whitex
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- Jul 30, 2021
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- WA, USA
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- 2023 Taycan TCT, 2024 Q8 eTron P+
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- #1
Just a little warning for those who are considering having your car delivered to a dealer or experience center in a warm climate, then take it home somewhere where temperatures fall below 0C (32F). Porsche ships non-anti-freeze windshield washer fluid for PDI to dealers in warm climates, so if you take the car somewhere where temperatures fall below freezing, you will find a nasty surprise in a form of none of the wiper fluid nozzles inoperable whenever temperature drops below freezing, even barely. This can actually become a safety issue if that happens to you on the road.
I found this out the hard way, when road tripping after picking up my car from South Carolina, home to Washington state. Whenever temperatures would fall even a little under 32F, windshield washers would freeze up (since no nozzle or wiper heaters on Taycans). It got a little scary driving at one point, so I ended up having to manually defrost the nozzles (by pouring anti freeze on them, lucky it was only barely freezing - 29F), then draining all the original windshield wiper fluid, then replacing it and flushing it out with a winterized version from Walmart (since it was right there at the charger where I was doing this).
So even though outside temperature was only 29F, nozzles were frozen over. Once I got them defrosted, the OEM Porsche fluid would freeze almost instantly when it landed on the car body.
The unfortunate thing was that the dealer did not know this. When I asked about it before the trip, I was told they put in Porsche OEM fluid at PDI, which should be fine for winter too. Only after I let them know that it freezes, they dug into it and found out they are only supplied the warm weather version.
So bottom line, if picking up a car in warm climate, insist on anti-freeze washer fluid, tell them to go to Walmart or a local gas station if Porsche won't send them any. I am genuinely surprised that Porsche would do that by the way, since people in warm climates do from time to time drive somewhere colder. At the very least they should have put a sticker, like the tire speed limit one, warning the driver this car is not ready to drive in the winter.
I found this out the hard way, when road tripping after picking up my car from South Carolina, home to Washington state. Whenever temperatures would fall even a little under 32F, windshield washers would freeze up (since no nozzle or wiper heaters on Taycans). It got a little scary driving at one point, so I ended up having to manually defrost the nozzles (by pouring anti freeze on them, lucky it was only barely freezing - 29F), then draining all the original windshield wiper fluid, then replacing it and flushing it out with a winterized version from Walmart (since it was right there at the charger where I was doing this).
So even though outside temperature was only 29F, nozzles were frozen over. Once I got them defrosted, the OEM Porsche fluid would freeze almost instantly when it landed on the car body.
The unfortunate thing was that the dealer did not know this. When I asked about it before the trip, I was told they put in Porsche OEM fluid at PDI, which should be fine for winter too. Only after I let them know that it freezes, they dug into it and found out they are only supplied the warm weather version.
So bottom line, if picking up a car in warm climate, insist on anti-freeze washer fluid, tell them to go to Walmart or a local gas station if Porsche won't send them any. I am genuinely surprised that Porsche would do that by the way, since people in warm climates do from time to time drive somewhere colder. At the very least they should have put a sticker, like the tire speed limit one, warning the driver this car is not ready to drive in the winter.
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Cheers
