Seems like I'm going crazy in the posting department these days, sorry if I am driving anyone insane here.

A lot of us are going to experience some super cold temperatures in the near future. I have been peeking under the hoods keeping an eye on everything as I usually do and noticed that my windshield washer bottles were frozen. Now normally it doesn't get too cold too long to be worrysome, but we here in my neck of the woods are looking at below 0 temps coming our way. It ocurred to me that this kind of cold will probably wind up splitting my washer bottles in two!!

I spent some time today taking them off and lovingly running hot water in them in the kitchen cleaning them all out and putting them back on. Unfortunately the Ranger unit has the overflow and washer tanks combined so I had and extra mess to deal with.

So while I'm thinking our friends up North probably use special low temp washer fluid, the rest of us further on down probably don't worry about it so much. It seemed a good idea to remind anyone expecting some nasty cold coming your way to at least unbolt your washer bottle and bring it inside if it is full and frozen...LoL

Keep warm everyone and keep those faucets cracked.


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-50 wind chill here right now , -21 temp ne north dakota

Up here in New England we buy the -20F stuff by the multiple gallons December to March. Was -16F Saturday morning, so this morning +10F felt like summer. I just assumed that the winter formula was sold all across the U.S.

I 2nd that...thought it was all -20 everywhere.

I personally despise winter time.At least since 07 I do have a fully insulated garage (back when added on the house) insulation was done thru out in all the walls in my entire house!Also I run two kerosene heaters in my shop as I call it and literally it gets so hot I take stuff off when working out there.I just installed a new radio and speakers in my nephews 02 civic and fixed a few things as I seem to find them before real drama happens.Quick short I did find a antifreeze leak on the civic smelled it and traced leak to lower rad hose where it goes to the lower half of the thermostat housing.It was dripping down the clamp(????) and could see trace runs of the freeze down the house and on the lower subframe.So in short called auto zone for the hose as in case and drained coolant and literally 1 twist on the clamp to the hose and it FELL apart!!! It was leaking thru the hose bc the clamp while tight looking was actually broken internally and whoo good call for me.I replaced the hose as preventive even tho less than 6 months old not a chance I will take and did new clamps,bleed and ran car for 45 minutes (blocked off rad) and temp gauge in air vent got up to 110* inside(good imo) and NO leaks.SO orlen yeah checking the under hood items are a good idea along with the battery water level if not a sealed unit(my nephews civic water level in the batt was low!).He picked up his car Friday and showed him the radio features and told him to check his coolant level in the coolant tank each oil check and keep me posted if any real change.I can only imagine how many people have batteries fail and belts brake and things freeze like DOOR locks bc there not lubed seasonally to prevent this etc.To finally finish I want a short winter and 80 degrees already.Glad you brought this up and stay out of the elements when yucky.

The temp went down to -13F here in Pittsburgh last week.
It got so cold that the plastic tanks on my wagon's radiator shrunk and leaked for about a day until the temp went back up above 20 degrees F.
I was afraid my rad was shot, but after it sealed itself back up, it hasn't leaked since!
I'll keep an eye on it for a few weeks, but I think I'm good to go !




~ Mike ~