The wondeful sound of a cold winter morning

Chi chi chi chi

A lot of our neighbours are having problems trying to start their cars. My dads wouldn't start either until he poured boiling water on the bonnet.

I just remember this sound as a kid when people would franticaly try and get their Austin Maxis to start.

 

What do they do to your cars to make em like that? My Nissan Primera has started every time first time to temps as low as -25C. The only time it started to sound a bit sick was with very low temps and old battery. Do they put specially weedy batteries in, or is everyone just too tight to change them when they're old?

 

Steve - you and I live in the wonderful world of japanese cars which just get on with it. Only time mine has ever failed to start was when the original battery (7 years old at the time) couldn't cope with starting the engine on a cold november morning after having sat for 2.5 weeks in the cold and damp. After a jump it started and ran, and started the next day too, enough to get a new battery.

Only thing mine does in the cold and damp after a few days of not being run is that it might take 4 turns of the crank to fire rather than 3. Not bad for 8 years old and 102000 miles.

 

With my dads car it was just damp. WD40 solved it and it starts instantly now. The ignition system (is it wrong to call it distributor on electronic ignition cars?) is quite close to bonnet and the bonnest has no blankett so I suppose it was prone to getting damp.