Every year I get about 10 days where it's so cold that most cars struggle to start regardless of age. On one of these days it seemed as though I would have to call for a charge. It was so cold that frost covered my whole car. I popped the hood to check the battery connections and the engine itself was frosty. At this point I had many false starts. I noticed that the exhaust manifold was plenty warm already. At this point I was still following the collective wisdom and had the preheater hose off of the car. I went back into the hotel to wait for 10 minutes deciding that the heat from the exhaust manifold would probably bring up the temperature of the whole block just enough to make a difference. I was right.

I decided then that this practice of removing the preheater was a bad idea. I could have used every ounce of help that day and I decided that this included the preheater. So I replaced it the next chance I got.

That was three years ago. I have seen weather that cold since and my car tends to start after about 3 or 4 false starts on such days. I have never come close to losing my charge.

Should I go through and summarize your points or do you see for yourself how you have drifted around like a rudderless sailboat?

-JSBB