The Winter 128i/135iCAB for Canadians

[wtiger127]

The Winter 128i/135iCAB for Canadians

I never had the luxury of driving a convertible car. Certainly, never thought I would end up getting a BMW 1 Series or even think of driving a convertible during the winter months.

I am in the process of all of the above.

I decided to put a collection of my most recent activities to share with others and help out with experiences.

Windows with ICE/SNOW
Owning a convertible of any kind, you will evidently as yourself why the windows roll down when you pull the doors open. A silly question, but it does happen so that the window can drop below the roof liner groove and freely open.

So what do you do with ice/snow build up.

To prevent ice/snow from sitting on my driver seat, I carry a 'dollard' store ice scrapper which I use to remove any ice/snow from my driver side door prior to getting in. Once in the car, I pull out the bigger brush and ice/scraper from the back seat, turn on the car to warm it up and proceed to remove the rest of the ice/snow from the car.

Note: If you have the 'comfort' package, stay away from the door handles as you may accidentally pull them and unlock the car making the windows go down before you clean and enter the car. has happen to me in early mornings under so called 'autopilot mode'.


The Floor Runners
I came up with the idea of custom cutting plastic 'Carpet Floor Runners' to lay on top of the car's beige carpet. The idea was to create a type of floor liner that would catch any snow, salt of water that ofter drips out to the side of winter mats. The entire cost for this setup was about 12$ CDN and a little bit of patience and time.

Rubber Mat
I found the standard BMW rubber mats to be a little on the 'thin' side to be a true winter mat. Especially when looking at the driver side steep floor and the angel in which the mat would sit, possibly collecting a small lake of water near the gas pedal from going in and out of the car and the heater melting the snow.

So instead, I decided to purchased a set of "Extreme All Season Performance" winter weather mats from Michelin which proved to be a much better choice. I just had to cut a small piece of the driver side mat in order to make it fit up against the gas pedal. The cost of these mats were a little steep at nearly 90$ CDN in the month of September. Today, the set was on sale at around 60$ CDN with tax.

Dry/Wet Vacuum
Finally, since the Floor Runners and the winter weather mats fit so perfectly together, I decided that a wet/dry hand vacuum was ideal for picking up the salt and water off of the mats on snow or slush days which I am in and out of the car. This will help in short term, however, at some point I will need to pull them out completely to wash of the mud or dirt. The vacuum is the 'ViBE' model. Cost was 75$ CDN, but the price when down to 50 and I managed to get the refund of 25$ plus tax.

The Winter Tires
I picked up a nice set of 4 winter tires and rims from 'tirerack'. I ended up getting the KM11 and Blizzack LM25 Tires, which are design as a 5 thin spoke rim in a dark grey color. This is especially nice to have as you know the standard OEM rims pick up alot of brake dust you constantly end up cleaning up. With these dark rims, you have more time to clean them or leave them as is since they are winter rims no one really bothers. These ones were a little expensive at $2020 CDN. (As the CDN dollar is today)

Winter Rim Care
I started using a spray called 'Spray nine', which really works wonders with the brake dust. I usually put gas first, spray the wheels with this 'Spray nine' and by the time I pull into the car wash, the brake dust starts to drop off with the chemicals. A little water and the entire wheel clears off itself. All that is left is to dry it a little. The spray is about 10$ CDN

Washing the Car
I found a drive in car wash on Steeles & Yonge Esso gas station which allow you to drive into a building and actually wash your car under a heated environment. The cost is 0.70 CDN a minute. So it is not cheap, but you end up paying almost as much as an automatic car wash.

I started to spray my rims, drive into the drive in car wash, do the wheels quickly and drive back out into the opposite site of the gas station and enter the automatic car wash 'no touch' to finish off the car. I then attempt to dry the car quickly and I do this during a lunch hour while not a lot of people are their and the sun provides a little warm as to not have to do this in the minus temperatures.

