so whats all this with cab drivers..

[P Nuts]

so where I park my car I often pass a fleet of black cab drivers and 99% of them have things like tin foil, paper, addidas shoe box cutouts cable tied to the front of their cab grills. Whats this all about then? is it a way of keeping the heat in the engine or something? its not really thread worthy but it puzzles me lol cheers

[HustleRussell]

They haven't realised it's 2013 yet... and they're blanking off their radiator to help their engine warm up quicker.

[furrywoolyhatuk]

It's just to get the engine up to temperature quicker and/or retain heat if stood for a while waiting for a fare. I usually see one or two landrovers around my way (old style defenders) who have a piece of material that rolls down over the grill.

[Meths]

Don't the cars have a thermostat that cuts off the flow of water from the radiator when cold?


It's just another example of general stupidity.

[andy-xr]

Blimey, I normally have the opposite problem, sat there hoping the fan cuts in while I'm watching the temperature gauge

[silverfoxcc]

My Dads pre War Lancheste had a blind you could adjust to get a quick warm up, And the Temp gauge was a gauge on the rad cap!

[EDLT]

If they are getting so little work that the car isn't warming up then a few bits of cardboard won't really solve the problem.

[Jonny_]

Meths said:

Don't the cars have a thermostat that cuts off the flow of water from the radiator when cold?


It's just another example of general stupidity.

Most thermostats are designed to fail in open position to prevent catastrophic overheating as I recall. So perhaps these cabbies are trying to save the cost of a new 'stat?

Not suggesting this is at all clever, mind!

[smartphone hater]

No it's not just another example of general stupidity.

I sometimes do the same on my series 2 Land Rover. Sometimes when it's cold some vehicles may struggle to reach operating temperature, restricting the cold airflow to the radiator will help to raise the coolant temperature. Also black cabs will be diesels that will spend their day in slow moving traffic at low revs so it's just a way of keeping the temp up a bit & warm air blowing through the heater.

[vit4]

I notice it mostly with the older (Nissan engined?) cabs. Fairways & early TX's. Whether the newer ones warm up quicker I don't know, but it seems fairly consistent.

[davepoth]

vit4 said:

I notice it mostly with the older (Nissan engined?) cabs. Fairways & early TX's. Whether the newer ones warm up quicker I don't know, but it seems fairly consistent.

Rather than trying to block the radiator, they're actually limiting the air getting through the grille and around the engine. The old cabs would have been over ventilated to have a big margin for hot weather given the hard life they lead, so much so that they can have difficulty running up to temperature under light use in winter. Having a cold engine is almost as bad as a hot one, so by blocking up the grille they slow the airflow, allowing things to warm up a bit.