Heated windshield washer fluid

[MendoDave]

Yes like


how stupidly over engineered I feel cars are

These are the truly important issues

My E320 Mercedes wagon comes standard with heated windshield fluid. There is a coolant circuit that comes from the radiator, and into the washer tank. The hot pipe heats up the fluid. Of course there is a controller to regulate the temp.

The benefit is, that there is an extra doohickey to fool around with under the hood. Otherwise I guess it keeps the fluid from freezing until it hits the window and instantly turns to ice. 

[GAAN]

frozen wipers

are

mother natures way of telling you to stay the make the beast with two backs home

[Drunken Monkey]

My last winter in VT I had a ritual:

Wake up (wearing a union suit & long underwear)
Throw on jeans and boots and jacket
Go out and start car.
Go back inside.
Get Undressed, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast
Get into nice, warm, defrosted car.
See if any neighbors need a jump start.
Drive to work.

What's the big deal?

[Monsterlover]

My last winter in VT I had a ritual:

Wake up (wearing a union suit & long underwear)
Throw on jeans and boots and jacket
Go out and start car.
Go back inside.
Get Undressed, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast
Get into nice, warm, defrosted car.
See if any neighbors need a jump start.
Drive to work.

What's the big deal?

I have a car with it (Golf TDI) and a car without it (Mazda 3) right now.
Gotta say it does make a hell of difference when in nightmare weather like raining and 20 degrees out.
With the Mazda I have to stop every so often to beat the ice out of the wipers.

[lethe]

frozen wipers

are

mother natures way of telling you to stay the make the beast with two backs home

no it's natures way of telling everyone else to stay home
Empty snow covered roads are like the playground of the gods.
The only reason I ever stay home from work on really bad days is because I know other people will screw it up for me.

[Monsterlover]

Agreed.

I <3 e-brake turns

[TiNi]

i also hate ice build up on the wipers
there is no way to get it off unless you pull over and get out of the car
which is not always convenient when there is 10 inches of snow on the roads

my audi does not have the heated strip on the windshield
i think that would solve the problem  

[lethe]

Agreed.

I <3 e-brake turns

plus VWs traction control is biased towards performance
It always allows just enough wheelspin for fun and to show people when your pissed off at them.

[GAAN]

no it's natures way of telling everyone else to stay home
Empty snow covered roads are like the playground of the gods.
The only reason I ever stay home from work on really bad days is because I know other people will screw it up for me.

we call them snowboarders

they take mother's playground and make the beast with two backs it up with ruts, gates, and cops

[Drunken Monkey]

no it's natures way of telling everyone else to stay home
Empty snow covered roads are like the playground of the gods.
The only reason I ever stay home from work on really bad days is because I know other people will screw it up for me.

This is right here is one of my fondest memories of living in the frozen North.

[the_Journeyman]

I agree that -10 is pretty cold.

I find it bizarre that they didn't build a system that allows the engine to reach operating temps in any conditions.

Welcome to my world with buses.  The antique V8 Detroit Diesel motors warm up fine and make plenty of heat.  The new, modern Benz-powered Freightliner buses, even with the grill cover sometimes won't heat up at all when you are stuck traveling at a steady speed on the highway.  It was in the negatives one morning and I froze.  No heat, and ice formed on the INSIDE of the windows... 

JM

[badgalbetty]

thats odd. I have driven truck for 20 years and never had a truck that did not warm up and the heater be able to blow warm air within a few minutes. In the small straight trucks we used to have the Cummins motor have a built in block heater that keep it at 80*so that it will always start when it gets cold. That turd can break and when it does its an expensive fix, I seem to remember the heater being around $1400.00 or so. I have not driven semi with a new MB power plant in it but I have driven a new MB Sprinter van. The emissions on them are nightmares. There is a fluid that you have to refill into a reservoir that helps burn off the emissions....Its $130.00 to fill that up at MB , even though the bottle only costs $1.30 a quart. They take about 20 gallons of the stuff. Anyway, when that crap runs out you only are allowed to start the vehicle so many times before a sensor interlocks the ignition so it will not start. Then you are stuck in Egypt with a van that wont start until you buy this emission stuff pour into a tank under the hood and have a reset button reset by the factory using a datatool. What a con. Yes I like MB cars, but this? Insane.
I'll stick to Cummins power with a ten speed Eaton Fuller in a Volvo tractor. My idea of what a truck should be. My 1989 Volvo had 1.9 million miles on her when I left that company in 2003.Yeah, she had power, all you'd want and then some.
As far as heated windshield fluid? Con. Decent washer fluid comes with a non freezing chemical agent that works fine. Cars are over engineered for the gizmo gadget crowd these days. Did a 1947 MB come with a heated windshield washer fluid? Nope They had just as severe winters then as they do know.

