I had no problem starting the car in the garage. But, leaving it outside for 9+ hours as the temperature dropped from -10 to -12 is a bad idea. My one year old replacement battery couldn't get it going. I had to get a jump start.

Once the car started running all kinds of warning lights lit up and stay lit. The speedo and tech didn't worked at first. It took a few minutes for speedo starte working and then few minutes later the tech. The airbag and engine lights were on, the "D" was flashing green and the cruise control didn't work the 40 minutes it took for me to drive home. Once I got home and turn off the engine and restart. All the warning lights went off except for engine light. I used one of the gadget to reset engine light.

If I had to doing again, I would go out during my breaks and run the engine for few minutes. It will only be 0 degrees tonight, I hope that will be warm enough for the battery.

 

Today and yesterday in Chicago in my GD3 it started with only a slight pause prior to starting. I am street parked so we are looking at extended time in -15 and -40ish windchill on a stock batery.

 

Interesting, but it sounds like a bad battery (not unheard of). I'd have it checked.

 

Over here in VA temps were about 9 in the AM. I was worried about the tiny battery not being able to start the car but it did. I have a 2013 w/ 12k miles. I did lose some air in the tires and the indicator came on.

 

It would be great if Honda had designed the car with a little bit more powerful heater also. Even when it's up around 30F outside the heater takes a good 10 - 15 minutes to get the inside of the car comfortable. The 2002 Civic I had before with about the same size engine (I think it was a 1.6 liter) had a great heater and would run you out of the car if left on high for more than 5 or 10 minutes.

-Dustin

 

yeah, along with a bit more A/C. Although I maintained my warmth yesterday and today during the arctic vortex invasion from planet Minnesota. It worked better than I expected it to.

 

I know nothing about these since I live in Alabama, so this may be a dumb question, but could you add one of the plug in engine/oil heaters to the engine. At about 9F this morning my 2012 Fit struggled a little to turn the engine over and crank, so I would imagine it would have a heck of a time below zero like what you're seeing.

Maybe something like this:

-Dustin

 

Aluminum block and sump..

 

Ok I'll bite. Didn't the 02 Civic have an aluminum block and sump?

How's your heater up in the great unheated north?

 

joy... my Fit was dead again (two days in a row). Its officially, 1 F outside... not as bad as yesterday at least.

I plugged in my semi-portable charger/jumper and let it charge for a bit and it started.

Hum... maybe it is time for a new battery, 3.5 years isn't too bad.

I say, if you're gonna go for some sort of engine heater, why not just get the OEM heater plug?

 

Oh, I guess the magnetic one wouldn't work too well then. I also saw one on Amazon that replaces the engine dipstick that might work. I might be a little leary of anything that goes into the engine like that, but it may be safe.

-Dustin

 

I've had one, one or both of these would be more effective.

https://www.wolverineheater.com/product-p/bh-60.htm

https://www.wolverineheater.com/product-p/16.htm

Or if it's really cold:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mo...FYlAMgod_SsA7Q

 

Me too. I am going on the charger then dropping it off at the dealer for a new battery along with oil and filter.

 

-19 a 5AM Monday morning and my daughter's 2009 Honda Fit with the original, now 5 year old, battery started just fine. She drove to work (12 miles ) and parked it all day on the roof of a parking garage (that the only place employees can park). It sat up there in the 25 mph wind all day. At 2PM at -17 the Fit started again just fine.

I admit I was concerned that the puny little 325 CCA battery would do the job, but it did just fine.

If I had a cold cranking problem I would first consider a new 51R battery.

If you have 120 volts available, after that I would consider installing a freeze plug type engine heater.

My second choice is a silicon pad type heater attached to the bottom of the engine. They make them in various wattages and sizes. Look on ebay. 100 watt ought to be enough for a small Fit engine. I have had a 150 watt one on my airplane engine for years and it takes about 2 hours to warm the engine to about 90 degrees. Aircraft engines are air cooled so freeze plug heaters do not work. Also we run 40 or 50 weight oil.

Finally if 120 volts is available, to keep the battery warm and more efficient consider a second small silicon heater pad mounted to the bottom of the battery. 25 watts should to it. I would place a 1/2" piece of styrafoam under the battery with the heating pad on top. Then place to battery on top of booth of them.

A small trickle charger will also keep a battery warm.

I was out plowing snow for 3.5 hours at -17 with 25 mph wind on Monday. I stopped for about an hour in the middle for lunch and plugged in the tractor. The freeze plug heater is all I needed to get that diesel engine started again. That engine is 20.4 :1 compression and uses 15W50 oil. I also ran the heater it for about 1 hour prior to starting for the day.

I also have a freeze plug heater on my Colorado but I did not use it since it was parked inside an unheated garage.

 

I'd be curious to know how fresh a battery you get. I recently bought a 151R battery from Advance Auto Parts. The price was very good - $82.99 after a $50 coupon. But I had to check several stores to get a reasonably fresh battery. Most had batteries that had a date sticker showing they had been manufactured 6 months ago. One store had batteries that were 12 and 22 months old - those had certainly degraded in storage. I got a battery that was 3 months old, which is the oldest I would buy.

I expect a dealer might get more turnover and therefore stock fresher batteries.

 

the 151R the local NAPA store sold me last week ($90 plus tax with old battery) was fresh. I kinda expected it to have mold on it when they went and pulled it off a back shelf but was pleasantly surprised to see an L3 date code.

After sitting outside in 15F weather all day, yesterday, it fired right up. It won't have to do that again but it's nice to know it can...

 

Windchill means nothing to the temerature; its 0 and below temperature that matters. the car will cool only to to the air temperature; windchill just indicates how quickly it will cool to the air temperature. That said the engine oil is quite thick and very hard for the engine to turn over due to close tolerances on rotating parts.. Thats doubly true if you're using conventional oil and not synthetic. As anyone with artic experience will advise: synthetic 0W-20 oil, block heaters, and starter fluid are standard procedures.

 

Y'all need to get block heaters installed. Not sure if they offer them in the states but I'm sure there are ways of getting them down there.

FYI it gets to -30C (-22f) where I live without windchill and I've parked all day outside and been able to startup okay. But no way in hell that will happen without a block heater.

 

Actual temp at my house was -17F Monday morning, -14F Tuesday morning and -5/-6F the last two days when I've gone to start the car.

With a healthy battery and clean connections, your Fit should start.

The block or battery heater is just to make it easier and keep the oil from getting too thick.

 

Actually the battery heater's purpose is to raise the temperature of the battery to allow it to be more efficient and provide additional cranking power in cold weather. It has nothing to do with oil thickness other than thicker oils do require more cranking power for the starter. The oil is so thin (0 or 5) in a Honda Fit that cold oil viscosity is not much of a problem.

On battery efficiencies, you are looking at 20% at -20 degrees F and only 40% at 0 degrees F.