Winter driving, a few observations.

[DSL]

At last some proper winter weather to see how she behaves when things get a bit cold and slippy.  Karoq 2.0 Tdi 4x4 DSG for those that can’t see the profile.  There was a bit of snow on the ground from yesterday but that started to melt and go a bit slushy before it got down to -5c this morning and froze the lot solid again.  Then it stared to snow and has been snowing off and off all morning.  Pics in the Karoq pics bit. 

 

And the observations.  
 

I was amazed how long, not, it took to get hot air through the blowers.  I had been under the impression that it would take a while, from how long she takes to warm up under normal driving, but no, it was really quick.  SWMBO’s petrol Jazz warms enough up in a few minutes, Skippy was similar.

 

I don’t have a problem with it but SWMBO was really nervous on the throttle as it’s a but “brick on an elastic band”.  It takes a bit getting used to cf her car so we were crawling a bit more than normal under these conditions.

Fuel filler was a bit reluctant to open when went for diesel.  Tools a few thumps to open and a firm push to close.  I worked the plunger bit a couple of times to check it was working so just needed a bit of a coax to engage.

 

Re driving on snow covered ice, absolutely no problem.  Nothing was challenging but up our access road is snow over ice and uphill so can get interesting, plus a sharp turn into the drive.  No problems.  Being on full winter tyres is prob doing more than being a 4x4 version but good having both.  No fancy snow mode (no idea how much difference that makes) and no way of knowing if in 4WD or 2WD but it all worked fine.

 

And it’s stopped snowing.  

 

 

 

[CJJE]

I also took my Sportline 2.0TSI 4x4 out on the snow for the first time this morning. 

 

Despite my misgivings over it coming on Bridgestone Dueler summer tyres, I had no problems on the snow covered access road from my house to the gritted B road. I use Snow mode just because it was there, but don't know if it helped or not. When I returned I left it in Individual mode and it still handled and gripped OK. 

 

I'd previously enjoyed the heated steering wheel, and heated seats. But this time I used the heated windscreen as well. It cleared the ice quickly (I'd already swept the lying snow off the car yesterday when clearing my hilly drive.) You still have to de-ice the side windows of course, so my de-icing spray wasn't redundant! 

 

One thing that did alarm me was when I unlocked the doors and the mirrors unfolded. The driver's door mirror didn't move because the was packed snow blocking its movement. But clearing that, and giving the mirror a push unfolded it. I was concerned this could damage the motor, so have altered the settings for the winter so that the mirrors only fold and unfold when I tell it to with the mirror switch on the door  

 

Chris  

[DSL]

I didn’t need any de-icing spray, I tend to let the car warm up enough via the engine then it’s easy enough to get the ice off sometimes just with the squeegee blade.  If it’s too bad I just let the front windows warm up enough, the back windows will sort them selves out on their own, van style.  I was very impressed with how quickly the mirrors and rear windscreen cleared.

 

And as a pauper spec, no heated front screen, seats or steering wheel but after maybe 10 minutes running the car was plenty comfortable and I can confirm it’s fine driving the car with ski gloves on, no problem pressing & twiddling heating controls.  So glad that’s not done via the touch screen. 

[Phil245]

2 hours ago, DSL said:

I had been under the impression that it would take a while, from how long she takes to warm up under normal driving, but no, it was really quick.

 

Oh....?   My impression is the opposite.   We used to have a Golf Mk7 GTD that had an auxiliary heater built into the heater matrix. If you pressed the Max Defrost button it brought this on and warm air chuffed out the vents pretty quickly. At the time I was working regular night shifts and this was a godsend for a quick getaway at the end of a shift......

 

The Karoq, with very basically the same engine, doesn't appear to have this.?  Mine seems to take an age to warm up, and I have never seen any reference to the Karoq TDi's having them.?  A shame really......

 

The only blessing is that I've escaped nights in my new job and I've rigged up a cabin preheater ( little electric heater on a plinth, sits on the back seat for half an hour while I have brekkie in the morning, plugs into a socket on the drive....)....

 

.

