I hate winter

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by jeep45238

Very easy. Look at your A/C compressor. You'll notice an electrical plug on it, usually at the tail away from the pulley. Remove it from the compressor, and secure it so it doesn't fall onto something hot and melt, and tape the end shut with electrical tape.

The trouble with that idea is that it totally disables the A/C. Sometimes I do need the A/C to run with the defroster, and in the summer I want A/C without having to go under the hood.

Jay's similar idea with a switch is simple and should work great.

[jeep45238]

Plug the pigtail back in when it warms up. Tie it up when it's not used with a zip tie, cut it when you want to plug it back in. It's also free assuming you've got something to keep it away from moving parts or heat. Once you plug it in it's factory, once you unplug it it's disabled.

I haven't used the A/C when my defrost is running in my 97 SL2 or pop's 96 SL2 during the winter. Ma's 02 SL2 is a different tale, it automatically comes on. Simple is good for me.

[Lelandjt]

I think the $ of electricity that a space heater would use is more than the $ of gas that the fan uses.

[theholycow]

The space heater is as a replacement for starting early and idling in the driveway to provide a warm driving environment, not instead of running the fan once the engine is warmed up. With hypermiling techniques it takes forever for the engine to warm up...

[Mike T]

My two daily drivers have suffered from the arctic weather here on usually-balmy Vancouver Island - consumption is up about 10-15% due to compact snow and cold. It rarely snows here, but this December it's going to be at least a couple of weeks well below freezing, with much snow too. I love the weather though, don't get me wrong.

[almightybmw]

Ya know, I love winter. At a 1/4 tank of fuel and only 210 miles on the clock, about 90 shy of where I normally am. -20 and no block heater make for loong warm up times, snow and ice make for throttle fun and e-brake excitement. Both of those equate to--not poor--but Terrible! mileage. I don't think I'm going to break 15mpg on this one.

[SloSaturn]

I use my little "fill me up light" to gauge my performance as well as my quarters and half tank numbers. This last tank was down 187kms to 655 when the light came on versus 842 as the years best. I was well below 3/8ths of a tank when I have been at half before.

I suppose the one "up" side is that with the price of gas down to 70c/L from $1.37/L I'm getting about 3/4 of the distance for about half the price. Not a bad bargain though I'm still PO'd that I won't keep it above 50mpg imp for the winter (now down to 48 imp).

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

I had a winter worst mpg trip either last year or the year before... about 12mpg or less ... in a Tempo. Now that car was a POS that was hard to get decent mpg out of most of the time, you had to fight for 28, most of the time it was 25-ish especially winter, summer, you could sometimes get all 95 horses galloping in the same direction and get 30 or even 31... but I digress...

What happened was, it was a bit of a blizzard, snow just dumping, building up fast, took my wife on the 15 mile trip to work, and we were crawling at 30mph and slower most of the way, to top that, the snow was deep enough in the center of the lane that we were plowing it with the air dam all the way, and dragging the underside on it most of the time. The tank went from a hair over half to just under a quarter in that one trip, there and back 30 miles, now I know that gas gauges are uselessly inaccurate, but it easily used 2.5 gallons.

Worst I remember seeing out of Marvin, city driving in similar conditions, is 16mpg, but his winter city average is usually 19-20. This is the first winter I've driven Wile-E so not quite sure what to expect, though he's not got too much ground clearance so if we're belly dragging on the snow it won't be too good.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by RoadWarrior

took my wife on the 15 mile trip to work, [...] the snow was deep enough in the center of the lane that we were plowing it with the air dam all the way, and dragging the underside on it most of the time.

Now that's dedication.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Heh, I think it was a day she had to get a load of stuff in for the end of the month. I guess we probably didn't quiiiite realize how bad it was. It was kind of odd though, because the salters and sanders had been out all night so the wheel tracks cut through to the highway surface, it's just it snowed to fast to do much good. But there's an attitude I guess up here, winter happens, you throw a shovel and a blanket in the car and drive in it.