A cold weather rookie in Texas tries to deal with a hard freeze!

[SURF RUNNER]

I thought you guys up North might enjoy this little story. I'm not sure how I could have handled the weather worse - and this was just the first 20 minutes of my day...

Below is a photo I took Friday morning in College Station. In Texas we aren't used to dealing with this type of weather. My doors were frozen shut. I finally got one of the rear doors open and then did a contortionist move to climb into the driver's seat. After I started the car I turned on the heat and directed it to the windshield to help with melting the ice. I guess I was half asleep... for some reason didn't think about bringing a bucket of hot water from my apartment. I used to have a plastic ice scraper, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Anyway, while I have the heat on full blast I remember that my fuel gauge is below empty! I then turn on the windshield wipers to help with melting the ice. As soon as I can see out of the bottom 6 inches of the front windshield I drove 1/4 mile down the street to the gas station... made it!

So now I'm at the gas station and try and pop the gas filler lid... well, it is frozen shut. The mechanism that opens it is not nearly strong enough to function in these conditions. I beat on it a few times until enough ice was broken for it to finally open. I made a ton of rookie mistakes, but I don't know how you guys up North deal with this weather half the year!

Today the sun is shining and the temperature is probably around 65 degrees headed towards 70. Texas weather is bizarre sometimes. About a week ago it was so warm outside students in College Station were jogging with no shirts on (just the guys... relax).

 

[Swimmerboy2112]

You just saved yourself a few hundred dollars.

Putting hot or even warm water on that icy windshield would crack it immediately.

DO NOT DO THAT!

Get a scraper.

 

[Canuckrz]

I've honestly never heard of a windshield cracking because of hot water unless there are existing cracks or bullseyes in the windshield.

As for the doors freezing shut, I've found applying silicone spray lube to the weather seals keeps them from freezing to the door frame as easily.

 

[LittleCaesar]

I love that blue color but could never find one around here for sale.

I hate the cold with a passion. If I never saw temps below 50 degrees for the rest of my life, I'd be one happy man. I mean never.

With the continuing cold weather, I have to ask who the idiot was who came up with holding the Super Bowl in Jersey in February?

 

[Millerad1651]

I've had to park outside the last couple days while
Working on projects in the garage. It was so cold the other day, -10 with windchill, that even after starting my truck with the remote starter, 10 minutes later stuff was still frozen! I tried to shift into 4Wheel drive to get through my neighborhood, but the linkage was still frozen!
Today we got another 2" of snow, wind gusts of 25-30mph, and the temp is a steady 10. The next two days the high is 2! With windchill a it's around -10!

 

[wc11]

Isn't freezing rain fun :ybrick:
We just went through an ice storm in Ontario over Christmas.
You did pretty much everything right.
Don't recommend pouring hot water on the truck.
Hot water actually freezes faster than cold so you can actually make things worse.

Just be glad it didn't look like this.

 

[Swimmerboy2112]

I've honestly never heard of a windshield cracking because of hot water unless there are existing cracks or bullseyes in the windshield.

As for the doors freezing shut, I've found applying silicone spray lube to the weather seals keeps them from freezing to the door frame as easily.

Go ahead, give it a try. I'd rather not be the guinea pig on that one.

 

[SURF RUNNER]

I love that blue color but could never find one around here for sale.

Little Caesar,

I live in College Station, Texas and was looking for an 01 or 02, Limited, 4WD in Stellar Blue. There were only two in the country - one in Oregon and the other in Tennessee. The one in Oregon sold before I even had a chance to call so I made a deal on the 2001 in Tennessee.

The 4Runner looked even better than advertised. Here is a photo I took at HD Motors in Kingsport. The T4R had 157,000 miles on it, but it looked like much less. The interior looked almost new - it even had the original Limited floormats in it. There is a little wear on the driver's seat, but other than that it looked great.

Since I bought BLUE RUNNER I removed the wind guards and replaced the wheels with 5-Stars.

 

[Grenvilleter]

Go ahead, give it a try. I'd rather not be the guinea pig on that one.

Been there...Done it..

Unless there is a stone chip, your good. With that said, with stone chips, the heat of defrost can cause them to spread.

Oh...and do not use boiling or boiled water. Just hot from the tap and "temper" it on...don't throw a bucketful at it right away.

 

[T4R2014]

Get an ice scraper. I have no idea how I deal with cold weather either. After living with it for all my life I can say that I would be just fine without it.

 

[SURF RUNNER]

Get an ice scraper.

TR42014,

I'm going to get an ice scraper very soon. Does it matter what brand/kind I get? I assume they are all plastic with a fairly sharp scraping edge.

Just be glad it didn't look like this.

wc11,

WOW! ... and I thought I had it bad.

 

[Canuckrz]

For the ice scaper, make sure you get a full sized one with the brush. With thicker ice those little 10" long ones you cant put much power into not to mention its a much bigger pita reaching across the front windscreen.

Isn't freezing rain fun :ybrick:
We just went through an ice storm in Ontario over Christmas.
You did pretty much everything right.
Don't recommend pouring hot water on the truck.
Hot water actually freezes faster than cold so you can actually make things worse.

Just be glad it didn't look like this.

I had to drive though that storm on the way to Nova Scotia, thankfully most of the freezing rain was isolated to new brunswick when I was passing though. My buddy who I was taking shifts with turned out couldn't handle the truck in any sort of weather so I had to drive for 25 hours straight. Sudbury to sackville, only stopping the odd time for food and gas. That was a shitty drive.

Also the point of the hot water is to loosen the ice so it can be more easily removed by a scraper. Obviously if you leave the water sit for any period of time or expect the water to do all the work, yes it will freeze and make things worse.

 

[nissanh]

LIttle more about hot water on the windshield....

I won't do it because I saw a friend broke (crack) his windshield in his camry by trying to do it. It is a hair line crack but went from top to bottom!

Any material is not made to change temperatures that suddenly.

 

[Canuckrz]

You are however applying the heat to the ice not the windshield directly. The heat has to make it through the ice to the windshield for this to even be a mild concern. Ice and snow while being cold themselves work fine as insulators, which is why igloos and ice hotels work.

Also I'm not advocating this is the best idea to do all the time, if you don't have at least a few mm of ice build up you're likely doing this more because your lazy more so than this is literally impossible to scrape off otherwise. In that case yes thermal shock is more of an issue because there is no ice isolation stopping the heat from getting directly to the windshield.

 

[Dirtyfingers]

Mannnnnn I miss Texas.

 

[02SE]

Just be glad it didn't look like this.

If anyone was wondering, that's Lake Geneva, Switzerland.