Edited 30 December, 2020 by Phil245

[DSL]

By quick, I mean only a few minutes for the ice at the bottom of the windscreen to be slush and able to be squeegeed out the way.  No aux heater/FBH that I know about, just started her up, pressed the various switches for max demist, heated rear screen on and mirror heating on.  Then closed the door & rear screen was ready to be cleared almost straight away, mirrors were cleared but they were folded in.  And it was -4.something so deffo not melting on its own.  
 

In the light of CJJE’s experience with mirrors it might be a good idea to switch off folding on locking.  
 

PS Folding mirrors are now off. 

Edited 30 December, 2020 by DSL

[DSL]

Just been out today to see what she’s like in more challenging conditions.  Mostly ice, once off the gritted roads, with snow on top.  This is typical.  Temps just below freezing.

 

 

All well, prob down to tyres rather than being 4x4, but driving and braking pretty good.

 

Pulled into a few deeper snow areas, a forestry access and lay-by, both snow that has started to melt then refrozen so provides resistance that “normal” snow doesn’t.  Even stop/starting in the deepest parts wasn’t an issue.  
 

I didn’t choose any areas where I knew there might be the slightest chance of not going out, at worst backwards, but getting going again wasn’t an issue with no sliding around or wheel spin.  Even getting into my drive, which is mostly black ice (was lazy and didn’t clear the snow) with about 1” skin of soft snow was no problem at all.  
 

Gratuitous pic of Grantown on Spey area from the Tomontoul road. 
 

 

Oh, and again impressed how fast the front windscreen started to defrost.  By the time I’d gone round and brushed the snow off the front screen was half done and slush was taken off with squeegee.  

Edited 2 January, 2021 by john999boy
OP's request

[DSL]

PS Forgot to say the real testing section I wanted to try out was the part of the road to the left of the wood in the middle of this pic.

 

 

Unfortunately it had been gritted and cleared. 

 

 

 

Edited 2 January, 2021 by DSL

[JonVonWeston]

@DSL - Thats a beautiful part of the country you live in

 

[DSL]

It is indeed.  Fantastic part of the world.   No better place to be in lockdown. 

 

Been out today to get the car de-iced, I was lazy and hadn’t cleared the car and the slush had refrozen solid last night when it was -4c.  I thought this would be a good chance to see how long it takes to de-ice.

 

This was how she started.  -1c and a little snow drizzle coming down.  Side windows well iced up and would have needed some serious scraping.
 

 

Engine running and with 5 mins on max screen heat the wipers could easily deal with the slush, plus side windows are all clear.  Rear window was de-iced in less than a minute!

 

 

Wipers weren’t stuck to the screen as the milk container tops did their job well, in spite of being well consumed by the slush.

 

 

Then out for a short(ish) run as it’s a shame to waste that nicely warmed up engine. 

[Ootohere]

Leaving the wiper parked in the 'Service' position can be a good idea.

When you stop the car you flick the wiper stalk and the wiper stop up the screen in the position that you use when replacing the blades.

[DSL]

I did think of that but too late, by that time the snow/slush had refrozen.  Plus I’d forgotten how to do it..    The milk container tops work quite well as the don’t ping off and disappear if I forget to remove them, the tops just stay under the wipers and give me a nice blue wave, laughing at me on the way past.  

[Luckypants]

I've had mine out in the snow this last week too. We got about 6 inches around here and the roads were mainly compacted snow. I have Bridgestone Weatherbeater all season tyres on now and they were adequate in the snow. I found the braking performance to be lacking with the tyres, but getting going was fine. I used snow mode and found the steering to be heavier, throttle response muted and maybe the brakes less responsive - I had hoped that ABS would be off in snow mode, but no that just hammered away. Snow mode engages the AWD more so it was much better at slowing the vehicle via engine braking. I'd be tempted to use 'Off-road' mode as that makes 4x4 permanent and there is hill descent control to help out too.

Only one slightly dodgy moment during the afternoon was stopping when going downhill and meeting another vehicle on a single track road. Making use of the snow piles at the sides on the road helped there. My car reversed back up the slippery hill easily, while the shogun 4X4 was sliding about driving up on mud tyres.

 

Overall, reasonably impressed.

[DSL]

Another observation, they could do with another element to the heated rear window element.  That would break the bond with the wiper blade nicely, means I wouldn’t have to lever it off.

