The expert advises to defrost the car from time to time.
Hard the cold weather has again brought the cars to the warm parking garages in Helsinki for “treatment”.
The phenomenon has been noticed both in the Kaare shopping center in Kannelmäki and in Tripla in Pasila.
“Yes, it can be seen. They are brought to melt somewhat”, confirms the property manager Pekka Halimaa.
Both traditional combustion engine cars and electric cars are brought in for treatment or melting. The utilization rates of charging points for electric cars are also particularly high, says Halimaa.
The charging points are in full use all the time, but more so in winter, says Halimaa.
“We assume that the users of the cars brought to Sula will also become customers,” says Halimaa.
“We cannot separate the cars according to the reason they came there. We do have enough space.”
Phenomenon is familiar from previous years. Warm parking garages are used as places to thaw cars, the shopping center manager of shopping center Tripla also says Hanna Heikkinen and property manager Petri Tynkkynen.
“To some extent you can see cars being cleaned from the snow, but not to the point of being a nuisance and not for a long time,” says Heikkinen.
According to Tynkkynen, the only disadvantage of melting is that if the snow is dirty, the dirt that falls on the floor when the snow melts makes the hall untidy, which requires cleaning the hall.
“Awful this is it,” says the person who parked his Audi in the parking garage of the shopping center Tripla Eki Korhonen about winter driving.
Korhonen is on his way to the Uusimaa Land Survey Office, located next to the shopping center, and brought his car to the parking garage to thaw while doing business.
Korhonen, who lives in Töölö, says that the city has not cleared his home street of snow as promised, so the car parked on the street has spent time in the middle of the snow.
Personally, Korhonen has not brought his car to the parking garages to thaw, but says that he uses the parking garages to thaw the car in connection with his other expenses.
Eki Korhonen brought his car to thaw while he runs errands.
In Oulunkylä resident Kaappo Raivio cleans Lumi from the roof of his red Toyota in the same parking garage. The hard layer of ice that accumulated in the car on the way to the cottage has softened during Raivio's shopping trip.
Raivio, who got his driver's license a few years ago, is about to start his first winter with his own car. The condition of the car should be thought about more carefully in the winter, Raivio says.
Raivio's local store is a shopping center in Tripla, so you can defrost your car while visiting the store. If there was no need to go to the shopping center, the car should probably be thawed right after leaving, he says.
At home in Oulunkylä, Raivio keeps the car in a cold yard where there is no possibility of heating.
“The car does start, but a seat heater would be a nice addition,” says Raivio.
Kaapppo Raivio melted down his first own car, a Toyota Yaris, in Tripla's parking garage.
Automobile union training manager Teppo Vesalainen says that car defrosters are on the right track.
“It's absolutely important to melt Lumi in between.”
Defrosting is important to prevent damage to the car and even for driving safety in combustion engine and electric cars.
Freezing and packed snow creates several risks: at worst, it can prevent the wheels from turning or hinder their turning.
A couple of years ago, there was a case in the public where the tire locked, i.e. stopped spinning, in the middle of the ride, because so much ice had accumulated in the wheel casing.
Ice can also hinder the movement of the windshield wipers. If it becomes too difficult to move the wipers, in the worst case scenario, the result may be a twisting of the wiper arms or a breakdown of the motor that moves the wipers, says Vesalainen.
Problems also occurs if ice builds up on the air intakes. It weakens the air flow inside the car and causes fogging of the windows.
Ice blocks that accumulate on the roof of the car increase air resistance and thus increase fuel consumption and emissions. When icicles come off when the weather cools, they can hit the windshield of a car coming from behind and even a pedestrian's head, Vesalainen lists the possible unpleasant consequences.
He points out that when the car is defrosted, it is important to dry the door seals and their mating surfaces, so that the doors don't freeze when the car is taken to freezing again.
Side mirrors that turn against the body of the car may also need melting. When the mechanism is frozen and the mirrors are bent against the body, damage can occur. Similarly, the opening motor of the electrically operated side windows can be damaged if the ice formed on the window hinders the movement of the windows too much.
Today's cars have security-enhancing systems that use sensors and cameras. The ice should be melted away in front of them so that the systems work as planned, says Vesalainen.
Frost has caused a lot of problems in the capital region in the past week. Hundreds of bus routes have already been canceled because the buses have not been
started. Motorists have also encountered the same problem: the car won't start.
The problems with cars clearly increase when the freezing temperature is 18 degrees or more, says Autoliiton Vesalainen.
Freezing is usually caused by the car's starter battery, he says. The main problem is that a cold battery receives power poorly.
The battery needed to start the car is therefore unable to store the current that is fed to it.
In the cold and especially when driving a short distance, the battery drains while driving instead of being charged. When you repeatedly drive short distances on extremely cold days, the car eventually won't even start.
It's also not a good idea to load the battery unnecessarily by keeping numerous electrical devices on for an unnecessarily long time.
Electric car driver may also run into problems with downloading. The charging hatch may freeze so that it does not open, or the charging plug may become stuck to the car.
“However, an electric car has a better reputation as a winter car. It's impossible to even say unequivocally which of the electric or combustion engine cars is a safer choice for freezing temperatures,” says Vesalainen.
According to him, the advantage of an electric car is the good preheating possibilities.
According to Vesalainen, the most important things in ensuring the car's operation in freezing temperatures are timely maintenance, taking care of the battery's condition and reserve capacity, and preheating the car.
It pays to take care of the car carefully, because spending money is often a big financial investment, Vesalainen reminds.
If the freezing temperature hovers around 30 degrees, he urges you to think about whether you have to drive the car.
“Standing the car for a few days of freezing weather is not harmful, as long as the battery has plenty of power.”
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