Cold weather

We recently had a few cold mornings near freezing in Southern California.
Since my car is garaged, the temp. registered 50F when I got in. As I drove
a few blocks, it fell to 34-36F. When it fell through 37, a warning light
and bell came on to tell me it was cold outside. Is this normal? Also, if
I had had the air conditioner turned on, is there a point where it would
have automatically cut off?

On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 15:16:11 -0800, Tucker wrote:

> We recently had a few cold mornings near freezing in Southern California.
> Since my car is garaged, the temp. registered 50F when I got in. As I
> drove a few blocks, it fell to 34-36F. When it fell through 37, a warning
> light and bell came on to tell me it was cold outside. Is this normal?
> Also, if I had had the air conditioner turned on, is there a point where
> it would have automatically cut off?

That sensor is measuring outside air temp. The warning is to tell you that
outside temp in low enough for the possibility of road icing, either as a
result of previously lower ambient temps, or (if conditions are just
right) for radiation cooling at night to have allowed ice to form on the
roadway.

I think later model BMW's have a low ambient shut off for the A/C. As I
recall it doesn't switch the system to heat mode, but it does disable the
A/C compressor.

--
The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

Jim Levie wrote:
> On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 15:16:11 -0800, Tucker wrote:
>
>> We recently had a few cold mornings near freezing in Southern
>> California. Since my car is garaged, the temp. registered 50F when I
>> got in. As I drove a few blocks, it fell to 34-36F. When it fell
>> through 37, a warning light and bell came on to tell me it was cold
>> outside. Is this normal? Also, if I had had the air conditioner
>> turned on, is there a point where it would have automatically cut
>> off?
>
> That sensor is measuring outside air temp. The warning is to tell you
> that outside temp in low enough for the possibility of road icing,
> either as a result of previously lower ambient temps, or (if
> conditions are just right) for radiation cooling at night to have
> allowed ice to form on the roadway.
>
> I think later model BMW's have a low ambient shut off for the A/C. As
> I recall it doesn't switch the system to heat mode, but it does
> disable the A/C compressor.


A friend of mine had a BMW 540 wagon, WE would go mountain biking in teh
local SoCal mountains every weekend though the winter (sucks to be in
California huh? ;-) ) We would drive though the canyon to the trail head,
and the car would beep at us when it got too cold. We would just shake our
heads and ask ourselves "why are we riding today? its too darn cold!" BTW
heated seats are a MUST HAVE item. Much better then having warm air blown on
you.

Trey wrote:

> A friend of mine had a BMW 540 wagon, WE would go mountain biking in teh
> local SoCal mountains every weekend though the winter (sucks to be in
> California huh? ;-) ) We would drive though the canyon to the trail head,
> and the car would beep at us when it got too cold. We would just shake our
> heads and ask ourselves "why are we riding today? its too darn cold!" BTW
> heated seats are a MUST HAVE item. Much better then having warm air blown on
> you.

I don't have seat warmers and I'm not sure if I'm glad or not. My
girlfriend's Tahoe has them and the control for it is on the door.
There are so many controls there (windows, mirrors, door locks, seat
warmers and more) that I've often turned on the warmers accidentally and
got a rude surprise in my tush. <chuckling> Yeah, in cold weather they
can be great, but in the summer they're not very nice. lol

Vern

"Vernon Balbert" > wrote in message
m...
> Trey wrote:
>
> > A friend of mine had a BMW 540 wagon, WE would go mountain biking in teh
> > local SoCal mountains every weekend though the winter (sucks to be in
> > California huh? ;-) ) We would drive though the canyon to the trail
head,
> > and the car would beep at us when it got too cold. We would just shake
our
> > heads and ask ourselves "why are we riding today? its too darn cold!"
BTW
> > heated seats are a MUST HAVE item. Much better then having warm air
blown on
> > you.
>
> I don't have seat warmers and I'm not sure if I'm glad or not. My
> girlfriend's Tahoe has them and the control for it is on the door.

The E39 has them on the dash. It's one of the very few decent controls in
that car....other than the sterring wheel and shifter.

> There are so many controls there (windows, mirrors, door locks, seat
> warmers and more) that I've often turned on the warmers accidentally and
> got a rude surprise in my tush. <chuckling> Yeah, in cold weather they
> can be great, but in the summer they're not very nice. lol

Most American cars don't do switches for heated seats very well. And most of
them have switches so the seats remain on if you turn the car off, so the
next time you start it the seats are heated again. This I don't like. The
Bimmer switches work only for that ignition cycle....once you turn the car
off and then turn it back on, you have to turn the seats on again. This
really helps in not having the seats inadverdently "on".

"Ramone Cila" > wrote in
:
>
> And most of them have switches so the seats remain on if you turn the
> car off, so the next time you start it the seats are heated again.
> This I don't like. The Bimmer switches work only for that ignition
> cycle....once you turn the car off and then turn it back on, you have
> to turn the seats on again. This really helps in not having the seats
> inadverdently "on".

I'd prefer the heat settings were persistent.

When driving my 330 on a day of shopping and errands during the colder
months, I get annoyed at having to constantly turn the seat heaters back on
every time we get into the car. Especially since I normally like them set
to the lowest heat level, which requires three stabs at the button each
time.

It's just my opinion, but I suspect one would make the mistake of turning
on the heaters at the wrong time far less often than having to turn them on
again after the car has been shut off.

Kevin

I don't know about the AC shutting off, but I can't imagine why this would
happen because you can set the cabin temp to a high number, switch the AC
on, and use it to dehumidify the air and clear the fog off of the glass.

As for the chime at 37°, this is normal. Ice can form on bridges or in the
shade, or it can form earlier when the temps were lower, and remain in these
places.




"Tucker" > wrote in message
...
> We recently had a few cold mornings near freezing in Southern California.
> Since my car is garaged, the temp. registered 50F when I got in. As I
drove
> a few blocks, it fell to 34-36F. When it fell through 37, a warning light
> and bell came on to tell me it was cold outside. Is this normal? Also,
if
> I had had the air conditioner turned on, is there a point where it would
> have automatically cut off?
>
>

"Kevin Oberle" > wrote in message
7.142...

> It's just my opinion, but I suspect one would make the mistake of turning
> on the heaters at the wrong time far less often than having to turn them
on
> again after the car has been shut off.

To each his own I suppose, but I don't believe these types of "amenities"
should be self starting. They should reset with each ignition cycle.

Ramone Cila wrote:
> "Kevin Oberle" > wrote in message
> 7.142...
>
>> It's just my opinion, but I suspect one would make the mistake of
>> turning on the heaters at the wrong time far less often than having
>> to turn them on again after the car has been shut off.
>
> To each his own I suppose, but I don't believe these types of
> "amenities" should be self starting. They should reset with each
> ignition cycle.

It should just have a setting somewhere so you can set it ether way.