car auxhilliary heater

[Andy Dingley]

High end Jags too. Although they all (first few years of them( had to be replaced under warranty. I think they had a "cracking if turned on cold" problem.

[Andy Dingley]

Yes - a student friend from Germany had one. They weren't a standard fit, j ust the cold parts of Europe.

Trying to get spares for it in the UK was about as easy as you might expect . It has a heat exchanger component they describe (in badly translated Engl ish) as a "radiator". Yes, you have to phone up the VW main dealer and orde r "a radiator for a Beetle" - see how far you get with that.

In the end I got the bits from Edmunds Walker. Dad had a haulage business a nd one of his trucks had a diesel cab heater. Deal with Eberspacher and it was all no problem.

[Andy Burns]

I think I noticed one as an option on a Passat recently

[fred]

just the cold parts of Europe.

ct. It has a heat exchanger component they describe (in badly translated En glish) as a "radiator". Yes, you have to phone up the VW main dealer and or der "a radiator for a Beetle" - see how far you get with that.

and one of his trucks had a diesel cab heater. Deal with Eberspacher and i t was all no problem.

Didn't BMW once offer a heat retaining lump of aluminium which once warmed up by a short run retained sufficient heat over night to give a comfortable car a.s.a.p.

Wonder how effective it was.

[Dave Liquorice]

Depends how cold it has been. Air temp approaching -10 C under clear skies and the windscreen and frost will be approaching -20 C. Luke warm water has been known to freeze and with the glass at -20 ish you have a 60 C temperature differance. The thermal shock might not be healthy for the windscreen...

Long handled window cleaner/squeege, can of squirt, shove any snow off with window tool, squirt if required, there can be frost under the snow depending on which came first, squirt is just a line back and forth once along the top of the screen, do other windows and lights as required, screen is probably now clear and the wipers will suffice.

True enough but provided you do clear the screen of the sub zero slush it'll be dry and thus nothing to freeze on it(*). I do clear the screen before setting off, unlike some people who seem to think a hole the size of letter box is a "clear screen".

(*) Problems come if there is a bit of freezing fog about and that builds up on the screen enough to require the wipers before the heated screen has got enough heat into the glass. Put the wipers on and you smear opaque ice across the screen, not good...

[Thomas Prufer]

There was a retrofit heatbank offered, made some garage inventor: a Thermos with sodium acetate. Sodium acetate is the stuff used in those heating pads that warm as the salt crystalizes. It was said it'd keep warm overnight in winter, providing faster starting, quicker heating etc. while being passive and just plumbed into the coolant circuit.

Was on one of those "cool inventions" programs, never heard of it again.

Thomas Prufer

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Never heard of that one. My BMW has a 'residual heat' function that allows the heater to be used without the engine running. For say passengers when the driver nips into the shops or whatever. Gives about 15 minutes of heat. Uses an electric pump. But obviously only when the engine was hot.

[Reentrant]

I remember something like that too (but I thought it was sodium thiosulphate) - looked like a big oil filter cannister on the sump of a Volvo.

Search on "block heater" - there are electric after-market options and they are often standard in cold climates, using engine fuel.

[fred]

ISTR it being offered as an extra on the 5 series about 20 years ago.

It was a costly extra which may account for it non continuance. Perhaps other, colder, markets found it of benefit

[fred]

Canada'sanswer

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Well my BMW is a 5 Series and getting on for 20 years old and fully loaded. I had the two previous 5 Series too.

[Johny B Good]

Thermal shock was one of my concerns. Normally I'd pour a gentle trickle across the top of the glass to limit the heat transfer rate, allowing more water to pour onto the glass after the first few seconds.

If it had been an extremely cold night, I'd start the pour from just above the windscreen so it hit the metalwork of the roof first before going onto the glass itself to reduce the initial temperature of the water as it hit the glass (I tended to use slightly hotter water on such early mornings to compensate so I knew to avoid applying the water immediately to the glass.

I must have been doing it right since in the several years I'd been practicing this de-icing technique, I enjoyed the good fortune of not shattering the glass by thermal shock (I'l admit to this possibly being simply my 'dumb luck' :-)

I could never figure out the mentality of such folk other than the obvious one of laziness winning out over safety. When I set off on such freezing cold mornings, _all_ my window glass looked as clear as if I'd just driven the car out of a heated garage. :-) This applied whether it was just frost or it was both frost _and_ snow.

This was the _other_ advantage of using the warm water de-icing technique. Careful application of warm water neatly addresses issues that de-icing fluid simply leaves unresolved.

[fred]

Did you buy them from new and spec them up yourself? I distinctly remember specing up a new 525 in either 1997 or 2005 and this being an option.

[Chris French]

In message , Johny B Good writes

I have used that technique for some years on different cars (not bother on the heated windscreen.

Never had any problems with screens cracking or anything (even with existing chips etc.).

I have had the water refreeze when the windscreen was esp. cold, or the water not warm enough but another jug of warm water sorted it..

I think my FIL does the same and he has never had a problem

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not quite new - but did see the cats. with all the extras. I'm also a member of an E39 forum with worldwide members and not heard it mentioned on there either.

[fred]

Well I specced and bought 2 new 525's . !992 and 1997 . Well actually the last was a 523 and she complained I had downgraded her. Useless explaining the engines were the same. 523 was less than 525 and that was that. And I d istinctly remember this as an option one one of these cars. They were super b cars. Completely un-flusterable no matter how you drove them.Convinced me to switch to BMWs and I'm driving them ever since.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Are you certain you're not confusing it with the residual heat function?

Did you have this on your car?

Something which could retain a reasonable amount of heat overnight would likely be very large. So where was it fitted?

[Johny B Good]

Thanks for sharing that. It's reassuring to know that I wasn't the only one 'taking my chances' with this de-icing technique. :-)

[Clive George]

There's quite a few hits on t'interweb for "bmw latent heat store", which is described as an option. Possibly latent heat accumulator.

[fred]

Well I was beginning to doubt my memory and having made various searches o n Google and turning up nothing I finally emailed a query to BMW U.K.

However I see from the following post that the estimable Clive George did a search on "BMW latent heat store" and turned up some interesting results w hich would appear to confirm my memory. Thank heavens for that. My memory i s well shot as it is but I don't think I've reached the stage of imagining things just yet.