Drying the Car
Well it doesn't really mater which 'no touch' you use. You will find that these operate with chemical soap which supposed to lift the dirt away. Of course, that is not always the case. So you will find yourself drying the car by hand afterwards and seeing how much dirt your microfiber cloth picks up. I use a 'white' set for the outside of the car so i can see the dirt left overs and I use a light blue for the inner doors, hood and truck linings, since those tend to have more grease and oil sometimes. Microfiber cloths are about 7 to 10$ for set of 4.

The Windows
For the windows I use a set of 'green' cloths for both inside and outside the car. in addition, I spray the windows with a Windex like chemical on the outside and spray the cloth directly when doing the inside windows in order to not get the trim or leader contaminated with this chemical. Again, the microfiber cloth is about 7-10$ and Windex is around 10$ for the bottle. Sometimes, I also spray the headlights with it. seams to work well.

The Interior
For the dash, trim and door panels, I use a dry microfiber cloth with NO chemicals to avoid any problems. I think as the vehicle gets older their may be a need to start using such chemicals. For now, these cloths pick up all the dirt.

The Leather Seats
At the moment I haven't really done anything with the leather other than a dry microfiber cloth. However, during the spring, I will be purchasing a bottle of leather care with UV protection. This is important to do in hot weather since the treatment chemicals react to heat. It maybe useful to turn the heater all the way up and the heated seats, but may not be enough during the winter months. Another article suggested doing this treatment because it cuts down on static as you enter and exit the car.

A final note
All the products mention are readily available at any Canadian Tire store.
The tires were from tirerack.com.
As per the automatic car wash, it is a no-touch system.

I will do my best to update this post as I get feedback or new experiences.

Jose

[1HungryMan]

Wow, nice job. I've bookmarked the mats at CDN Tire, even though I bought the BMW mats:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...=1227699633189

Thanks for your tips!

[jps]

Week 8 and still no car

Anyway...
I didn't notice how the windows go down and up upon entering the car until the second test drive, but I immediately thought in my head...how the heck does this work in the winter? Then I thought, well, they get snow in Germany, they must know what they're doing :iono:

I like the vacumm tip.
Thanks

[jmexx]

Good write-up.

I'm really not a fan of your mat setup, I would prefer cleaning the carpet then having something like that in a BMW... But to each his own.

[bimmerfile]

While I don't drive my vert in the winter, I appreciate the write-up and info - particularly about the wheel cleaning and "spray nine" - I'm gonna give that a try as I hate brake dust.

[EspressoBoy]

wtiger127, thanks a lot! Great post. I picked up the Michelin HD902 at Costco for I think $37 or $39. I have yet to cut them. After seeing your pictures I will make sure these will work as well as yours. This package came with a small ice scraper too. They look almost the same as yours; designed to custom cut to fit.

Thanks for the carwash location too.

I do not have a garage, but I have a coupe. I picked up a car cover at Princess Auto for $25 on sale and fits nice. I was thinking of using it for those nights where it's supposed to get an ice storm or blizzard. Then I don't have to cut the ice off with a blow torch! (kidding)

Oh was talking to shiccobm and he told me his friend does a very similar thing with the plastic, but he goes 1 more step and undoes the carpet, around the plastic, and folds the sheet over the edge and staples it for the winter. Not a bad idea, and completely covers the carpet! I don't know if I would do that, but still not a bad idea. I would like to see a good DIY on that!

EspressoBoy

PS
One of us should start a google map on carwash for winters around GTA. Make a nice pullup for your iphone when you are around town and need that wash! Any takers? I plan to use my driveway...with hot water lol...

[Qube]

Neat post. Be careful of Spray Nine slowly eating away at the clear coat on the wheels.

You need to wash more often in a vert as the salt is bad for the soft top. One reason why I'm only driving on dry days.

Is that moisture in your fog lights?

Maybe I'll drop $1200 and get winter tires... if the winter ever gets "fun"...