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No experience with a hot shot but just wondering if hot water on glass at -30 is a good idea.

This is really what I worried about! I've seen a windscreen crack after boiling water was poured on it to de-ice (thankfully not mine!). The temp difference between -20 & 65C is likely to be similar?

Maybe it's just the small volume or that when it hits the screen it will be nowhere near as hot!

Si

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I had a chat with Nick Wells who is the UK importer (details below) I asked him about cracking the windscreen, he said this had been tested, can't remember the temp range but basically the gist of the conversation was that although the water leaves the jet at 65 degrees it is cooled by the air before hitting the screen it is also a far smaller amount than say pouring a kettle of hot water over the the screen so you don't achieve the thermal shock required to crack a screen. I will let you know if I have any issues when we are in Norway.

Nick Wells

Director

Galibier Industries limited

Unit 1 Sovereign Business Park

Butterley Street

Hunslet

Leeds

West Yorkshire

LS10 1AW

m: + 44 (0) 7523 459356

t: + 44 (0) 1132 8214375

t + 44 (0) 800 879 9129

e: nick.wells@galibierindustries.com

w. www.galibierindustries.com

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Would you consider BERU or DELPHI to be the quality Glow plugs - I have been looking around since this post and there is a wide price range for ETC8847. (I have a Disco 200tdi in my 90)

Think mine were Delphi, its a while sine I fitted them though, so I'd have to trawl back through the file to be certain

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Would you consider BERU or DELPHI to be the quality Glow plugs - I have been looking around since this post and there is a wide price range for ETC8847. (I have a Disco 200tdi in my 90)

BERU are OEM and last. Whatever you do don't use cheepos from Britpart or Bearmach. I did, and one burnt out after 6 months and then seized in the head. I have had only 3 glowplugs for years now...

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Microheat (the original mfr of the Hotshot) reckoned they did loads of testing to prove it would never break the screen.

Certainly mine never has, though it kept the screenwash flowing through a very cold trip to Bulgaria with FridgeFreezer and MikeTomcat a few years back.

It works great in 'standby' mode, keeping warm screenwash ready for use all the time, but I had mixed results with the automatic screen clearing mode - it clears the jets of ice with a shot of steam, but the 'hotshot' that is supposed to follow is often a warm dribble over the bonnet. I suspect the 'undervoltage lockout' trips too easily for my setup, but I've never bothered to investigate further.

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Hi, JasonG4110,

One of the posts mentions lock de-icer. Very important, since the heat inside the cabin can melt ice within the door cavity which then refreezes very quickly when the vehicle is parked, potentially freezing the door lock solid. So, make sure you have a small bottle of lock de-icer in your pocket, not just a large spray can inside the vehicle! How do I know........ :blush: ! (Vienna, winter of 2006/7.)

Best of luck with your trip. We were there in the summer of 2009, and the scenery is really spectacular. Another of the bucket list crossed off.

Mike

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Hi, JasonG4110,

One of the posts mentions lock de-icer. Very important, since the heat inside the cabin can melt ice within the door cavity which then refreezes very quickly when the vehicle is parked, potentially freezing the door lock solid. So, make sure you have a small bottle of lock de-icer in your pocket, not just a large spray can inside the vehicle! How do I know........ :blush: ! (Vienna, winter of 2006/7.)

Best of luck with your trip. We were there in the summer of 2009, and the scenery is really spectacular. Another of the bucket list crossed off.

Mike

Thanks Mike and Mike,

I have the advantage of having a high spec defender and therefore not having to insert a key but push a button... However I am taking plenty of spare batteries for the remote so I should be sorted.

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JasonG4110,

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the lockable fuel filler cap can also freeze, and that can be a right PITA to defrost, since one doesn't really want to risk any source of ignition in that area. I've found that a good wash with WD40, which is primarily a water repellant rather than a penetrating oil, followed by a good coating of all components with a light grease generally avoids total seizure. Shearing the ignition key in the filler cap, if your cap is that type, could put a significant delay in your holiday schedule!

Mike

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JasonG4110,

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the lockable fuel filler cap can also freeze, and that can be a right PITA to defrost, since one doesn't really want to risk any source of ignition in that area. I've found that a good wash with WD40, which is primarily a water repellant rather than a penetrating oil, followed by a good coating of all components with a light grease generally avoids total seizure. Shearing the ignition key in the filler cap, if your cap is that type, could put a significant delay in your holiday schedule!

