Cold weather starting question.

[SaskS14]

Hello everyone.  I came down with the flu on saturday night so my car hasn't run until tonight.  I left the blockheater plugged in the whole time but still had problems with a sluggish battery late this afternoon.  Now the temperature here the last few nights has be frigid to say the least.  the last few nights it has been down to -35C (about -30F) and up to only -28C.  I put the charger on this afternoon and left it on for about 5 hours.  It took a charge and my car started no problem.  I backed the car out of the driveway and noticed quite a pool of oil (2 or 3 ounces).  I remembered that a few weeks ago the same thing happened during a cold snap but I though the oil was from someone elses car since I checked several times for oil spots since then without anything.

So my question is: Has anyone else experienced this with extreme cold starting?  And if so what was the problem?  Or does anyone have any idea what the problem may be?

[SaskS14]

Sorry guys but I have to bump this.

Anyone have any ideas?  I have started to think that it may be a fitting somewhere that shrinks in extreme cold conditions and then warms up and expands to seal the leak?  Sounds like a possibility right?

[Krunko]

Do you live in Sasquatchawan or something?  Maybe bigfoot sugared your tank.

[Krunko]

Do you live in Sasquatchawan or something?  Maybe bigfoot sugared your tank.

[SaskS14]

Very funny.  Yes I live in Saskatchewan and the last time I checked the sasquatch was thought to have lived in the Pacific NW.  No where even close to Saskatchewan.   But hey thanks for your humor, can you tell that I am laughing?

Anyone have any intelligent answers?

[Yoshi]

well, I live in WA state, and I've not seen any sassie-qwatchez round these parts...

But I do have some experience w/cold weather starting... tho it only get's to maybe -15F here, that's still #### cold (u notice how after a certain point, lower temperature just isn't noticable? it's just "#### Cold")  What I know is this.  My car LIKES the cold, I have 91 s13, and my car both starts and idles better in the winter than the summer... go figure.  Sorry this isn't any help to you, but you wanted ppl with cold weather experience... *shrug*

perhaps the car's air/fuel mixture is off? &nbsp;Mine is, hence why the colder air helps it out, if yours is the opposite way it may have a coinciding inverse effect... just a theory <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'> &nbsp;Good luck!

[misnomer]

Hehe, cold air is a bit better for a car to an extent. -35C is balls-freezing-in-your-pants cold though. . . Unfortunately, I can't help you too much with your oil problem. Double check to make sure you still have enough in the car, two to three quarts is a #### of a lot to lose. That is pushing the limits on most antifreeze solutions. What % water are you running with your coolant? You may want to try running a thicker coolant mix. If you had the unplugged from the warmer doohickeys, it's possible your coolant could have frozen which can cause all sorts of problems, even if it was thawed back out before you drove. Cold will seriously reduce a battery's charge, which could cause a slow start or no start at all. My climate is rarely below 10 deg F, my car hasn't been started in anything below 20. I notice significantly slower starts when it's cold. Slow starts in cold weather isn't so much a problem as a fact of cars <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

What you mentioned about a seal freezing and contracting makes sense. Keep a close eye on your oil level untill things warm up a bit.