My Tercel in the Southern California Storm

[Kumppari]

Kumppari, I would think Finland gets more snow than that. How cold is there in a typical winter? Do you have to do anything special to protect the car when you park it outside in those low winter temps?

I live in southern part of Finland, near coast so there tends to be less snow here than up north. Some years are better than others, but recently it seems to be steadily degrading. Must be the global warming
Snow recrod in finland is 190cm from year 1997 and temerature record -51,5c from year 1999. Normal temps would be somewhere beteen -5 to -20c and snow anywhere up to about 50cm. Really changes a lot between locations and years.

Oddly enough, there seems to be no special things to be done in normal everyday (night?) parking situations, other than plugging the heater cord into socket and possibly putting a car cover on. They usually work qiute normally even in colder times. I have even seen soft top cars being used during winter (tops up, ofcourse).
There is, hoever, many things to do as a preventive measure before winter. Check your battery, since they work less effectively in cold. Dead battery seems to be one of the more common problems. Keep jump cables with you, or get one of those nifty litte porable power stations that have integrated working light and compressor in them. I have put 12volt cigarette lighter socket in my boot just to keep one charged all the time. Some people use thinner oil during winter, this helps during cranking. Other fluids should also be checked like coolant, washer, power steering, aircon. If in doubt, change brake fluid. There could be water in the pipes. Handbrakes freezes, so levae it in gear instead. I dont know yet if this is a problem in tercels. Get some rubber floor mats, these are good in keeping water from soaking in the textile carpets, and are easy to empty. Trying to keep the insides dry will help defogging windows. Using aircon will help also. Doors can freeze shut, use silicon on gaskets. Some say brake fluid works too, but it may damage paint.

There is pobaly more things that I am forgetting, but pretty much basic maintenance and care is all it takes.

[terceldude]

I would like to go to Finland and see what their snow is like, lol!!!! From pics, Finland looks beautiful and my Russian friend from my auto program went there... I bet it snows all over the beauty of it, lol!!!

[Petros]

Well my return to WA was uneventful, but it has stayed cold so no melt off yet. And we have had a few more light snow storms too. It took until New Years day to get my wife's MPV 4wd dug out and down the drive way (this was from Dec 17th!). Up until now we have had only one car to drive (with 4 drivers in our house!), just my Tercel 4wd. Good thing no else likes driving it but me. It took a lot of digging and some trail blazing with the Tercel to clear a two tread path on all 250 ft of driveway. Now that the snow is more consolidated I actually have more grip, especially when the snow is frozen hard. I took about 8 or 9 runs at the driveway from the bottom to "plow" out a path about a third of the way up. NO such luck on the curved or steep parts, we had to dig it out by hand (maybe a small tractor would not be a bad idea if we keep getting winters like this!).

We got about 4 more inches of snow on New Years day, and another inch the day after. It took half an hour to dig my car out and get it moving friday. We have not see this much snow and cold weather for over 20 years in this area. This really has to be a modern record for accumulation. Even our big snow storms usually melt off within a week. We have been having snow accumulation since December 13th, and we have more snow on the way today. This feels more like Alaska than Washington.

I got all the way up the driveway for the first time since Dec 17 just yesterday, Jan 2nd. Though there was a lot of wheel spinning and burnt clutch smell. After this winter I am going to need a new clutch, almost every trip up our private road has resulted in burnt clutch smell, and a lot of tire spinning. I even over reved the engine up to about 7000rpm a few times, but no noticeable bad affects...yet.

All this winter driving has been especially hard on the drive train. So far the engine has held up great, the extra power has been important too, but that is what did my clutch in. I know I am going to need new CV joints soon, new brakes and probably new u-joints in the drive shaft too. Hopefully all this will be done before next winter.

Hopefully the clutch will hold up until the weather improves, I would really hate to have to change a clutch in sub-freezing weather with 10 inches of frozen snow in the driveway.

Any suggestions on a better clutch? I think I will go to a high performance clutch, even at twice the money it would be worth it if it lasts longer. AS it is now I have been only getting about 30-40k miles out of the OEM clutch. I guess they did not figure 62hp would put too much demand on it. When I eventually swap engines to the 4age I will really need the extra clutch capacity anyway.

Anyone else wish to report in?

[scouttster]

Figured I'd add a pic to contrast all the others up top.. Florida style... lol
Here is a pic of my 96 Geo Tracker / Sidekick doing the dirty on a gentle beach cruise.. I know its not a terc, but I like Trackers for my offf road time..

[takza]

Saw one guy in a Tracker go out thru the middle of a muddy field that my Terc sure couldn't handle...but I think he had some larger tires on it.

[takza]

Any suggestions on a better clutch? I think I will go to a high performance clutch, even at twice the money it would be worth it if it lasts longer. AS it is now I have been only getting about 30-40k miles out of the OEM clutch. I guess they did not figure 62hp would put too much demand on it. When I eventually swap engines to the 4age I will really need the extra clutch capacity anyway.

Anyone else wish to report in?

I've always heard the OEM clutch was the best. How's your trans holding up?

I think the clutch in mine is OEM and has lasted the last 55K miles...even though it probably is a bit thin. The only time I've overloaded it was in deep snow I think...snow can get under the fenders and you can have way too much load. I've bogged it down in dry sand to the point that the car almost wouldn't go even in EL. But I don't like replacing stuff...so when things get iffy...I try to back off.

[Petros]

The trans seems to be okay so far. I have synth lube in it, when it is really cold the first few shifts are slow (I think the oil is making it hard for the syncros to work). But after a bit of driving it is acts normal.

This too has been worrying me, but for the extra tough spots in the deep snow I try and avoid shifting (that is why I over reved the engine, trying to keep my speed up without shifting). And I have been extra nice on the trans.

The clutch has had it though. I still seems to work okay, but I know I have taken a lot of life out of it. I think I am going to try the SPEC clutch, they will build a stage 1 though 4 clutch for the Tercel from about $240 to about $399. I am thinking stage 1 or 2 maybe even a three (highest they suggest for street use). I will call them before I order. All the other racing clutches are much more costly and do not even list an application for the early Tercel.

[Kumppari]

One option would be to use stronger pressure plate/spring assembly with original clutch plate, that way you would retain almost normal driveability.
I put one of those "spec" non-springed clutch plates and lightened flywheel on my summer car, and it is a bit tricky to drive in traffic. Works nicely on track days tough.

I changed my tercels transmission oil to thickest synthetic I could find. Supposed to help on old worn out tansmissions with larger gaps and margins. Should also handle more power because the oil film remains thicker on contact surfaces. Atleast thats what I have been told. Who knows, might actually be partly true. Works nicely in summer, but now that it is colder I have to double de-clutch and rev-match to get it to 2nd gear. Luckily it softens up after few hundred meters of driving.