well overnight temperature plummeted to -2 deg and lower in the country fields I live.
car war flocked' in upright standing frost, the true winter scene.

managed to unlock doors, handles moved, but not wing mirrors, door seals were totally frozen. I little warm water, out of the tap, soon cured the door issue.

Now ..... would it start ???

got in and tried to turn it over, not once but FOUR times on the time-out of the ignition and it burst into life. The reason I was concerned is the battery is the ORIGINAL LR part and its soon to enter its 11h year. It did a lot of cranking, which tells me the battery is holding charge.
I do have a replacement ready, on charge, to fit .......... but i want to see how long I can make this battery last !

Just the luck of the draw, some last about 4-5 years others, seemingly forever.
We had a Tdi Golf from new that we sold 11 years later still on its original battery. My Disco 2 was about 8 years. At 6 years old my Freelander's is still doing its thing perfectly. Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Re the doors freezing to the pillars, I have successfully used silicone spray (will need to be reapplied monthly)but my retired mechanic neighbour recommended Vaseline on the rubber gaskets of the doors and the pillars....lasts longer than the silicone spray and very reasonably priced. Of course, I am in Canada .

11 years on the battery is amazing for an auto, obviously an AGM. I do have an original yellow top Optima spiral cell deep cycle AGM that was made in the USA 15+ years ago that has lost about 15-20% of it's CCA which I used now to power a backup power inverter. Unfortunately Optima moved their manufacturing and the newer spiral AGMs are no longer what they used to be, so it's hit and miss.

Vaseline is petroleum based and shouldn’t be used on rubber, might get away with it on a synthetic rubber but not worth chancing it, better to use a silicone grease (same as the spray but thicker obviously) usually easily obtainable from electrical stores, we used silcone grease on the door shuts on all the vehicles that were going for cold weather testing in Sweden and when testing in our cold rooms down to -40C  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

Box, are you recommending KY jelly for the door shut rubbers?
I haven't got any.

Boxbrownie wrote:

Vaseline is petroleum based and shouldn’t be used on rubber, might get away with it on a synthetic rubber but not worth chancing it, better to use a silicone grease (same as the spray but thicker obviously) usually easily obtainable from electrical stores, we used silcone grease on the door shuts on all the vehicles that were going for cold weather testing in Sweden and when testing in our cold rooms down to -40C

And that's why I don't get my neighbour to fix my vehicles, lol! Thanks for the good info, I have a tub of Corrosion Block grease (ACF50), I will read the label and see if that will suffice.

Largered wrote:

Box, are you recommending KY jelly for the door shut rubbers?
I haven't got any.

Don’t be daft, silly old sod.......KY is a water based lubricant not silicone......

So I have been told......  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

KY & automobiles? Sexy!

The registration number on my Evoque starts with KY.  Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

^^^^^Slip slidin'

Largered wrote:

i want to see how long I can make this battery last