Winter Driving Experiences

[Duckjybe]

Yes, we're having some pretty bad weather! (Better than Toronto, though, which got it all as freezing rain and is having massive power outages as a result.)

I'm near Toronto. Ton's of trees down here because of heavy ice. Made great use of the remote app to heat up the car and melt the layer of ice all over the car. Had to melt the ice on the open charge port with my hand to get it to close. Here is some of the tree carnage at my Mom's place in Milton, ON. The Hakka R's have been working great on the ice.

 

[crazybrit]

so they should add heating elements to the b/up camera lens, and the charge port door

 

[Forty Creek]

Today should be fun. Closing the office early as we've been getting pasted all day with heavy and blowing snow off the lake. Every time I look out the window at my car, it's been getting increasingly buried.
About to preheat and watch the 25 KMS of range I've gained today (110 volt) melt away along with some snow and ice. This drive is going to be an adventure!

 

[InTheShadows]

Today should be fun. Closing the office early as we've been getting pasted all day with heavy and blowing snow off the lake. Every time I look out the window at my car, it's been getting increasingly buried.
About to preheat and watch the 25 KMS of range I've gained today (110 volt) melt away along with some snow and ice. This drive is going to be an adventure!

Good luck, I hope you have snow tires.

 

[Linux64]

Here are a couple pics from driving my P85+ during this Utah winter. I have 19" Nokian Hakka R2s on:

 

[ColinM]

Over the last 2 days we have had about 16 inches of snow in the Chicago area. On Monday, I picked up my MS and had two days of driving on dry, but salt covered streets. Then the storm hit. New Year's Eve - drove home in the first part of the storm, yesterday I did a nearly 2-hour round-trip drive in the middle of the storm to meet a flight at O'Hare and today commuted to work as the last few inches of lake-effect snow fell. The car did wonderfully in all cases, and my nervousness decreased as my confidence improved in the car's ability to handle the conditions. After a short time I decided to turn regenerative braking to low as I was getting a slight bit of fish-tailing from the rear-end under deceleration when the regen was on normal. All in all, I have already been very impressed with the winter handling ability of my MS. After 12 years driving an AWD Audi, the one area where I might have been concerned has proved to be not a problem after all.

Out of interest - has anyone else found that low regen works better in the snow?

 

[Forty Creek]

Good luck, I hope you have snow tires.

Home safe and sound. Yes I have good winter tires..19" Nokian Hakka R2s. This was an excellent test of the car on snow and ice. It passed!

 

[Kalud]

Winter fact: at -28C (-18F) the steering wheel at comfort is the same as sport during summer, and sport is like when the car is off, extra stiff almost unusable!

 

[Forty Creek]

Winter fact: at -28C (-18F) the steering wheel at comfort is the same as sport during summer, and sport is like when the car is off, extra stiff almost unusable!

It was -16C during my drive home today and I absolutely noticed that the steering wheel was stiffer than usual. I meant to check that the setting hadn't been changed to sport, but forgot. I wonder why this happens in cold weather?

 

[SamGarber]

Made it home safe too! Car was a champ on the snowy ramps and the huge incline on the local unplowed streets. Love them Blizzaks! Also lowered regen as per suggestion here.

Rear camera useless as usual and parking sensors plentiful with false data. Charging port was pretty hard to close so it sensed closure but managed it after 3 minutes of clearing snow.

 

[InTheShadows]

@sam Do you have the cold weather package? If not did you have any issues with the wipers icing up?

 

[SamGarber]

@sam Do you have the cold weather package? If not did you have any issues with the wipers icing up?

I do not. It was fairly early in the snowstorm so it had no chance to freeze up and affect wipers. I've never had heated wipers.

 

[Mario Kadastik]

All of you lucky bastards. It's 3rd of January and we've had up here in Estonia only 3-4 days of snow and all of it was early December. I was able to get a few pictures with my car that had semblances of snow, but no real snow driving. Now it's ~0C +- 2C and it's supposed to go to +5C in the next few days. You have stolen all of our snow. Two years ago this was the case:

Oh and all of that snow fell in ~12h. I drove through that area the previous evening. *sigh* gimme back my snow.

 

[andrewket]

Made it home safe too! Car was a champ on the snowy ramps and the huge incline on the local unplowed streets. Love them Blizzaks! Also lowered regen as per suggestion here.

Rear camera useless as usual and parking sensors plentiful with false data. Charging port was pretty hard to close so it sensed closure but managed it after 3 minutes of clearing snow.

Sounds like the charge port needs to have a heated option.

 

[JohnQ]

All of you lucky bastards. It's 3rd of January and we've had up here in Estonia only 3-4 days of snow and all of it was early December. I was able to get a few pictures with my car that had semblances of snow, but no real snow driving. Now it's ~0C +- 2C and it's supposed to go to +5C in the next few days. You have stolen all of our snow. Two years ago this was the case:
Oh and all of that snow fell in ~12h. I drove through that area the previous evening. *sigh* gimme back my snow.

Powder day here in Connecticut but -15F wind chills are a bit daunting. Skiing on tap for the weekend.

Just rubbing salt in the wound :smile:

 

[Doug_G]

Winter fact: at -28C (-18F) the steering wheel at comfort is the same as sport during summer, and sport is like when the car is off, extra stiff almost unusable!

Funny, I run in Sport year 'round and hadn't noticed that. We've got the same temperatures here.

 

[InTheShadows]

3 F here this am. I run in standard. I noticed its a little stiffer but not much.

 

[Kalud]

Funny, I run in Sport year 'round and hadn't noticed that. We've got the same temperatures here.

I do not normally experience the extra stiffness, just after leaving the car outside for some time in extra cold temp. I don't understand exactly why as its an electric power steering...

 

[imherkimer]

When the temperature is just below freezing and there is slush or soft snow on the road, I notice a lot of ice build up in the wheel wells (happened in my other cars as well).
Sometimes if the build up is sufficient, it does affect turning. It also makes noise and the car feels "heavier."
Once had to stop at a car wash that had heated pressure wash just to reduce ice buildup, as it was pressing on all tires especially noticeable in the front end.

 

[Peter_M]

I've noticed the stiffer steering at -20[SUP]o[/SUP]C or colder. Today (-24[SUP]o[/SUP]C) I tried Comfort and found it to feel about the same as Standard when it's warmer. The main time I notice it is coming out of a slow turn - the wheel doesn't self-centre as fast so I sometimes have to pull it back to centre. It feels kind of like my previous car did in the days before a ball joint snapped. I'm not worried about anything breaking, but maybe the ball joint grease gets stiff in extreme cold.