How well equipped are you?

[Chancer]

Overdiluted?

 

I use the stuff neat, in fact I dont think I have seen concentrate on sale in France, just expensive 5l bidons of dilute.

[alittlebitfrench]

You are not supposed to drink it Chancer...

[Pierre ZFP]

Not diluted at all - not even with tonic.

The washer bottle was completely empty when I refilled it so no 'summer' screenwash in there either.

I may be wrong but I have an idea that the label was not exactly telling the truth - Heaven forfend!

[cajal]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"] - Heaven forfend! [/quote]

How well equipped are you?

Not well enough apparently. I had to look-up the word forfend, in the dictionary, as I have never before heard/seen it used or knew what it meant.

[andyh4]

You should be fine in Koeln/Cologne. Never had a problem when there - well a few kms south. Just make sure the car has winter tyres fitted - that is the only requirement for survival in the land that buys the electricity it cannot produce itself from France. How ironic.

[Chancer]

I am still running 16 year old coolant/anti-freeze in my vehicle that has now done 500000 kms without even once topping it up [:-))]

 

When I started motoring the hoses would not even last 5 years, radiators a couple of years longer at the most, by the time a vehicle was half the age my current one is or at one 5th of the mileage I could expect cooling system failures on a regular basis, just like the exhaust system, another thing that hasn't been touched since new. Actually not quite true, it got split from a rear end shunt and I welded it thus removing all the aluminised protection coating, I expected to last no more than a year, that was 8 years ago.

 

No point me putting winter screenwash in now as its already frozen solid, I will use the washers again in the spring.

 

By the way Pierre it sounds like your screenwash was not frozen if you were able to pump it on to the screen, it will often then freeze from the Wind chill or to be exact before someone corrects me, latent heat of vaporisation, I'm assuming that you were driving at the time, its a real pain when that happens.

[Pierre ZFP]

[quote user="Chancer"]

By the way Pierre it sounds like your screenwash was not frozen if you were able to pump it on to the screen, it will often then freeze from the Wind chill or to be exact before someone corrects me, latent heat of vaporisation, I'm assuming that you were driving at the time, its a real pain when that happens.

[/quote]

Yes exactly so but I expected a 5 degree 'buffer' would be enough to get me through.  Apparently not [:(] 

[andyh4]

The cheap ones tend to be methanol based and because of the low boiling point they evaporate quickly. The more expensive ones are more likely to be based on a glycol which has a high boiling point and does not evaporate at winter temperatures.

[woolybanana]

Thus far, the vicious cold weather has enabled the dogs and I to walk on the beach every day without too many other walkers; this means chasing sea birds for miles whilst master struggles along behind.

Otherwise, simply leaving the car where it will get the morning sun and sleeping a bit later means that when you awake the frost has disappeared.

[idun]

Ah yes, the car!

It was always best when we could garage our cars, and off we went, no frosty windows.

I never had any problems with de-icer for the screen as I used to buy about -30, and anything less was no good where I lived.

HOWEVER, I always scraped first, screen wash or any of the other stuff was ONLY for once the car had started to warm up. In fact any thing other than scraping and wiping with a cloth and we were on a hiding to nothing as the car would simply look worse than when we started. One lives and learns these things![Www]

[dave21478]

All you doom-mongers with generators.....When was the last time you dragged it out of the corner of the garage and started it?

Petrol doesnt remain useable for more than a few months these days, and a carburettor full of fuel left sitting for a year or two will likely be gummed up to the point of no longer running.

And if it does run, the low octane of the petrol means it will likely lack power, stutter or even stall under load and may well cause serious damage to the engine.

Start your genny once every few months and run it up to full temperature, not just a few seconds, before switching off to prevent condensation accumulating in the exhaust.

Dont switch it off....close the fuel shut off tap and let it run out, which will take a minute or so. This empties the carb.

Keep a supply of fresh petrol for it. Again - no point in letting this fuel sit for years, so if you have a petrol car, every two months, tip it into the cars tank and get fresh stuff for your stockpile.

Additives are available that are supposed to prolong the life of stored petrol....whether they are any good or not, I couldnt say. But if I were in need of a working generator, Im not sure I would trust 20ml of some magic potion to make it work.