Cold weather,bad roads and struts! Can they get along?

[Monsubaru]

Hi All!

I drive a 2001 Legacy B4 (JDM) in Mongolia. It came with the stock blistein shocks from japan. Car is gonna live through its first winter in Mongolia, and i am crossing my fingers it makes it. Yesterday it got super cold outside (-30C). I was at my friends house for his birthday and by the time i got back in the car it had been out in the windy cold for 3 hours. When i got back in, the whole car felt like it was made of ice blocks. The doors wouldnt shot properly, and the hood latch wouldnt lock. However, the main problem was in the suspension department. After warming the car up for about 10 freezing cold minutes i started driving very slowly. As soon as i started moving i felt as if my wheels were welded shut to the frame, and as soon as i hit the first asphalt irregularity i felt as if i had no struts at all. I thought the beloved blisteins had frozen and had committed suicide. It was a little bit warmer today -24C(well compared to last night) and blisteins seem to be comig back to life.

My question is how are you guys dealing with cold weather/bad road combo? Maybe some of you in Canada have a little tip?
Is there anything called suspension warmers? Maybe someone has one hand made?

[Huffer]

Freezing cold makes everything worse...

[TGX4776]

get a saab for the winter. done. :grin:

[chuckthefuk]

I live in Canada and get blasted by freezing cold rain/snow/ice on a daily basis..

There is no cure for the cold...

1) The welded feeling your getting from your wheels is actually your brake pads freezing to your rotors.. so you need to give it an extra bit of go to get the car rolling. Once the pads are broken free from the rotors the heat from the pads will make everything feel normal.

2) Doors freeze shut all the time.. the joy of FRAMELESS windows.. moister builds up and sticks to the glass and seal.. to solve this use Vasoline/Petroleum Gel on your seals around your windows.

3) Latches are a bitch you need to grease them to prevent moister build up and then freezing.

4) You cant really win when it comes to -30... Its -20 here and my Outback feels like a AWD brick. Every bushing is rock hard and wont flex... all my control arms are stiff as ever.. but when you talk about your Bilstein's there's no easy way to tell you this... you have compressed gas and hydraulic fluid operating below the manufactures desired temp... hydraulic fluid at that temp is like sludge... You have performance shocks in arctic conditions..

If your so worried about your bilstein's... change them out with basic shocks that have a shittier thinner fluid that wont sludge up.. and swap the bilstein's in when its warmer..

Btw I love Mongolian BBQ :-D

-Chuck

[TGX4776]

2) Doors freeze shut all the time.. the joy of FRAMELESS windows.. moister builds up and sticks to the glass and seal.. to solve this use Vasoline/Petroleum Gel on your seals around your windows.



Good to know.. ices up all the time here

[Navi271]

Hmm... just realized its gonna be my bilstein struts' first winter here. We'll see how they handle.

[chuckthefuk]

Oh I forgot to mention.... with sub 0 temps your shifter feels like a bar of steel... this is simply because your shifter linkage comes out of the transmission and is exposed to the cold.. so don't worry when its hard to shift when first warming up..

-Chuck

[TGX4776]

mine starts that at 30 degrees f (0c) is there any way to prevent it?

[chuckthefuk]

park inside.

[TGX4776]

hmmmmmmmm [ goes out side and grabs sledge hammer] lol

yeh i probably should.

[Monsubaru]

Thank you guys that is a lot of good useful Info right there. It turns out i was wrong. Just after i posted this, the weather guys were reporting that it was actually -42 C that night (-41F?) so the Beloved blisteins had no option but to freeze. The good news is they came back to life and full service after i parked it inside last night. About the shifter mine is.... gasp.. AUTO :( so i dont get that sticky shifter. It used to be like that one my previous car though (Isuzu Bighorn TD with MT), but being a diesel that car was a bitch to start in the cold. I like how my legacy starts up at first try in the morning though. So far it had no trouble starting at sub-40 . Also i just remembered that here in Mongolia people fix that shifter linkage problem by wrapping some stuff around them.

[Huffer]

You might not get the sticky shifter with the auto, but until your car is warmed up the transmission will delay your shifts to preserve itself. Might feel like the car is stuck in gear, but that will go away once the transmission has a chance to cycle fluid.

[Monsubaru]

You might not get the sticky shifter with the auto, but until your car is warmed up the transmission will delay your shifts to preserve itself. Might feel like the car is stuck in gear, but that will go away once the transmission has a chance to cycle fluid.

Yeah i know, they feel like i am just jamming the tranny into D first in the morning when its cold. However, while warming my car up in the mornings i go through all the gates in the shifter, so that the tranny can cycle its fluid before starting to move.

[Navi271]

You might not get the sticky shifter with the auto, but until your car is warmed up the transmission will delay your shifts to preserve itself. Might feel like the car is stuck in gear, but that will go away once the transmission has a chance to cycle fluid.
Ah! That's why that happens. Thanks!