14F was about the lowest my 300D would start unassisted. By the way, you'll do better keeping a charger on the battery. Batteries start really loosing capacity at those temps & a charger will help keep it warm. Back when I lived in the frigid North (western NY State), we used to buy plug-in heat pads that would sit in the battery tray, under the battery. The pad would keep the battery warm enough to start the car regardless of the temperature. I wonder if they are still available.
Thanks, Tom Hargrave www.kegkits.com 256-656-1924 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Curt Raymond Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 8:26 PM To: Diesel List Subject: [MBZ] The big test So tonight the temp is predicted to hit a low of -9F. I KNOW my 190D will start at that temp, or rather I expect it will, it starts perfectly well at 11F which is the coldest I've ever had opportunity to try it at. Be that as it may last weekend at the hardware store I noticed a $6 Christmas light timer. I've always wanted to have the block heater on my car come on automagically so I grabbed it. Tonight I've wired it up, at 4:30am tomorrow it should click on so at 7am when I'm ready to leave my car should start as if it were a warm June day. Thats the idea anyway. 2.5 hours is probably way more time than is actually needed for the engine to be reasonably warm but with my luck the cold will make the foolish thing keep slow time and I'll actually only get 5 minutes of heat before its time to go... I'm not really worried about the car being able to start you know. I'm not even interested in how keeping the engine warm will reduce startup wear (although it probably will). No indeed I'm more interested in the fact that pre-warming the engine should significantly cut down on the amount of driving I have to endure before the heat comes on. My wife is a bit miffed that we've spent $180,000 on a house so I have somewhere to plug in my car. -Curt In case you didn't get it from the last line I was attempting humor here. Of course my brand of humor does tend to be a bit dry... --------------------------------- Cheap Talk? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
