybe three shots to start the old girl.
 
A good, less than four year old battery should have no issue starting a 4 or 6 cylinder engine in temperatures down to ten below or so, a newer battery can probably handle about twenty below, if your motor oil is sufficiently thin. No 10w30.

I made a facebook post to my friends in October warning them about any battery over four years old being killed by the very hot summer we had locally. Heat kills batteries, cold pronounces them dead. Several friends posted this morning that their cars wouldn't turn over. I warned them.
 
Automatic chokes, I used to take the cover off and spray them with Gumout before it got cold, if they were clean and adjusted right you never had a problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ddeanjohnson
  • Locked
WITHDRAWN -- Collection reduction: 40 guns (15 S&W + Colts, etc.)
2
Replies
26
Views
11K
ddeanjohnson
ddeanjohnson
Dougaz
The history of the car radio
2
Replies
28
Views
1K
Golddollar
Golddollar
Colokeb
Seven + Months with a Volt
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
coltle6920
coltle6920
A
I remember all of these, you?
5 6 7
Replies
134
Views
7K
zeke
Z
BlackAgnes
Remembering Bob...
Replies
6
Views
1K
Old Seabee
O

Latest posts

Back
Top