Cold Day For My Impreza

[Durania]

So its 5 degrees here this morning and I go out to start my RS and the thing barely will turn over, it starts finally but not like it wants to. Is this the sign of a weak/cheap battery?

 

What do you guys do about our doors getting froze to where they won't open? I had to go in passenger side and tore the bottom weather stripping off in the process and had to pop it back in.

 

Any advice? I need it.

Edited December 22, 2008 by Durania

[Bucky92]

How old is the battery in it?? My 08 will do the same thing though if its really cold...thinking on going with a redtop to see if that fixes the problem.

 

As for the door weather stripping..I used to use spray silicone every couple weeks on my Loyale

[subsince77]

What weight oil are you running? I use 5/30 all year, which is what the manual calls for anyway. I use an oil pan heater at 0 and below, but I have started the car at -25 without the heater. It turned over a little slow, but started fine. The heater makes a huge difference. How many mornings do you get at 5 degrees in Tennessee? Might not be worth doing too much other than a good battery and good oil, which are both nice to have anyway.

 

The door freeze on Subarus is a big pain. I fight it all the time. Many here say silicon, that has never helped me much. I had to re-glue all my weather-stripping last year. I have had to crawl in from whatever door I could open a number of times. I'd like to find a good solution to that myself. Luckily, once it gets really cold out, staying below zero a lot, it never melts enough to get the door wet, so it doesn't start freezing again until early spring.

[Durania]

I had my oil change done at the dealership along with a coolant change last month. I am unaware as to what viscosity of oil they put in it but I am confident it was the recommended type.

 

I will use your idea about the silicone spray. I think what happened is it rained all last week then got cold all of a sudden and I had some water in my door jamb and gave it a place to freeze to.

 

In Tennessee we do very rarely get temperatures like what we experienced this morning. Not really worth the price of buying a heater over in my thoughts.

[dhise]

Last January my loyale would barely crank over when it was near 0F and the battery lasted all summer afterwards until it finally died. You probably have a little time to replace it before it craps out. If you let the car sit for more than a week w/o charging I bet it'll die for sure then.

[Durania]

It had just been a weekend since I last started the old girl. Thanks for the tips people.

[dave1rr]

For the door seal problem, try 303 Aerospace Protectant.

 

http://www.303products.com/

 

I use to use silicone ( it should be 100% pure silicone) but now use the 303 a couple of times a year.

[forester2002s]

I use a solid silicone white stick (or is: solid white silicone stick?).

 

I wipe it on directly to the DRY and CLEAN rubber door-seal, and then go over the surface very gently with a clean paper-towel.

 

I do this once a year before the winter - it's never let me down.

[subsince77]

I use a solid silicone white stick (or is: solid white silicone stick?).

 

I wipe it on directly to the DRY and CLEAN rubber door-seal, and then go over the surface very gently with a clean paper-towel.

 

I do this once a year before the winter - it's never let me down.

 

Where do you get that? I've just used spray.

[screwbaru2]

Try turn your headlights on for a minute before starting. This gets the battery "warm" without putting a big load on it. I throw hot water on my door then spray it down with WD 40 after I open it to displace the water.

shut the lights off before starting.

[forester2002s]

Where do you get that? I've just used spray.

 

I can't recall where I bought my silicone stick (they last a long time).

Try a hardware store, or auto-parts store.