[Closed] Leave your car warming up while you go back in the house?

It's also not very good for your car.

Warm water from tap in kettle, pour on windscreen/windows/lights, return kettle, get in car, start engine, go. Doddle.

Can they not be locked with spare keys?

Illegal too isn't it?

I am not into victim blaming but its very foolish to do this

Boiling waters great for ice but doesn't demist it.....

How ever why would you not lock the car while running and your not there......

Having ancient 8v diesels I don't leave mine running as it would be antisocial 🙂

Windscreen covers are a few quid. Just put it on when its cold. Takes 30 seconds.

Open garage door.
Drive car out.
Close garage door.
Doddle.

[i]Can they not be locked with spare keys? [/i]

People think: "I live in a suburban cul-de-sac, there's no crime round here, the car's on the drive, it's only for 5 minutes while I finish getting the kids ready for school, I can't be arsed with all that scraping, no idea where the spare key is" and then it's not a problem. Until it is.

Boiling waters great for ice but doesn't demist it.....

It does if you pour it steadily from the top, cos it heats the windscreen just enough. Actually, thinking about it, I start the engine/demisters (so they're blowing for a couple of minutes before I drive off), pour water, return kettle, leave. Works for me.

"Doing a frosty" as it's known by Glasgow car thieves.

My routine on cold mornings is as I'm taking the dog out I run an extension cable from the shed to the car, plug in fan heater, walk dog, have coffee, then car is warmed up and good to go.

Victim blaming? In this case I do blame them. After all it's even worse than leaving the car unlocked with the keys in the ignition. You are signalling that your car is sitting waiting to be stolen.

My solution is for Ford to let their patent lapse on heated front windows*. I've only ever owned one Ford and this is most definitely something I miss. It was awesome at quickly clearing the window on a cold and frosty morning.

*I don't know if they have a patent or not, but it has always baffled me why no other brands (that I'm aware of) offer this.

[i]I start the engine/demisters (so they're blowing for a couple of minutes before I drive off), pour water, return kettle, leave.[/i]

the 'return kettle' bit is probably all it takes for someone to be away with your car...

Very antisocial thing to do imo. It's horrible walking kids to school past cars 'warming up' . Just scrape the thing, get in and go.

guy across the road drives a big yellow AA Van - it has some internal noisy warming device that he appears to operate from inside the house and leave chundering away for half an hour most mornings.... Not quite as noisy as the rattly diesel, but not far off...

Thankfully he is moving house imminently 🙂

Boiling waters great for ice

Think of it as a stupidity tax

I've discovered a couple of revolutionary new products. Its a pity they're not so readily available. If only they were then this kind of thing could be prevented....

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Open garage door.
Drive car out.
Close garage door.
Doddle.

Perchy outs himself as a pensioner....

[i]Perchy outs himself as a pensioner.... [/i]

Only if there's a car port/lean to with a clear plastic corrugated roof attached to the side of his house too.

Or, another tip I learned from someone off here*: stick a hot water bottle on the dashboard while you have breakfast.

*who learnt it from his gran, who learnt it from her gran before her etc.

Old towel to cover windscreen and side windows. Peel off, place in bag & hide behind the gate. Drive off. Done.

Repeat and once frost stops, throw the towels away or wash and use for garage duties.

Start car with all heating gubbins on, spray de icer in ice, scrape off ice with suitable tool. Get back in car and drive off.

keyless car. I can start car and keep key in pocket, go back in house. Cant drive car away unless key is in the passenger compartment, does not work if key in boot.

witchcraft I tell theee

My solution is for Ford to let their patent lapse on heated front windows*. I've only ever owned one Ford and this is most definitely something I miss

However good it is, I still have to scrape side windows.

Indeed, but overall it's considerably quicker and easier in my experience. It also helps with de-misting the inside of the front window = less sitting around in a cold car waiting to be able to see.

I start, scrape and stay with car(s) as they start on cold morning - and then sit in the thing if it is a cold one and I cannot see.

+1. I do have the keyless option to start, lock and go back inside, but as others have said, it fills the air with fumes, particularly on a still frosty morning in our modern cul de sac 🙁

I too read that it's illegal.

But my new(ish) car can be started remotely, via an app on the phone. Can set the time for warm up. Car starts itself, remains locked. Windows and mirrors clear, seats warm up.

For this time of year it's a great feature.

Oh yes...it's a Volvo - those swedes know a thing or two about cold weather 🙂

My solution is for Ford to let their patent lapse on heated front windows*. I've only ever owned one Ford and this is most definitely something I miss. It was awesome at quickly clearing the window on a cold and frosty morning.

