-30....washed my car

Yup...I'm a moron., Living in such cold climate....I'm used to washing my cars in sub zero temps. I normally wait until it's -10 or -15....but yesterday...for some unknown reason, I decided to wash my car during the gap I had between two shoots. I should mention that our wash bays are completely indoors and heated. You typically wash, vacuum and "dry" all inside. So I get to my second shoot and about an hour or so later come back to my car and interior is completely frosted over. Warm her up, run the defrost and then drive away. I immediately notice the PSM is going a bit crazier than normal. It just snowed and it's a little slippery, but it's pumping away like crazy. About 200 feet down the road the PSM is still having an epileptic fit when I get the ABS OFF - drive to shop warning. Followed immediately by the PSM OFF - Drive to shop. Hm, that's a little disconcerting. The car is pulling to the left and my steering goes heavy and the car doesn't want to turn. It feels like I have a flat. Pull over and check. Nope. All the tires are good. (wearing Pirelli Wintersports btw) Drive 5 kms back to the office. When I get into the parking lot (read: sub 15 kph) the steering is completely dead....get to my space and some guy comes over to the car and tells me "you know your front left tire isn't moving at all?" Lovely. I should also mention the parking lots here are compressed snow...they never get cleared down to pavement until March. Soooooo, quick call to Porsche and they say they will flatbed the car to the nearest dealer (550 Kms away)....but only after I put the car in a heated garage overnight to make sure I didn't just freeze something up. I don't have a garage. Brilliant. So I'm asking for favours from the pipefitters next door to see if they'll let me park the car in their receiving bay for the day. At first he's completely sidestepping me and telling me they might be getting some shipments in and there would be no one to keep an eye on the car...etc. He asks me about my car and I'm impressing him with my idiocy when I do the unthinkable. I name drop Porsche. "OH, you drive that Porsche....yeah sure, park it in there. Wait till I tell all the guys about this." So now Veronica is parked in the heated drive bay...and a bunch of overweight coveralled men repeatedly ask me why I would drive a Porsche in the winter. This is my Friday. Hopefully, she isn't broken, just froze up....5 or 6 hours should tell. Feel free to laugh at my misfortune. I deserve it.

pics !! You need ONR or Griot's waterless carwash

I bet you'll be fine after a few hours of heat and few messages like "you did wha.." from the forum. probably want to have the dealership look it over once it dries (sorry "Veronica" dries)

Last year after a very heavy snow, car had been sitting in the work parking lot all day. Drove out and the same exact symptoms were happening to me. The right front wheel had frozen to the caliper. ABS and PSM lights were lit. The wheel broke free (sounded awful when it did, I was afraid to look at it) but the lites remained. A nite in a somewhat heated garage cured it all. Ice had messed with the ABS / PSM sensors and it was fooling the car's computer in believing something was wrong when it wasn't. I'm sure it will be the same for you. Least I hope so..

I'll just laugh. My story involves a crappy minivan parked for too long with rusted calipers/rotors, a sledgehammer, and about a quarter mile of loud driving.

Hope all thaws out... and while I certainly admire your pluck, have you considered a perhaps more appropriate daily driver?

What's wrong with a C4S as a daily driver?

This is exactly why I don't drive mine in the winter! Due to all the BS that could happen, I decide to keep it indoors and let it relax for a few months. Not only that, I don't know how I could possibly drive the car with my big boots!... God, i'm picky about wearing bigger shoes or shoes with hard soles, imagine with boots. I could just see it, "ahh damn I messed up with that shift.... Ahhh DAMN I messed up even more with that one..." But all in all.... I don't think you have any problems at all. It will be fine once it dries up and melts!

Must say....I read that ^^^^^ with a Canadian accent and it all made sense.

LOL @ David!

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Not as loud as if you had seen it in person. All 4 wheels were locked, but I couldn't free up one rear wheel on the FWD POS. Spraying every lube I had, swinging the sledge like Paul Bunyon. Oh, I wish I had it on tape. Finally I just put it in Drive and looked for bumps. That tire was screaming the whole way. I can fix anything!

GOOD NEWS! 3 hours in the warmth was all she needed...PHEW. Took her for a short drive and everything is back to normal. Hopefully I won;t be an idiot again for at least 6 months.

Good for you, would hate to see the flatbed cost from FT Mc all the way to the dealership.......

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After every wash always use the brakes enough to get them hot enough to dry the brakes of any moisture from the washing. Do this *before* you park the car! The trouble is I found when I lived in an area where it was cold when I'd bring the car in the garage -- unheated -- the heat from the running gear would melt the snow/ice that had accumulated in the wheel wells and this melt water would drip down on the tire/wheels/ and brake hardware and then freeze. Fortunately there was enough friction on the garage floor to break this icy embrace. But as soon as I got the car out on the road I'd ride the brake pedal long enough to heat the brakes and dry them out. Most of the time it was so cold that if I parked the car outside there would not be enough heat to cause this melting/freezing action. Oh, another thing. Be careful when leaving the wash bay. I left one after washing my car -- in below freezing temp -- and forgot about all the other cars and the water they dripped on the driveway. When I went to stop the car at the exit to the surface street the brakes locked up and it was only due to the superior Porsche ABS system (and a bit of luck) I got the car stopped before it would have slid out in front of a pickup truck. Heart in my mouth moment though until the car stopped. Sincerely, Macster.

-30f, or -30c? Either way, yikes that's cold! Good to know the tires still work at those fridgid temps! Here's me washing my former 944 in the winter - what was I thinking?

This is what you call dedication.

Glad everything thawed out for you.

The guys next door get a pizza

Goon on ya for posting about your misfortune it serves as a bit of a heads up about the potential issues. Glad it all worked out in the end of course. I'm not sure if I'm imagining it or not (and it might just be my pads) but the 996 does seem to be way more slippery in the brakes department after a wash compared to other cars I've had. So these days I do go for a short drive after washing the car and ride the pedal a bit to dry the brakes out and also to throw all the rusty crap out of the rotors and then I clean the wheels.