after making a 30 mile round-trip i noticed my grill was completely blocked/covered/packed with snow.

the outside air temp was about 30 F.

no warning light came on or anything.... but how at risk was i of overheating the engine??? or am i worried over nothing?

 

You drove after that snow storm? You should be alright, If anything it could wreck the fins in the radiator by separating them but if the car is garaged and you melted the snow it will be OK. I would not scrap the snow due to damaging the radiator.

As long as no engine warning lite came on, the motor was operating normally.

 

the fins are okay. i managed to clear the snow by hand... and the delicate use of an ice scraper. the car was parked outside and we 20 inches of snow with wicked winds... so the snow was literally blown into the grill. i didnt notice until after driving to work and back.

but i remember someone on fit freak had the temp gauge light up, and immediately stopped the car.... but it was too late. the engine was fried.
so it seems, if the light actually comes on, it may already be too late.
his issue was not snow related.

 

As long as the lite didn't come on you should be OK. Snow would keep the car from warming up properly and could use more gas. The engine lite should come on if any of the sensors are not within spec. I would try to thaw out you car and check for leaks, check the oil level and coolant level too.

I will look for the other member temp gauge problem before I comment on that problem.

 

i found that thread. the guy's fan blew apart (he didnt know it). he drove the car for another 5 minutes... and that was enough time to fry the engine.
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ue-liquid.html

anyway, i think you're right... as long as my light didnt come on, i should be fine. i was just startled to see the entire grill packed with snow : /

 

Just keep looking for leaks for a little while, should be easy to see blue fluid in the snow.

I've seen that post too, but stopped following it because 5 minutes would not fry a motor. Water pump yes but not the motor unless hes was racing full throttle, and even then it goes in to limp mode. Maybe he thought that was a fried motor. Thats another reason to use synthetic oil though, even though I haven't decided to use it yet. The engine is hard to be damaged the ecu would not let that happen in normal use.

 

why do you suspect a leak?

 

Probably a leak would've allowed hot coolant to escape, and melt the snow.

 

Snow could force the fins into the coolant line that run through the radiator, even though the snow was blown in it turns into water and refreezes and when water freezes it expands.

I am just saying do a walk around, My guess is you would know by now if there was a problem. I do a walk around every day and look under the front for leaks, just a habit I got into.

 

ahh. i see.
damn, you think of everything. lol.

i'll check it tomorrow. thanks for your input!

i dont think any of the snow actually melted. it was still very dry snow when i dislodged it from the grill... it completely fell away from the fins... showing no signs of melting... or thawing and refreezing.

 

No worries... Over heating a snow packed radiator on a 30 degree day since snow is inherently cold and would technically cool the radiator if it got hot, through heat transfer of the snow melting. Like others have said if there was no indicator no worries. Plus what your seeing isn't really your radiator its the AC condenser that sits in front of your fit's radiator.

However Silver Bullet brought up a great point of the refreezing water in between the fins. If your that worried about it. Start the car up in the morning and let it warm up to operating temp and see if there is any leaks which again (if there was one) would be in your AC condenser and you would probably not notice this until the first time you turn on the AC in the spring.

Over heating on a 30 degree day even with a radiator fully blocked off is hard to do for a little 1.5L, it doesn't produce that much heat plus all the ECU safety features...

 

You literally had the people in my home laugh with hysteria when I showed them this thread. (We're Canadians).

To overheat an engine takes a lot of heat. In winter conditions, the radiator hardly ever gets hot. The most of the heat that the engine produces is used up by your blower inside your car to heat the interior.

Only excess heat is released to the radiator. Below freezing temperatures, heat will dissipate from the radiator very quickly even without direct air flow. In fact, many Canadians insert a cardboard shield in front of their radiator to prevent "freeze up" on long highway trips.

As for the fins refreezing, any snow that thaws will evaporate quickly when it's cold out. So don't worry about refreezing water on your rad fins.

Canadian Fits survive incredible snow/cold conditions without issues.

Thanks for a funny morning.

 

Water to water cooling > water to air cooling

 

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

damn canadians! lol.


that's good to know.
extreme cold is not an issue here... but big snowstorms are an issue.
last year, immediately following an 17 inch snowfall, i drove to work at night on the new jersey turnpike and hit a 2ft wall of unplowed snow at 40 mph. generally driving a fit on poorly plowed roads sucks.

 

well.... this video was taken about 15 miles away from me.

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse on Vimeo

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