Cold weather effects?

[mickydoo]

Anyone able to confirm the likely effects of the very cold weather on the operation of the Cerb?

I'm down South and we've been hovering around zero all day, with last night's temperature down to -4 or -5, during which the car has been on the drive under her winter cover. (Garage will be getting cleared next week so she can come inside).

I started the Cerb up this afternoon, allowed her to warm up for 10 minutes, before taking her for a short drive. Immediately I noticed that the gear selection was very difficult, and initially required a couple of depressions of the clutch and several attempts to get into gear.

Is this just down to the clutch fluid being much much stiffer due to the cold, and therefore not lubricating things as well as it ought to?

The gear change certainly loosened up once the car had been moving for a few minutes, and became easier once it seemed to be "warm".

[camel_landy]

Don't forget that there is nothing warming the gearbox, diff and associated fluids other than friction when you're driving. As such, things like the gear changes will feel stiffer until it has all had a chance to warm up.

M

[optimax sniffer]

Colder, denser air = More Power

[mickydoo]

optimax sniffer said:

Colder, denser air = More Power

[ridds]

Don't leave it sitting there for 10 mins, get and drive. Low engine speed and low load.

Idling for 10 mins will do nothing for the engine.

[mickydoo]

ridds said:

Don't leave it sitting there for 10 mins, get and drive. Low engine speed and low load.

Idling for 10 mins will do nothing for the engine.

Er, what about getting the black stuff up to temperature?

[Gazzab]

In -15 the tvr was fine. Just no traction but it loved the cold dense air.

[gruffalo]

mickydoo said:

ridds said:

Don't leave it sitting there for 10 mins, get and drive. Low engine speed and low load.

Idling for 10 mins will do nothing for the engine.

Er, what about getting the black stuff up to temperature?

Much better to drive it with some revs on so the splash fed bits inside the engine actually get splashed, just keep below 2500RPM or so, will also produce less carbon in as fuel gets burnt better with soem air going through the engine.

[Mags]

As above, always been told that idling isn't good for cars, you should start up and get moving at low revs. I generally don't start up until I'm ready to go.

[blueg33]

This time last year I parked the Tuscan outside at a hotel over night and had to leave early in the morning.

The overnight temp got to -6, as evidenced by water and oil temp displays

The car was slow to start, but I drove off after 30 mins idling, running was lumpy for the first couple of miles and gear change fairly stiff. Afetr about 10 mins it was running fine.

Took ages to get the oil up to 50 degrees, but it was so icy that I wasn't going to "boot it" anyway. Once fully warm it ran really well, certainly liked breating the cold air.

My feet got very cold though, somehow cold air was coming thugh the bulkhead into the drivers footwell