Another Pontiac fan... I had fun playing with some Ram Air 3 parts, built a street racer for my fiance at the time. She used to pi$$ off male Mustang owners when she'd beat them at the stop lights. I had a 85 TA, she later had a 84 TA. Fun times.

Coldest I've seen with a vehicle outdoors was -35°F and had a starting problem for a couple days. Had a Knipco heater blowing heat in the front with a blanket on the hood, commercial car starter (18v), yet nothing would start it until I removed the floor mat. It had flooded and ice under the gas pedal prevented the pedal from opening the choke. To make matters worse, I was in Grand Forks, ND and had to drive to Minneapolis to get my wife's car started.

 

FWIW During my career ( 40+ years Computer Engineer )
I've had the opportunity to do some extensive environmental
testing of electronic components. This for product
certification for the military. Once you cross the
0 Degree point and head South consumer grade components
can and will do weird things. I wouldn't expect that
a FEH would gracefully handle a -30 Degree soak ( 24 hours )
that come to life like nothings happening. Especially
with those permanent magnet motors in there.

 

Well today it was a 15F when I got in my car and when I turnrd the key I actually heard the fans come on in the battery!
I had the timer set @ 3 hours so I guess I will back it off to 2.
It seems like the battery temp is more of a hinderance to getting into EV mode than ECT or perhaps it is my drive cycle. Anyway having a block heater is really little help without the battery warmer as well.

 

-19°F here this morning and I still don't have a working block heater. I've polished up the connectors with sandpaper until I can see the metal below the plating and still no heater. Oh well, supposed to warm up by the weekend. Coolant temp was 75° when I got home.

 

have you Ohmed out the heater? Hard to imagine the cord not making some kind of contact

 

I took bad advice and applied dielectric grease to the connectors, which greatly improved unplugging it, but not so good with conductivity. Last I checked, I was able to show current draw on my Kill-a-Watt with the cord positioned just right. I assumed it was still contaminated so cleaned it some more over the weekend with 320 grit. I think it's time to regroup.

 

Didn't you mention the use of grease before and you used the incorrect stuff at first? Dielectric grease, despite the name is suggested and widely used. You may have some other issue.

I use dielectric grease on anything that uses "AA" or "AAA" cells that may be installed for long periods. I know that one high quality test equipment manufacturer's devices that come with cells installed use it.

 

Agree, the plug should make metal to metal contact, you could put elmers glue on there and it should still seat, Well maybe not elmers but you get my drift. If you have acess to a DVM easy enough to ohm out he cord and the heater. geez -19F? I don't feel so sorry for myself know.

 

I used a small packet from the auto parts store. When the block heater no longer worked, I spent the rest of the time scraping and sanding. I haven't tried anything else. Suspecting contamination, I'm on my 3rd extension cord now. Here's the original post: link

I have several. Supposed to climb above zero tomorrow at noon and approach 40° next week. I'm going to wait until it's warmer to mess with it. I don't have access to a warm garage (like last weekend) very often.

 

By extension cord you mean a standrad AC cord? Sometimes using resistance or a voltage reading isn't a good test as it doesn't provide a load. I have a DMM accessory testlead that has a probe with a button. You'd measure the voltage, make note of it, press the button and make note of it looking for a voltage drop. The button puts a load on the circuit, good for finding corroded wires inside connectors, etc.

You can do the same thing for any connector/connection without the extra probe providing you can measure on either side of the connector/connection. Your looking for a voltage drop under load. You can check your 12V battery cables the same way and if you see a couple of volts, you have a problem.

You can use the same principle on a standard wall switch, fuse or circuit breaker in your home. In theory, it should be zero volts.