*I don't know if they have a patent or not, but it has always baffled me why no other brands (that I'm aware of) offer this.

Patent ran out a few years back new VWs can come with a quickclear screen

For a while I was using one of those plastic store discount cards to scrape the windscreen. Trouble is I only got 10% off.

BTW,I had German-grown brussels sprouts with my Christmas lunch – they lied about those emissions too!

I just love it when people pour water over their windscreens, which then freezes on the pavement or road...

I thought you only needed to clear a tank commander slit in front of the driver's eyes?

I think I bought a scraper in the 90's and I'm still using it. (less and less each year it seems)

It takes maybe 2 minutes?

it fills the air with fumes

Surely it still does that when you

start, scrape and stay with car(s) as they start on cold morning - and then sit in the thing if it is a cold one and I cannot see.

Two separate issues here:

1. Have we got sympathy for people whose cars get nicked when they leave them with the engine running? (for the record, I do).

2. How best to de-ice and de-mist a car on a cold morning?

But my new(ish) car can be started remotely, via an app on the phone. Can set the time for warm up. Car starts itself, remains locked. Windows and mirrors clear, seats warm up.

so what happens if you have left it in gear ?

A bit of pre-planning helps. If you know it's going to freeze overnight then turn on the windscreen wipers and when they are at some suitably jaunty angle turn off the ignition. Now put some newspaper over the windscreen using the wipers to hold it in place. Not brilliant if the windscreen is damp at the time though.

Other than that: warm water from the tap is most effective. I like the hot water bottle idea.

Leaving a vehicle unattended with the engine running on a public highway is, if not illegal, then stupid. Dead easy for someone to jump in and drive off. Maybe the OP could do that and just park the car round the corner - at least it would impress on the idiots that they are being idiots.

For a while I was using one of those plastic store discount cards to scrape the windscreen. Trouble is I only got 10% off.

Well I appreciated it, even if no-one else did.

stilltortoise - Member

it fills the air with fumes

Surely it still does that when you

start, scrape and stay with car(s) as they start on cold morning - and then sit in the thing if it is a cold one and I cannot see.

yes, however I drive away as soon as it is safe to do so. The option of leaving it seems for most neighbours to be a 10 minute average process, so lots more fumes...

The ford screen is the best invention ever.
Not only gets rid of ice but the fog inside.
You can point vents to defrost side windows.
I walk the 3 miles to work so I don't really care anyway!

Don't leave in gear - it's an auto - in park mode

Perchy outs himself as a pensioner....

Perchy outs himself as having a two garages both big enough to be used for their intended purpose.

Nothing make me chuckle more than driving round a new build estate where every house has an integral "garage" which, even if it hadn't been poorly converted to a "playroom", is so full of stuff that you couldn't put a car in it if you tried.
If you did actually try you'd be hugely disappointed to discover that the internal dimensions would only allow you to store a 1978 Mini in it and even then you'd need to climb out of the window.

If you scrape the ice off the windscreen, the worst thing you can do is then operate the wipers because they will just smear ice back across the screen. By the time you've scraped, the inside will be demisting and you should be OK to go. You just need to stay away from the wiper stalk until the screen has warmed up enough to prevent re-icing.

My old Passat B7 had a heated screen but the new B8 doesn't because I had a job wangling DSG from my employer and had to sacrifice the Winter Pack option to get it. Bums.

De-icing takes a minute or two. De-misting can take a whole lot longer, especially if it's been snowing recently and the inside of the car is (despite your best efforts) damp. It's been suggested that a sick filled with cat litter would help dry the car out.

And it's illegal to leave a car running unattended on a public highway.

This thread is making me want to trade in my car for another Ford.

I have a Nissan Leaf electric car, bought about six weeks ago.

You can warm the car up remotely, defrost front and rear windows, heat the seats, heat the steering wheel, ac on.

Really good feature, then just jump in and rive away in defrosted car all warm, nice.

[i] then just jump in and [s]rive away[/s] find you've flattened the battery in defrosted car all warm, nice[/i]

ftfy 😉

Ad it's illegal to leave a car running unattended on a public highway.

I'm going to say stealing a car is illegaler

De-icing takes a minute or two. De-misting can take a whole lot longer, especially if it's been snowing recently and the inside of the car is (despite your best efforts) damp. It's been suggested that a sick filled with cat litter would help dry the car out.

Agreed you often see people driving around with their windows misted up or even wet inside because they don't understand how to use the heating and ventilation. The fan should be permanently on 1 so as to push fresh dry air into the car; I once got a freezing cold ride with a University professor who didn't understand this and kept leaning forward to clear a hole with his driving glove. Idiot.

