During winter in Poland, does petrol in the car freezes

Does the petrol in the car freezes and become ice, since the temperature drops to - degrees. Is that the case

I've never heard of petrol freezing but locks often do. You should make sure to get a special... er... thingy... which you can use to heat the lock to unfreeze it.

the case of what?


no...

vetala
What lock is this, the car ignition you mean

Diesel can become waxy at low temperatures, but I've never heard of petrol freezing. As for frozen locks; every man is equipped with his own lock de-icer... just don't get too close to the metal door.

Don't know about petrol but the gasoline ;) does not freeze and become ice even in the state of Alaska which I frequent very often. (Unless there's water in your gas which will freeze of course).

Gasoline will freeze anywhere between -120F (-84C) and -240F (-151C) depending on the amount of ethanol and detergents and other fluorocarbons in the gasoline.

PS. Aviation fuel has special anti-freeze additives.

Yes, petrol can solidify as any fluid can. Petrol solidifies around -50 degrees C.

Diesel freezes in stages. The first stage is the so-called cloudpoint, where the paraffines in the diesel start to solidify. When the temperature drops even further, then you reach the Cold Filter Plugging Point; that doesn't mean the diesel is frozen, but it means that at these temperatures, the filter might clog up by paraffine particles.

In the winter (from mid-October) companies in Europe sell so-called winter diesel. In this diesel they use less paraffines and more so-called "light" elements, but they also add so-called "flow improvers" to guarantee a certain viscosity.. This winter diesel is "protected" until -19 degrees C.

Hope this helps a little.

Worry about your cooling system liquid more than anything else, ive had that freeze at -36.

Doesn't the Diesel sold in cold countries contain additives to prevent this? I'm sure there were problems in the UK recently because councils had been using cheaper diesel (without the additives) for the ploughs and so on.

A trick I learnt from a Polish mechanic is to add half a litre of denaturat (methyl alcohol) to the petrol tank when topping up at least once during the winter. That reportedly removes any moisture from the fuel.

It's used as an additive to avgas during the winter as well.

I missed your post :(

I saw a really interesting programme a while ago about truckers on the Trans-Siberian Highway - in winter, if the truck gets stuck, they need to light fires underneath the diesel to stop it from freezing.

They used to do that with their planes too!

Good solution is to convert at least the front locks into central lock triggered by keyfob.

Are you sure that the past tense is appropriate here? :P

I saw something like this. Was it called World's Most Dangerous Roads or something like that? It's like Iceroad Truckers...

In the Northern US we use ethanol or methanol to keep water in fuel from freezing in low spots in fuel line. So what you do in Poland is find the cheapest bottle of vodka that you can find and put about a pint in with every fill up (or window washer fluid should have methanol in it). This should work with either diesel or gasoline.

If the low spots have already frozen than the only thing to do is take the car to a heated garage and thaw it out.

When parking overnight in really cold conditions we also have engine block heaters that plug into an electrical outlet from your house. These keep the coolant warm overnight. Starting guaranteed with these block heaters.

As do brakes. Try not to park using a handbrake for long periods (overnight). Better to leave it in gear instead. This applies to air-brakes too. I have fond memories of skipping an 8 ton truck around a vehicle park in germany when the brakes froze up.

skysoulmate
Thats a new info for me, always had a thought wht if the feul freezes in the jets :)

Don't do this. Washer fluid is mostly water.

I work for a logistics company here in Warsaw. Our drivers add to their supposedly winter diesel approx. 5% gasoline when it gets really though.
In the meantime does anybody have some advice how to open a solid-frozen cardoor open?
From my car only my door (driver's side) opens these days.

Id be inclined to poor tepid (a bit warm) water over it.

the almighty WD40

silcone spray on the door seal rubbers stops em sticking...

Yeh WD40 doesnt work, not this year anyway. Damn its cold - 18 tomorrow and the night after.

Oh sh1t, now they tell me...

I didnt see your post im only talking about door trims, should be fine for locks and stuff.

I usually spray it around doors to stop then sticking.

Not sure if the glass will always survive. I used a de-icer spray, alcohol, with success. In about -10, I think. Quite a lot of it. Better to protect the rubbers beforehand, a dab of vaseline works as well.

That's a relief (or 'Uffff', as my studes say).

weird, I can write a word like 'sh1t' but when I write 'ufff', which my students tell me is just a sign of relief, I get it removed by mods... maybe my studes are lying to me!


I keep my rubbers in my wallet until I need them...