With the arrival of another wave of frost, when the air temperature at night steadily drops below zero, a difficult time has come for motorists. Starting your car after a frosty night, especially for owners of diesel cars, is a daunting task, so many drivers resort to certain tricks. Some, for example, before starting the engine, turn the ignition key only halfway and wait for a while. We figured out how this simple manipulation will help start the engine in winter frosts.
Specialists of the Polish automobile portal moto.pl explainedthat this useful winter life hack can be useful for both drivers of diesel and gasoline cars. However, in cars with different types of engines, the trick of half-turning the ignition key before starting performs a different function.
What happens when the ignition key is not turned completely in a diesel engine?
If we consider a diesel engine, then to start it it is first necessary to create a high temperature in the combustion chamber. Without this, diesel fuel simply will not ignite. After the driver turns the key in a diesel car, a light in the form of a spring lights up on the dashboard. It indicates the heating of the glow plugs and combustion chamber. Drivers are strongly advised to wait until the indicator light goes out before turning the key further to the start position. As soon as the light goes out, it will signal that the air in the cylinder has reached the temperature required to start the engine.
In severe frost, experts recommend repeating this procedure twice to make starting a diesel engine easier. This practice is especially useful for older cars in which the injection system is already worn out to some extent.
What happens when the ignition key is not turned completely in a gasoline car?
The situation is completely different in the case of gasoline engines. They do not need to heat the combustion chamber. There are no glow plugs in a gasoline engine, only spark plugs. They give a spark, not temperature. In this case, when the key is turned half a turn, a certain amount of fuel is pumped into the injection system and combustion chamber. This is the only way to create a fuel-air mixture that will ignite without much difficulty and thereby start the engine.
The engine does not start in cold weather. What could be the problem?
However, in severe frosts, drivers often encounter situations where even the trick of turning the key halfway and waiting tactics do not help start the car. There may be several reasons for this, experts explained. In this case, the following faults may be most likely, among others:
- discharged battery,
- battery damage,
- freezing of the fuel, or rather the moisture accumulated in it,
- deposition of paraffin, which forms in diesel fuel at subzero temperatures
- wear of glow plugs,
- spark plug wear.
Telegraph previously told us what the light bulb in the shape of a snowflake means, which sometimes lights up on the dashboard of some cars. Contrary to the fact that most drivers are accustomed to the fact that an orange light comes on means a malfunction, it turns out that this indicator has nothing to do with the efficiency of the car.
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