 

-6c this morning, bit of snow overnight so car was de-iced and de-snowed and taken out for a lockdown spin, well drive the slightly longer way to the local pharmacy.

A few pics.

Smaller roads around here, preferably the ones the pesky gritter/plough hadn’t found. 
 

 

Local high street, loving the mullet look.

 

And matching slush accretionary wedges. 
 

a

 

 

Back in the warm now, sun is out and another day of lockdown ahead. :(

 

 

 

Edited 8 January, 2021 by DSL

[Phil245]

Ok, just to add a few more gratuitous pictures of winter driving, this time in North Wales...!

 

Going to work this morning....

 

And same stretch coming home just after lunch....

 

[DSL]

You can never have enough winter pics!  

[smipx]

You can if you only have the FWD version :-)

 

Edited 8 January, 2021 by smipx

[DSL]

True, true.  It’ll be summer soon. 

[BoxerBoy]

On 30/12/2020 at 13:02, CJJE said:

I also took my Sportline 2.0TSI 4x4 out on the snow for the first time this morning. 

 

Despite my misgivings over it coming on Bridgestone Dueler summer tyres, I had no problems on the snow covered access road from my house to the gritted B road. I use Snow mode just because it was there, but don't know if it helped or not. When I returned I left it in Individual mode and it still handled and gripped OK. 

 

I'd previously enjoyed the heated steering wheel, and heated seats. But this time I used the heated windscreen as well. It cleared the ice quickly (I'd already swept the lying snow off the car yesterday when clearing my hilly drive.) You still have to de-ice the side windows of course, so my de-icing spray wasn't redundant! 

 

One thing that did alarm me was when I unlocked the doors and the mirrors unfolded. The driver's door mirror didn't move because the was packed snow blocking its movement. But clearing that, and giving the mirror a push unfolded it. I was concerned this could damage the motor, so have altered the settings for the winter so that the mirrors only fold and unfold when I tell it to with the mirror switch on the door  

 

Chris  

For these obvious reason I’ve always switched off the auto-fold option.

 

I only need to fold my mirrors when I park in someone else’s street or other tight parking space.

 

Why would I want to wear out the motors and/or be caught out on a cold morning by letting the mirrors fold in unnecessarily every time I step out of the car?

 

Crazy.

[BoxerBoy]

When I know it’s gonna be a cold night, I lift the blades.  Saves time and effort.

 

Plus gratuitous winter snapshot.

 

Edited 8 January, 2021 by BoxerBoy

[Sanqhar]

11 hours ago, BoxerBoy said:

 

Plus gratuitous winter snapshot.

 

 

 

Like the wheels. Which ones are they?  16 inch?

 

tom

[BoxerBoy]

13 hours ago, Sanqhar said:

 

Like the wheels. Which ones are they?  16 inch?

 

tom

17” Nanuqs. 
 

Running on 215/65x17 Contis. 
 

Significantly taller side wall gives a very different ride.

 

In fact, I run with suspension in Sport mode most of the time as the tyre walls give me much more give on poorly finished roads.

[Sanqhar]

On 09/01/2021 at 23:14, BoxerBoy said:

17” Nanuqs. 
 

Running on 215/65x17 Contis. 
 

Significantly taller side wall gives a very different ride.

 

In fact, I run with suspension in Sport mode most of the time as the tyre walls give me much more give on poorly finished roads.

 

No good for me.

Compared to my standard size of 215/50 R18 this size (215/65 R17) would under read the speed which isn't legal. 

 

See  https://tiresize.com/comparison/

 

tom

[Kenny R]

6 minutes ago, Sanqhar said:

 

No good for me.

Compared to my standard size of 215/50 R18 this size (215/65 R17) would under read the speed which isn't legal. 

 

See  https://tiresize.com/comparison/

 

tom

215x55x17 would be the correct tyre size for 17” wheels on your Karoq.

[agedbriar]

3 hours ago, Kenny R said:

215x55x17 would be the correct tyre size for 17” wheels on your Karoq.

Or, 225/55 R17, which are factory fitted on 4x4's with 17" wheels.

[Ootohere]

@Sanqhar If you check now just how much your speedo over reads it is likely about 3 mph when showing 70 mph.

So you would very likely have a more accurate speedo and it will not be under reading.