It's freezing out there, the car has been sitting out all night and in the morning is cloaked in a heavy layer of frost and ice.
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Time is of the essence. You step in, hit the starter and . . . nothing.
Modern cars offer motorists the full expectation that every time we climb in, it will start. We also (foolishly) fully expect a rapid cabin warm-up, high-speed defrosting, and even a seat heater to warm our nether regions.
None of these outcomes should be assumed in the depths of winter without paying a little more attention to what initiates the process.
Under the bonnet, a key chemical reaction is vital to starting your motoring day, and cold weather is its dire enemy.
Car batteries don't have an unlimited operating life. Battery failure - its inability to generate enough internal electrical current to crank the starter motor - is by far the most common winter call-out by motoring service organisations.
Thousands of motorists a year are left stranded by this common occurrence.
Batteries are rated by their CCA value, or cold cranking amps. This is the amount of electric current a battery can deliver for 30 seconds at -18 C without dropping to a specified cut-off voltage.
Many late model cars with a push-button start won't even allow the starter to crank over if its systems detect there's not enough cranking amps available from the battery.
Many late model cars with a push-button start won't even allow the starter to crank over if its systems detect there's not enough cranking amps available from the battery.
The NRMA advises car owners to start paying close attention to their batteries particularly in cold climates like the ACT.
Anything that can freeze in your car eventually will - if it gets cold enough. Fortunately, Canberra's overnight weather rarely gets cold enough (-10 C) or freeze a high volume engine radiator completely.
Anti-freeze coolant offers a high level of radiator protection against modest sub-zero temperatures so the relatively simple task of ensuring the product is correctly winter-rated and topped up should be sufficient.
In places like Scandinavia, it's not uncommon to see electric charging leads fed under the engine bays of cars regularly exposed to the worst of the winter weather. These leads are for small plug-in electric heaters.
As more electric vehicles (EVs) appear on our roads and motorists give serious consideration to switching away from combustion technology, the issue of the environment in which the EV will be "wintered" (stored overnight when temperatures are at their lowest) has to be part of that consideration.
The chemistry inside a lithium-ion battery is again the culprit.
EVs can't harness the conventional combustion process to warm their cabins but it's still a requirement, so an different process is used. The Nissan Leaf electric vehicle, for instance, uses a customised heat pump system with a refrigerant circuit used for both heating and cooling.
The key issue is that this circuit runs off the vehicle's on-board battery storage. If the EV is left unplugged as external temperatures plunge, the cabin heating requirement becomes a drain on the already temperature-sluggish battery storage and, in turn, depletes the driving range.
Two years ago, the American Automobile Association produced an extensive study which found that at -6 degrees C, an electric vehicle left unplugged overnight can lose as much as 41 per cent of its driving range. Consumer Reports conducted a similar study with an even worse outcome: a 50 per cent loss in driving range.
Given that concerns about driving range is a persistent issue in EV purchase decision-making even when conditions are optimised, anyone considering the switch to owning an electric vehicle for the ACT must either have it protected from the cold in a garage, or always ensure it is plugged in overnight during winter.
Many drivers are unaware that it is an offence under transport law in the ACT to "drive without a clear view", with a fine of over $200.
De-icing is a vexed issue for Canberra's early starters.
Leaving the car to warm up and walking away is a non-no because there are early risers among Canberra's car thieves, too.
Every winter, car thieves in the ACT take advantage of people's pre-work car warming practices and patrol the suburbs, waiting to swoop.
A little pre-winter preparation goes a long way to easing those early morning woes.
The windscreen on almost every modern vehicle is part of its structural integrity. Cracks will affect that integrity; small cracks less and big cracks more.
Windscreen glass doesn't tolerate rapid temperature change. If there is a tiny fault in the glass, often undetectable, pouring a jug full of just-boiled water onto a frozen windscreen may turn that fault into a crack.
Rubbing alcohol, which freezes at -89 degrees C, is a good de-icing agent and doesn't have the same detrimental effect on car paintwork as other chemicals.
Mix one-third with two-thirds water, spray onto the windscreen and the mix cuts well through ice and frost (although don't splash any one your clothing or you'll smell like a distillery).
Or even more simply, just take the time after parking at night to cover your screen, or invest in a good quality scraper with a long handle to get a wide reach.