Can they not be locked with spare keys?

The i40 I had couldn't - it wouldn't let you lock the car from outside if it detected a key inside.

Open garage door.
Drive car out.
Close garage door.
Turn around to find car has been pinched while I was closing the garage door
[s]Doddle[/s]
Crap 🙁

Heated screens defo FTW.

@nickc - you aren't stealing it, merely "relocating" it. Stealing is technically "taking property with intent to deprive ownership". OK, you might be doing that but in this instance we are discussing handing a lesson to those who break rule #1.

Yak - Member

It's horrible walking kids to school past cars 'warming up'

Well you should drive them, like a proper parent. What are you, some sort of communist?

Doesn't take long to scrape a car, not sure why that's a big fuss. Demisting can be a pain especially for a mountain biking car that's always getting filled with mud and wet, I got 2 of those big dehumidifyer bag things and they get rotated in and out every couple fo days, that made it a lot better.

i passed someone a while back leaning out the window and attempting to scrape ice off the windscreen. whilst driving....

I just love it when people pour water over their windscreens, which then freezes on the pavement or road

I'm more appalled they allow poor people who can't afford their own drive to own a car, you should think yourselves lucky.

My solution is to leave the car on the drive all day. When I get home from work it's usually defrosted, but it doesn't matter cos I don't need to use it anyway. Bike stays in the front room, so doesn't freeze 🙂

Turn around to find car has been pinched while I was closing the garage door

Without the keys?
Which I have in my hand because I need them to lock the garage door?
Unlikely.

martinhutch - Member
For a while I was using one of those plastic store discount cards to scrape the windscreen. Trouble is I only got 10% off.
Well I appreciated it, even if no-one else did.

Cheers dude!

Perchy outs himself as having a two garages both big enough to be used for their intended purpose.

Nothing make me chuckle more than driving round a new build estate where every house has an integral "garage" which, even if it hadn't been poorly converted to a "playroom", is so full of stuff that you couldn't put a car in it if you tried.
If you did actually try you'd be hugely disappointed to discover that the internal dimensions would only allow you to store a 1978 Mini in it and even then you'd need to climb out of the window.

Bloody peasants and their sub-optimal dwells!

Yak - Member

Just scrape the thing, get in and go.

With all of the cars I've owned, the issue has never been the scraping but the de-misting.
It is even worse with diesel engines.

My old Fiesta, my Wife's Ka and our current family wagon, the C3 Picasso are all petrol & the screen will de-mist pretty quickly.

But the car I use to commute in, takes ages to de-mist the screen. Sometimes you think it's clear & then as soon as you drive off it mist up, leaving you having to pull over & then wait longer for it to clear again.

I bought one of those de-mister bags from Amazon & leave that on the dashboard when I get out of the car in the evening. It definitely helps.
I have considered getting a hot water bottle & sticking it on the dash while getting all my stuff together. as well. I might just try that, actually.

But yes, people who leave their cars unattended with the ignition on are idiots.....

wwaswas

I was surprised by how little running the "warm up" cycle takes out of the battery.

The drain is relatively low for the car to become defrosted, only takes about 10 minutes, doesn't really bite into the driving range too much.

Luckily I didn't have to drive anywhere this morning as I suspect the ice would have been on the inside too as I had to clean up my daughter poo explosion from the car the other day.
My wife has a ford with the heater windscreen, I want. Not so much for the ice but demisting which is much more of an issue.

By the time you've scraped the ice off, the windows will be demisted anyway? Heated rear window sorts that, winding the side windows down then up again sorts those, wiping the windscreen with a sponge sorts that.

I use a more extreme version of DezB's method, where I don't have a driving licence or a car.

Was really smug in the new vw van a month or so ago.
Jumped in hit the windscreen demist button, put the side mirrors to demist, everything cleared and I drove away, right to the first junction where I could see neither left nor right. Jumped out and scraped the side windows feeling like a twonk. (there was enough ice to prevent the windows opening, thought I'd burnt out the window motor are one point)

My ex AA T5 had the handy button that allowed the engine to run without the keys in, but cut it when a gear was engaged.

Perchy outs himself as having a two garages both big enough to be used for their intended purpose.

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But the car I use to commute in, takes ages to de-mist the screen.

Might be worth checking the pollen/cabin air filter for moisture or water leak?

nobeer is correct ^^^

I despise the poor. 😉

😆

Was in a hotel recently. Clearing the windscreen before breakfast. Guy next to me starts his car and walked back in (BMW M3, so a hell of a lot of cash to lose). Ended up sitting next to him at breakfast.