[lethe]

thats odd. I have driven truck for 20 years and never had a truck that did not warm up and the heater be able to blow warm air within a few minutes. In the small straight trucks we used to have the Cummins motor have a built in block heater that keep it at 80*so that it will always start when it gets cold. That turd can break and when it does its an expensive fix, I seem to remember the heater being around $1400.00 or so. I have not driven semi with a new MB power plant in it but I have driven a new MB Sprinter van. The emissions on them are nightmares. There is a fluid that you have to refill into a reservoir that helps burn off the emissions....Its $130.00 to fill that up at MB , even though the bottle only costs $1.30 a quart. They take about 20 gallons of the stuff. Anyway, when that crap runs out you only are allowed to start the vehicle so many times before a sensor interlocks the ignition so it will not start. Then you are stuck in Egypt with a van that wont start until you buy this emission stuff pour into a tank under the hood and have a reset button reset by the factory using a datatool. What a con. Yes I like MB cars, but this? Insane.
I'll stick to Cummins power with a ten speed Eaton Fuller in a Volvo tractor. My idea of what a truck should be. My 1989 Volvo had 1.9 million miles on her when I left that company in 2003.Yeah, she had power, all you'd want and then some.
As far as heated windshield fluid? Con. Decent washer fluid comes with a non freezing chemical agent that works fine. Cars are over engineered for the gizmo gadget crowd these days. Did a 1947 MB come with a heated windshield washer fluid? Nope They had just as severe winters then as they do know.

The urea injection is the common emissions thing for the cars now too. My TDI does without it instead doing some weird little changes in the fueling from time to time but just about all the other passenger cars go the cow piss route.
Still gotta disagree about the heated fluid though as back to back drives between my two cars prove out the difference to me. I was driving all around yesterday in the freezing rain here in my car that doesn't have it and had to have a dragon's fire level of heat blowing out on the windshield to keep from ice buildup and had to stop to bang off the wipers a few times. Just doesn't happen in the other car.

[Stinky Wizzleteats]

to me it also seems like a repurposed piece of equipment...a fishtank circulation heater pump maybe?!?!?....


as far as fluid, I get this wonderful stuff through work that zee germans have labelled "Rain Repellant" and it is blue and works like rainX....and applies itself to the windshield with every spray!

Don't have trouble with ice but for rain repellent, I was using RainX but a friend told me to use car polish on your windshield. Let it dry and then rub it off. Has the same effect as RainX. 

[MendoDave]

thats odd. I have driven truck for 20 years and never had a truck that did not warm up and the heater be able to blow warm air within a few minutes. In the small straight trucks we used to have the Cummins motor have a built in block heater that keep it at 80*so that it will always start when it gets cold. That turd can break and when it does its an expensive fix, I seem to remember the heater being around $1400.00 or so. I have not driven semi with a new MB power plant in it but I have driven a new MB Sprinter van. The emissions on them are nightmares. There is a fluid that you have to refill into a reservoir that helps burn off the emissions....Its $130.00 to fill that up at MB , even though the bottle only costs $1.30 a quart. They take about 20 gallons of the stuff. Anyway, when that crap runs out you only are allowed to start the vehicle so many times before a sensor interlocks the ignition so it will not start. Then you are stuck in Egypt with a van that wont start until you buy this emission stuff pour into a tank under the hood and have a reset button reset by the factory using a datatool. What a con. Yes I like MB cars, but this? Insane.
I'll stick to Cummins power with a ten speed Eaton Fuller in a Volvo tractor. My idea of what a truck should be. My 1989 Volvo had 1.9 million miles on her when I left that company in 2003.Yeah, she had power, all you'd want and then some.
As far as heated windshield fluid? Con. Decent washer fluid comes with a non freezing chemical agent that works fine. Cars are over engineered for the gizmo gadget crowd these days. Did a 1947 MB come with a heated windshield washer fluid? Nope They had just as severe winters then as they do know.

We have a Dodge 3500 pickup with a  Cummins in it.  I can let it Idle for a half hour in the driveway and go out there and it's still cold. but drive it down the road 3 or 4 miles and it warms right up. I'm pretty sure it has some kind of motorized or electronic thermostat because the temperature ocilates a bit when its warm on a regular interval. I see it going up to just over halfway on the the thermostat and then it cools back down. Then it creeps back up there and then cools back down again. Ive gotten used to it now.  I don't care much for that transmission, it has but the engine makes a lot of power, and its one of the older 2 valve engines.

Anyway the truck has no heated fluid or heated strips, just defrosters that don't work until you drive it.