[Nu 3 in Sin City]

Even after 6 months of owning our 330, we are still surprised on occassion of certain technological features that the car has.

This morning was the coolest morning for some time here in Las Vegas. As my wife pulled out of our driveway, an audible tone was heard and she noticed a symbol that looked like a snowflake on the center of the Instrument Panel next to a Temperature reading of 37 Degrees Farenheit. I'm assuming the car tells you when the exterior temperature drops below a certain level?

This is just something I wanted to mention, which I think adds to the "cool factor" of the car. This car still facinates me and makes every drive enjoyable and memorable, deserving the title "Ultimate Driving Machine".

[krndanic307]

WOW! 37F degrees in LV? wth this is the first time I hearing LV went below 70's =S

[Nu 3 in Sin City]

Believe it or not, it felt a bit chilly this morning, but it got back up to around 64 this afternoon. We recently had a cold front come through with some cool winds. But the weekend looks good as we will be back in the 70 degree range. Nice weather for a weekend drive. One more thing I forgot to mention, we tried out the seat warmers for the first tiem last night....Wow!....they get warm really quick. I figure BMW has that kind of stuff down pretty good since it's a German engineered car in a country that has seen many cold winters.

[tima]

With an outside temperature reading of 93 degrees Farenheit you will see a melting popsicle icon.

[e30klassic]

37 = Freezing temp. and watchout for black ice.

[xsb00st]

freezing point temp = 32F

[connermd]

I think e30klassic's point was that the water on the road can freeze at 37'F and below (even thought water freezes at 32'F). I'll bet someone here can explain the exact scientific reasons for this

[ON325i]

it reached +3 here in TO today, and the snow flake icon pops up.... more chime! haha

[JamieA]

Originally Posted by connermd

I think e30klassic's point was that the water on the road can freeze at 37'F and below (even thought water freezes at 32'F). I'll bet someone here can explain the exact scientific reasons for this

Short answer is that there are many reasons:

1. Equipment tolerances: The temp sensor on the car only measures the ambient temperature of the air, not the temperatures on the road. The gauge can also be out by a few degrees. This is one good reason why the black ice warning comes up before (0 deg c, or 32F).

2. Physical reasons: Wind chill factor is an issue - a breeze is colder than static air because the moving air chills the water as it moves over it. The ground being denser than the air, and having a much greater thermal resistance, can be much colder than the ambient air temp, and therefore cause ice to form. Ground temp could easily be below freezing which the ambient air could be above freezing, especially in the morning.

3. Chemical reasons: 32F is the freezing point of PURE water, and any number of contaminants in the chemical frappe on the road surface could alter the freezing point - up or down.

The A4's black ice warning snowflake came on at about 5C or 41F. I always liked the cool factor of seeing it and can't wait to see the BMW version...

[HughH]

The ice warning does not alter the fact that surface ice can form at temperatures above 37.5F/+3C, on bridges or shaded road surfaces, for instance.
E46 Owner's Manual, p84.

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by e30klassic

37 = Freezing temp. and watchout for black ice.

Bingo !!! My E46 beeps @ 37 degrees.

[LEDZEP]

I've modded mine with blow dryers in front of the front tires. When the snowflake sensor comes on, the blow dryers fire up and thaw the road in front of me.

[shuzmaker]

Greeted by the sound of "Ding" this morning along with the snow flake icon and 37F reading.

Than pushed the Tush Warmer and off I went.

[- Paul -]

dinging in the uk too.

[Yangster]

I've only had my E90 for four days and my snowflake warning went off for the first time this morning. It scared the Hell out of me -- I saw the exclamation point icon light up and thought, "Oh sh*t! There's something wrong!", but then I remembered reading about the sensor in the manual. Phew!

[Nemis]

* DING!!!

= it's time to buy 4 winter's wheels

[itznin]

Okay apparently I'm the only one.......

This stupid DING is annoying!

[RedStripe]

Exact same thing happened to me late last night as I was driving home, "a snowflake on the center of the Instrument Panel next to a Temperature reading of 37 Degrees Farenheit". In Dallas.

The Ding also scared me.

Originally Posted by Nu 3 in Sin City

Even after 6 months of owning our 330, we are still surprised on occassion of certain technological features that the car has.

This morning was the coolest morning for some time here in Las Vegas. As my wife pulled out of our driveway, an audible tone was heard and she noticed a symbol that looked like a snowflake on the center of the Instrument Panel next to a Temperature reading of 37 Degrees Farenheit. I'm assuming the car tells you when the exterior temperature drops below a certain level?

This is just something I wanted to mention, which I think adds to the "cool factor" of the car. This car still facinates me and makes every drive enjoyable and memorable, deserving the title "Ultimate Driving Machine".

[bbq]

Originally Posted by JamieA

2. Physical reasons: Wind chill factor is an issue - a breeze is colder than static air because the moving air chills the water as it moves over it.

A breeze cannot 'chill' the water any lower than the ambient temperature since wind chill factor only affect things that produce heat (i.e. human, animal, etc). A breeze only *feel* colder to a human due to the more rapid heat loss.

If a breeze could chill the water to a lower temperature, it would chill the temperature senor in the same manner so there wouldn't be a need for the extra margin......

[lux.sh]

so the snow-flake indicator is the vehicle just telling you that its @ freeze point/cold condition right?

It came on several times here already, and I was scared. I thought the vehicle was telling the motor is freezing or something. hahaha
I was going to ask, but glad someone else did first.

[Hompie]

Actually it indicates when you allmost reach freezing temparature, it will do it again at freezing temperature. Reason is for example you start in the morning, could have been freezing at night, and still icy / slippery

When i drive through germany and the temp goes up and down in pings every time. Have it on my passat, a think all german cars have it, when they have the pc and outside temp measurer

[Saosin17]

water at 32 degrees fahrenheit will become a solid ice... for a surface of any body of water noamtter what size (puddle) the surface temp of that body needs to only be 37 degrees to begin the process from liquid to solid