Thought about moving his car to a difference space, but being British, I just mentally told him off.

it fills the air with fumes

It fills the air with condensing water vapour. What you can't see won't hurt you, right?

Guy next to me starts his car and walked back in (BMW M3, so a hell of a lot of cash to lose). Ended up sitting next to him at breakfast.

Thought about moving his car to a difference space, but being British, I just mentally told him off.

it will be keyless and would be sitting running, locked...

Antisocial stupidity tax, at least the owner should be looking out of the kitchen window whilst "hoodyboy" slams it in reverse.

Scraper & de-icer, 5mins.

You could have a fag whilst doing it.

miketually - Member

By the time you've scraped the ice off, the windows will be demisted anyway?

Not in my experience. It's always the windscreen that just takes ages to get clear. You can wipe it as well, but it just re-mists....
Sometimes having the blower going full pelt over it seems to make it worse.

HoratioHufnagel - Member

Might be worth checking the pollen/cabin air filter for moisture or water leak?

I don't think it's that; I think it's just the way it is. But I'll get it checked at the next service, which isn't too far away...

3 pages and I don't believe anyone's mentioned heated seats to make everything extra toasty? Poor show

been done and on an electric car to boot

miketually - Member
By the time you've scraped the ice off, the windows will be demisted anyway?

Leaving your car unattended with the engine running is just stupid. I use the ford quick clear windscreen, so turn engine on, switch on heated windscreen, scrape off side windows (usually only have to do one side as the other is close enough to a row of big bushes so ice doesn't form), by the time I've scraped side windows the windscreen is clear and so you drive off.

If you do want to run your car unattended on the drive why not use the spare keys? set car off running, close door, lock door with first set of keys in the ignition. When you return to your car use second set of keys to unlock door. It really doesn't take a lot of brain power to think of these things.

It can't be illegal to leave your car running unattended anyway - the top of the range cars these days come with apps for you to remotely start your car so its warm in the winter or cool in the summer due to a/c before you get to it. I don't believe the nonsense about warming your car up is bad for the engine. It might be in theory, but how many cars actually break down as a result? It used to be said it was bad for your engine to do short journey's and a lot of starting up of the engine due to oil drain down into the sump, but now we have stop/start with no apparent detriment to engine reliability or longevity.

[i]now we have stop/start with no apparent detriment to engine reliability or longevity[/i]

think they use electric oil pumps to keep the flow going.

[i] I don't believe the nonsense about warming your car up is bad for the engine[/i]

I Think it's things like gearboxes, brakes and hubs etc - people believe the 'car' is warm so don't limit revs, control braking etc for the first few miles

[i]Leaving your car unattended with the engine running is just stupid[/i]

I think I could leave mine running on my drive all day and it'd still be there when I got home. Bit like when I left a bike leaning against the garage all night..
Bloke in the next road has some silly looking Mitsubishi Evo thing. He starts it up and leaves it running even when it's not frosty - so loud! thing sounds like a massive fart brrrrrrmmmmmmmmrrrmmmm shakes every house in the street. Irritating twonk. Be funny if someone drove off in that. Proper joyride.

It can't be illegal to leave your car running unattended anyway

It isn't if it's on your drive. It's illegal to do it on the public highway.

set car off running, close door, lock door with first set of keys in the ignition

Some central locking systems won't let you do this.

I don't believe the nonsense about warming your car up is bad for the engine. It might be in theory, but how many cars actually break down as a result?

It probably comes from advice/bro-science/knowledge that gets touted about ex police cars and the like which will have sat idling with the engine running for long periods of time leading to high engine temps cooking the oil.

Warming the car up on the driveway is not the same. There are plenty of older cars and more recent performance cars that really benefit from warming up before driving and from a mechanical sympathy pov you should wait till they are fully up to temp before using the full rev range.
So it really varies quite a lot.

DezB
Bloke in the next road has some silly looking Mitsubishi Evo thing. He starts it up and leaves it running even when it's not frosty - so loud! thing sounds like a massive fart brrrrrrmmmmmmmmrrrmmmm shakes every house in the street. Irritating twonk.

And that's exactly what I used to do in my GT-B for reasons I just mentioned. 3" stainless exhaust, cold start...sounded awesome. I know it pissed my neighbours off too, so all the more enjoyable to do it. The evo probably has a tubro timer which allows you to remove the key, lock the car and it'll shut down inside a pre determined timescale.

It can't be illegal to leave your car running unattended anyway