Mike

Or use one of these

http://www.defendoor.co.uk/

Hi Mike and Quentin

I think I have that one ticked I already have a Defendoor, my fuel lock works off a separate key but I intended to leave it open, I was then going to put an oily rag into the space between the cap and the Defendoor to add some further frost protection.

Jason.

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Budget way to warm up screenwash is to lengthen the washer hose and wrap it around the radiator upper hose (hole length).

Still I´m not sure if there is need to warm up screenwash. The screenwash you can buy in Norway lasts -40C without freezing and the most demend for screenwash is around 0 C degrees or bit colder when salt is used and everything gets dirty.

When it gets colder, traction gets better and heavy transport won´t need the salt anymore and there is no dirt in the air to mess up your windshield.

110 Defender is very cold, 90 is also cold but not so much because the space to be heated is smaller. If I had a 110 I would consider making a wall behind the rear seats and divide the car into cold (rear) and not so cold(front) section. Problem is that there are heating vents only in the front of the car. (And no vents for side windows at all) I know some people have installed another heater matrix and fan under the rear seats or inside the cubby box.

But if someone wants to drive defender with T-shirt on in arctic conditions, the answer is Webasto Air-Top.

By the way, my grandfather had Series 1 or 2, and during the winter they had part of the exhaust pipe making a curve inside the cabin. I´ve heard it was warm inside.

I believe that heating is the reason why Land Cruiser and Hilux are more common around here than LRproducts and usually first question people are asking about my car considers about heating and is it cold to drive in it.

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Hi Jason,

I have a winterized 2007 110 and it always behaved well in cold environment. I don't know how much different a winterized version is from yours, but I don't think it goes much beyond the heating seats and wind-screen (all useful).

More than once did I start the car by -20°c in Russia and elsewhere, without any hesitation from the engine. (Not that I would tolerate any, a car is meant to work, specially a Defender! )

I would advise you to take a extra pair of wipers, as they tend to get inefficient under heavy snow. Keeping a bag of 5kg of road-salt can also become handy if you get stuck in an icy place.

Besides that, I can only think of a thermos of hot coffee!

Enjoy your trip,

Jerome

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If you have a Tdi, I'd recommend a new timing belt unless yours is pretty new - the temperature will make belts more brittle, and an old one may not be able to tollerate that.

As for Hotshots, I routed my washer jtes' pipes to run along the heater matrix feed pipe atop the cylinder head, underneath a Discovery sound deadening top pad (like fitted to all 300Tdis) to heat the fluid up directly. It doen't help much as the nozles stay frozen and the airflow wind chill is too much for the gradual heat transfer to get from the lines to the nozzles - while the whole length of the pipes in the engine bay and cab (behind the dash) are liquid, the nozzles are still frozen, and I can't see how the Hotshot can do any better heating to 65oC if my lines are wrapped around pipes running at well over 80oC and insulated for part of their length. I'm sure both my stystem and the Hotshopts help in marginal conditions, but in severe cold conditions, only heated nozzels will work. I tried fitting a set from a later RRC (I have them in my 95 Classic and they work all winter without any fluid heating), but coundn't get them to spray at a good angle onto the screen.

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One other theory I am going to implement is a secondary glow plug bypass switch. This way on those really cold mornings when you know it isn't going to be happy you can force the glow plugs to stay on longer, and while getting idle stable as modern vehicles do. This week PWM fan controller, next week find 100A relay to get this done and I'll let everyone know how well it works.

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An alternative!

Get some Nichrome wire, 30 Gauge or so and run it inside the washer tube with a loop extending as close to the nozzle as possible. The ends of the wire can sandwich between the tube and the barbed fittings on either end. This will heat the whole length of the tube and the nozzle.

You may need to experiment with resistor values / length of wire so it gets hot but doesn't catch fire!

I think this could be very effective!

Si

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An alternative!

Get some Nichrome wire, 30 Gauge or so and run it inside the washer tube with a loop extending as close to the nozzle as possible. The ends of the wire can sandwich between the tube and the barbed fittings on either end. This will heat the whole length of the tube and the nozzle.

You may need to experiment with resistor values / length of wire so it gets hot but doesn't catch fire!

I think this could be very effective!

Si

Trouble is, any two or more breaks in the insulation will result in a short circuit.
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I'm sure both my stystem and the Hotshopts help in marginal conditions, but in severe cold conditions, only heated nozzels will work.

I've never experienced frozen jets with a hotshot, but I've only tried it down to -20C or so, and in Norwegian blizzards. Even when, first thing in the morning, there was a ittle blue mound of frozen antifreeze under one of the other Land Rovers I was with.

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