Cold Weather Car Fails

Nobody enjoys scraping their car windows when it’s freezing cold and the ice feels like it's inches thick, but taking shortcuts can cause problems - just ask the people who have tried to scrape their car windows and mirrors with their credit cards.

Here are some of the biggest cold weather car fails and how you can avoid them:

Winding down your windows to get rid of the snow

If you’ve woken up to a snowfall and instead of building snowmen and tobogganing you need to get on the road to get to work, it can be tempting to make it a quick job by winding down your windows and assuming it’ll make the snow fall off onto the floor.

Unfortunately - as most of us have experienced at least once in our lives - it normally falls into the car instead, which is particularly unfortunate when it’s the driver’s window and the snow ends up on the seat, giving you a cold and wet bottom for the rest of the journey.

Not the best way to start the working day, so try using a brush or broom to get rid of the snow instead.

Boiling the kettle to de-ice the car

When the ice is thick and scraping is taking ages, the temptation is there to speed things up with some boiling water, which melts the ice away nice and quickly. Job done!

But no, don’t do this. Boiling water will very quickly change the temperature of the freezing cold windscreen and this can make it crack or shatter.

Use de-icer spray, a scraper and a bit more patience instead.

Trying to wipe the ice away with the windscreen wipers

When it’s really cold and your windscreen is frozen, it can look like your trusty wipers could probably do the trick.

But they’re probably actually frozen to the windscreen and if you try to make them move, you’ll potentially:

• Break them
• Scratch the windscreen
• Possibly even burn out the motor
• And still won’t be able to see

Again, patience and de-icer spray are your friends here.

Not giving yourself enough time and having to rush

Nobody (except maybe small children) wants to rush out on a wintry morning but trying to get out at least 10 minutes ahead of schedule will make your journey much safer and less stressful:

• It’ll stop you trying any of the time-saving fails above
• It will also ensure that you aren’t setting off before your windscreen and windows are fully clear
• This is incredibly dangerous in already treacherous conditions

So give yourself that extra 10 minutes.

When it comes to feeling the cold, EVs get hit especially hard – you may be wondering ‘can cold weather kill a car battery?’ Check out our blog on how to look after electric cars in cold weather.

Is the cold weather enticing you to make a motor upgrade? Heated seats and steering wheels are only a click away - view our leasing special offers.