Hey Guys,
I have never owned a diesel up until this year and it's my first winter.
Anything special I need to do to the car or watch out for in the cold?
Thanks very much
LOVE THIS SITE
J.

Make sure you use lots of conditioner in the fuel.
Power Service seems to be the consensus around here.

As Craig mentioned, Diesel Conditioner / Antigel Additives and make sure your Fuel filter is fresh and not full of water. If your car isn't new then make sure the battery, cables and connections are all tight and clean. Oh and let the car warm up, diesels don't like to be hammered on at -30 right after start up. oh make. If your car is older i'd be looking at the glow plugs and see if they are all working.

Ya it's my first winter with a diesel as well. It's been just fine, no issues starting. I even installed an inline coolant heater and that works wonders but I can only use it when I'm at home with access to a power outlet. I've found over the past few days the -20 temperatures give the car some trouble starting at the end of the day when I go home from work. It turns over, but afterward continues to turn slowly and chugs for a bit until it gets into a normal idling rpm. I also see a significant change in engine temps in these temperatures. Unless the car is running under load on the highway the engine temperature just drops. you can watch it fall. I've read about diesels running so cold that they rarely reach normal running temps during the winter, but I was still surprised.

Where can you get the Power Service locally?

At any canadian tire they were on sale 2-3 weeks ago so they should be on sale soon

I'm on my 4th winter and the only time the car didn't stat was when I forgot to plug her in at -45 with the engine facing the wind the oil tern to molasses. What i've is that the Castrol syn that VW uses isn't very good in cold winters. Elf and Shell Rotela are working much better for me. Oh one more thing if your diesels older i'd do a diesel purge did one on mine before winter t runs allot smoother in cold starts.

Hey guys,
I posted this in another forum but I realised this is probably the best place for it.
What should I know/do with my diesel in the winter? I haven't owned a diesel before, first winter.
Thanks!
J.

I moved your old topic to here.
I think the guys nailed it on the head with most of the comments so far.

Thanks for the move, my bad.

I really try NOT to idle the TDI, but rather drive easy keeping rpm's under 2500 till the coolant temp gauge moves about a 1/3 of the way up. Use the heated seats

I use 4oz of PowerService White bottle in the winter, unless I know on my fillup that it may be super cold then I will use 8oz. Never had any gelling issues.

Even better, install a FrostHeater (ZeroStart) and instant heat and no issues starting in the winter

you could also get some foam plumbing insulation (the long strips that go around copper tubing) break it to length and stuff it in all the grill cracks, even the one for the intercooler. Makes a HUGE difference.

Really? I haven't tried that one.

Unfortunately my house is 2 mins from the 417. I start it in the morning, wait until the real bad knocking has died down a little and the smokeshield has mostly dispersed, then it's on the highway.

My car has never (ever) liked 2nd gear for the first 30 seconds of driving or so. I make the first 2 blocks in first gear or third.

As for plugging in and fuels...

I always use a quality fuel (mostly Shell Ultra from Pinecrest or Sunoco Gold), and have never regularly used Anti-Gel or additives. I never plug it in.

It always starts and has never gelled. I do, however, change the fuel filter every 30 k religiously.

I got the car with 6kms on it and now it's near 400,000.

try it JP it'll cost you about $2

I don't use additives either, not garaged. The only thing that plugs in is a battery warmer
Always use either Sunoco Gold or Shell Ultra. Never had any problems.

Save your $2

Try plugging it in? Or using the additives?

i didn't say i din't plug it in or did not use additives, what I'm saying is this will help a lot in getting up to temps quicker and help maintain the temps when stuck in traffic instead of watching your temp needle drop

My mileage is the same as JP's, and I'll ditto what he said, except for one point. I use PS summer and winter (they make both flavours), they keep everything nice and clean... unless I'm running biodiesel in the summer, and then I don't bother with the PS.

I also picked up a VW solar trickle charger for my battery years ago to use in the winter, and my original battery is as good as day one. CTC sells generic ones.

Basically, if you battery is good, your fuel is good, your filters are good, your oil is good... you're good. Block heaters aren't necessary, and don't bother trying to "warm it up"... diesels don't gain heat unless the engine is under load...as a matter of fact you can amuse yourself by watching the engine temp gauge go down while it idles in a parking lot on a really cold day while waiting for your shopping wife. Just start it up and drive gently for the first kilometer and then Bob's your uncle. It's important to use good** synthetic oil that is rated for tdi's. You can read lots of opinions on tdi oil here and on Fred's.

Welcome to diesels... the easiest and funnest engines to modify if you're into that.

Call me lucky, I guess. I have a 2003 TDI with 180,000K. Never had a starting problem even with 2 glow plugs out. Don't plug it in and haven't used any fuel conditioner. I'm told that in Canada the diesel is treated to -35 at the pumps. Worst start I had was in New Brunswick a couple of years ago ... temp went to -30 for a couple of days and when I went to start I had to crank it over for about 5 - 10 min or so ... thought I was going to burn the starter ... took about 30 min of slow driving to get the temp up ... after that everything was fine. Changed the timing belt at 150,000 k. On long road trips consistently get 1000 k before the buzzer. Put 1200k on once before a fill and it took 55 l. Must have been on fumes. So far its been a good experience with the TDI.

My starter died this winter in my '01 with $135K, not suddenly like you'd expect but it been getting slower and slower over the last year or so despite a new battery. New starter had absolutely no problem at all. Apparently they all go like that

Gotta love those 03's.... last good tdi engine until last year!

The fuel is winterized by cutting it with diesel number one, making it very very dry for the fuel injectors...especially after the switch a few years ago to ULS diesel specs. Specific retailers add conditioners (Shell and Sunoco to name two) but others do not. That's why lots of people still put in the PS (or equivalent....).