i've had my fit for almost a month now, and since the day i got it (go figure) has been nothing but miserable weather.

now, it's been around 5 degrees or worse for the past 4 or 5 days, and when i start it up, i have been letting it warm up. i let it warm up for a few minutes, but it feels like the car is really struggling to go and it jerks quite a bit. once the cold temp light goes off, it runs fine again.

is this something i should be worried about? or does insanely cold weather do this to a lot of cars?

 

i just warm my car up til the cold temp light goes off before i take.

 

It gets so cold here sometimes that my cold temp light won't go off until I've driven it (even after letting it idle/warm up for 5 min or so).

Cold weather sucks. My car makes a rattling noise under the dash it would never make in slightly warmer weather.

 

yeah, my temp light doesn't go off till i start driving usually. i wish i could have had the car before it go so bad out. i usually hate spring, but now i can't wait!!

 

Insanely cold weather does this to a lot of cars. It's been well below zero here every day this week, as low as -17, if I remember right, and our central Canadian friends have had it even worse. This is actual air temp, NOT including wind chill. It's supposed to get up to +9 today, which is going to feel downright tropical.....

I have to say I'm impressed with how easily the Fit starts and runs given these conditions. I usually just let it run a minute or two, then just take it easy until the light goes out (usually 5-8 minutes or so) - say drive it on sidestreets for a couple of miles before going on the freeway, and keep the revs down.

My old 92 Acura 5MT was much worse in this kind of weather - I had to shift VERY slowly until the car warmed up - it felt like the gears were sitting in a vat of molasses instead of oil! The fit tranny doesn't show this behaviour at all.

I do get more interior noise/rattles when it's really cold though....

 

You don't mention if you plug your Fit in, of course you would need a block htr. Only thing I could wangle out of the salesman, well worth it in our -40C weather. I plug it in for an hour and start off in D1 for a block b4 the light goes out.

No trouble with the tranny, just very stiff steering.

Only 6 weeks to spring. Heck, only 8 weeks and my Fit is a year old.

 

Yeah I have a block heater too, it's awesome. I have an outdoor timer that I use as well. I just plug it in when I come home for the night then it turns on 2.5 hours before I leave. I still let it warm up for a minute or 2 but my light still doesn't go off until I get up to speed when it's below freezing. I only wish that the heater would circulate the coolant through the system so all of the coolant was warmer.

 

I've never used a block heater in any car I've ever had. In the old days when cars used different grades of oil for winter/summer, I always made sure I had the winter oil in, otherwise I'd have major problems - starting a car at -15 with 10w-40 oil is a bit of a crapshoot.

Nowadays with the 5w oil that cars use, that's not an issue. I think the coldest air temp I've started a car at was about -30F - no block heater, no problem.

Just drive real easy till it's warmed up.

 

No block heater on my 5MT. It’s been in the single digits without wind chill and my car is in an unheated unattached garage. The only difference I notice is that it takes between one and two more turns of the engine to get it to start. Once it’s running it runs like normal. Sometimes I let the car sit and warm up (I go back inside so it’s more for me than the car) but the cold engine light does not go off until I start driving, it does go off sooner if I’ve let it sit 15+ minutes. Weather staring and taking off right away or letting it warm up I don’t notice any adverse driving conditions, however I do baby it until the cold engine light goes off then its fair game.

I also found out it’s a PITA to lock your keys in a running Fit from the driver door, so that I can go back inside and let the car warm up and still be locked. Even if you power lock the doors with the door closed then manually open the lock, get out and manually lock it again, when you close the door it unlocks all the doors.

You can do it from the passenger door. Lock all the doors with it shut. Manually unlock the door get out and manually lock it again and close it, this will not automatically unlock the doors.

It’s still a pain because I have to get in on the drivers side to push the clutch down to start the car. Then either shuffle over to the passenger seat or get out and get in the passenger seat. Oh well I'm not giving up the 5MT for that little convenience though.

 

here in colorado it has been really really cold, starting your car in such cold weather (-10 F at night) hurts the motor...
if you were to pull out your oil dip stick before you start your car, and just touch the oil it is very thick, so just imagine that thick oil trying to lubricate all the parts before it starts to warm... for the first 5-10 minutes your motor is hurting... but there is nothing we can do guys, just have to wait for the spring...
it was -12 here in the mountains yesterday
i also run mobil1 fully synthetic 5w-20.. people say the the fully synthetic oil helps in such cold weather starts..., but still my car sound like she is crying the first 5-10 minutes after a cold cold night..

 

i start the car with my spare key and lock the driver side from the outside with my regular key

 

I don't have any starting issues. I look at it as more of a convenience.
I don't have to let the car idle for a long time and waste gas. It's also nice because by the time I get done brushing any snow off or scraping ice off it's getting nice and warm inside.

 

i'm about an hour north of chicago, so we get very cold winters, but this last week has been much worse than usual. so i don't know if a block heater would be totally necessary. granted, i'd much rather have something help out than wreck the enigine after a month, heh.

 

Another person from Manitoba here. You can't legally sell a car WITHOUT a block heater here, haha.

Yep its been -40 for the past week or so, I plug in the car, warm up for about 3-4 mins (I don't like to idle it longer than that), and then keep my RPMs under 2500 until the cold weather light goes off.

There's some debate about how long to warm up the engine, and whether over idling is bad for the car (well it burns gas, so financially its not great either). I personally think even in -40 3-4 mins warm up is good enough. The cabin, steering wheel, etc will be stiff, but I find that within 5 mins of easy driving the light will turn off.

 

There's a cold weather light? (I still don't have my Fit) I've never heard of a car that has a cold weather light. Where is it on the instrument panel?

 

I think they mean Cold light, due to the fact that the Fit has no temp gauge.

That is literally my only complaint with the car. I hate idiot lights, and would MUCH rather see a temp gauge. That way, you can actually know how it is running, rather than just waiting for the blue C to disappear and hope that the red H never comes on!

As for warming it up, my one Honda mechanic said never to let it idle to warm up for more than about 2 minutes. I know everyone has an opinion on these things, but he said the best thing is to drive real easy for the first few minutes, rather than letting the engine idle for a while.

That being said, there are days where I let my car run in the driveway for about 10 minutes. On snowy days, I'll let my Element idle for 20 minutes while I clear the driveway.