MK3 in snow

[BlueIce]

Originally Posted by BiffTannen

I hated the feeling & after reading a bit here on FF I've come to realize the Conti tires aren't very good.

Not always the tires. As much of snow as Cleveland gets, I haven't had any problems with these tires. I will admit, Conti's aren't my favorite. Not even close. But if you know how to drive in the snow, these tires are good.

[raptor1956]

Originally Posted by BlueIce

Not always the tires. As much of snow as Cleveland gets, I haven't had any problems with these tires. I will admit, Conti's aren't my favorite. Not even close. But if you know how to drive in the snow, these tires are good.

I had no problems with the stock Conti's for the first 3 or so snow events but this last one, about 8 inches, was bad for me. I had to be at the airport for a trip and parking the car was a chore that required repeated rocking back and forth and the DCT, which has given me no problems up till now, doesn't like to be worked like that and I smelled clutch smoke.

Most of my previous cars were similarly marginal in snow so that nothing new. The Conti's are OK until the snow deeper than a few inches or is particularly slippery. Using winter tires in the winter make sense expect that even in snowy SLC the roads are free from snow 95% of the time in the winter so studs are a bad choice.

I wonder about chains...


Brian

[CDNFocusFan]

Originally Posted by raptor1956

I've had Blizzak's before and they were great but have no experience with the Michelin's X-Ice Xi3 -- how well do they last? I'm thinking about using them for 3 months or so but even in the dead of winter there's many days with perfectly dry roads and I'd be concerned that this would eat the tires up real quick.


Brian

They come with a 60,000 km treadwear warranty, I've only had them a month so can't really speak to the durability. We just got about 10 inches of snow overnight and the bastard who plows my lot made a beautiful cube of snowbanks around my car. Other than that hiccup though the drive to work was pleasant.

Bonus too, putting winter tires on saved me about 15 bucks a month in insurance.

[BlueIce]

Originally Posted by raptor1956

I had no problems with the stock Conti's for the first 3 or so snow events but this last one, about 8 inches, was bad for me. I had to be at the airport for a trip and parking the car was a chore that required repeated rocking back and forth and the DCT, which has given me no problems up till now, doesn't like to be worked like that and I smelled clutch smoke.

Most of my previous cars were similarly marginal in snow so that nothing new. The Conti's are OK until the snow deeper than a few inches or is particularly slippery. Using winter tires in the winter make sense expect that even in snowy SLC the roads are free from snow 95% of the time in the winter so studs are a bad choice.

I wonder about chains...


Brian

8 inches of snow, all bets are off. At that point even clearance alone is an issue. Eventually all that snow your front end is pushing, is going to stop the car. I've seen AWD cars with winters on get stuck in that snow.

[Joey D]

Getting 8" of snow isn't uncommon for the west side of Michigan. With winter tires I have no problems at all. My apartment complex had at least 7" on the ground the other morning before they ploughed and I drove through it without any real problem.

[BlueIce]

It isn't uncommon for Cleveland either. Quite normal actually. But nobody should expect a car to plow through it with no problem. Depending on the car and the bumper height and how far you have to go, you're just going to push the snow with the front of your car. Not good for the car at all.

BTW - If your apt complex lets 7 inches of snow pile up in the parking lot before plowing (regardless of time), you could have a lawsuit on your hands. I dont know about Michigan, but in Ohio the property management is responsible for keeping the property safe and maintained. That includes plowing and salting before becoming a hazard. Failure to do so could result in heavy monetary damages wages on the association, and possibly loss of the property all together.

[Joey D]

I leave for work at 4am, they were in the process of ploughing but my parking area hadn't got it yet. I can't really fault them for that, especially when snow was falling at nearly 2" per hour.

And unless you're Focus is lowered, you don't have too much to worry about. I wouldn't drive through really anything more than 3-4" for an long period of time, but if there's that much snow piled up on the road, probably best just to stay home till the plough trucks come out.

[raptor1956]

Originally Posted by Joey D

And unless you're Focus is lowered, you don't have too much to worry about. I wouldn't drive through really anything more than 3-4" for an long period of time, but if there's that much snow piled up on the road, probably best just to stay home till the plough trucks come out.

When you have to catch a flight you don't have much choice. I had little problem getting to the airport, but parking the car in the lot that wasn't plowed wasn't fun -- took me at least 10 minutes and I had to shovel a bunch of snow with my shoes. When I got to the terminal I was soaked below my knee's.


Brian

[CDNFocusFan]

Originally Posted by BlueIce

It isn't uncommon for Cleveland either. Quite normal actually. But nobody should expect a car to plow through it with no problem. Depending on the car and the bumper height and how far you have to go, you're just going to push the snow with the front of your car. Not good for the car at all.

BTW - If your apt complex lets 7 inches of snow pile up in the parking lot before plowing (regardless of time), you could have a lawsuit on your hands. I dont know about Michigan, but in Ohio the property management is responsible for keeping the property safe and maintained. That includes plowing and salting before becoming a hazard. Failure to do so could result in heavy monetary damages wages on the association, and possibly loss of the property all together.

Geeze I wouldn't want to be a landlord in Ohio. Here it's much more lax and unless someone hurts themselves through the landlord's negligence there won't be any damages awarded from a property owner. At the most maybe a landlord and tenant board application to have the guy clean it up and a small fine.

[raptor1956]

Originally Posted by raptor1956

A while back there was a thread about the MK3 in snow and some really thought it was terrible, but my experience, until yesterday, was that it wasn't bad at all. Yesterday, however, we had an unexpected dump of about 8 inches of particularly slippery white stuff and I had a huge problem getting it parked at the airport parking lot.

They hadn't cleared the snow and I had to work the shift lever, forward then reverse, repeatedly and after a minute or two I could smell the clutch (DCT). Now I've had mostly manuals before and have in the past had similar issues in snow and had to rock it back-n-forth but never had a clutch smell until now.

So, up until yesterday, with just under 15,000 miles on it, I'd never had a clutch/DCT issue and I hope the minor smell issue doesn't indicate a problem -- I'll know when I get back and can drive it.

I guess the bottom line is that the MK3 FF isn't particularly good, or bad, in the snow but if you have to rock it the DCT doesn't seem well suited to doing that...


Brian

Quoting myself from the OP...

Well I got back home after a 2 week trip to NY and there doesn't appear to be any damage to the clutch from the parking issue -- car shifts smooth with no shudder just as is always has.

I also brought the car into the dealer on Saturday to have the MFT w/NAV update applied and after futzing with the phone pairing all seems to be well there as well. I did have some initial problems with phone pairing or, more accurately, staying paired -- for whatever reason it would pair/connect then disconnect after a few minutes. I did a master reset and that seems to have fixed things.

I've played a bit with the NAV system and although I've only played a bit it does seem better...


Brian