Winter settings recommendations

[fourevah]

With mercury finally finding the 0, I wonder what folks with winter experiences behind them recommend for the coming winter with the MG4?

I keep intelligent battery heating off by default. Should it be turned on? For how long?
Is pre-heat worth it? Can it be scheduled?
What's the cold-tyre pressure to aim for?
Any specific settings to deal with icing on roads or a light dusting of snow?
Any other tips or tricks to make the experiences pleasant?

Thanks!

 

[502BBC]

Driving on snow, the condition and performance of your winter tires will change everything I'm sure you're aware.

Keep int. battery heating off unless your are going to DC Fast charge your car in next hour or so.
I have no experience with pre-heat as I don't have the mobile app.

You should pressure your tires to spec after an hour drive so they are up to temp and you get correct reading. I wouldn't recommend going lower pressures unless you are deep in powder snow.

Strongly recommend regen lowest mode as I've seen on many ev's it tends to mess with the balance of the vehicle, you have to be a lot careful with throttle pedal. When you let go of the gas pedal car will try to regen immediately but if there is a slip detected by ESP it will in a split second let go of regen braking but that simply is too much interferance for the driver to comprehend and act accordingly IMHO.

I personally would turn lane assist off so I don't take any risk of car throwing me off the lane, on my SE SR it is seriously violent and sometimes all it takes is a disturbance in balance for a disaster in a rwd car in severe weather conditions. This might just be my car as it is on the first software version from 2022

Best of luck!

EDIT: I was wrong and tyre pressures should be measured cold! This explains why all the TPMS sensors going off in my car

 

[JonnyG]

ETTO really on what heating / pre-heating to use etc. Personally I like to take advantage of all the comforts on offer including preheating the cabin using the app.

I do also use the Intelligent Battery Heating when it gets to around 0-5c.

If you have home charging and a cheap EV tariff, spending a few kwh on heating is fine with me unless I need to really maximise range (which is rare).

After the endless posts of tyre pressure warnings last year, I pump my tyres up to 2.7bar when cold (air temp around 2c-6c), but that suits the Xpower well so you may want a tad lower. It's worth doing now on a cold morning to avoid warning messages IMHO.

For icy / snowy roads you have a SNOW driving mode you can use

Other tips I can think of for now :-

• Keep the charging port area as dry as you can
• Clear any snow from the front grill (flap area)
• Keep the windscreen clean (for the camera to function as it should)

Enjoy driving over Winter

 

[dave99]

You should pressure your tires to spec after an hour drive so they are up to temp and you get correct reading. I wouldn't recommend going lower pressures unless you are deep in powder snow.

I don't know for certain, but I thought the specified tyre pressures were when cold?

 

[siteguru]

I don't know for certain, but I thought the specified tyre pressures were when cold?

You are correct - that is the standard advice.

 

[Ian Key]

You should pressure your tires to spec after an hour drive so they are up to temp and you get correct reading. I wouldn't recommend going lower pressures unless you are deep in powder snow.

Page 324 of the owner's manual specifies that the tyre pressures given are for cold tyres

 

[APMG]

I recommend 2.7 bar just because in cold they tend to drop a lot and you'll be spammed with the annoying "The X tyre pressure is low" even if its showing as 2.4/2.5

 

[fourevah]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I don't think our nook of UK gets any snow. Just icy road conditions due to freezing conditions, so I don't plan on having winter tyres. I haven't considered the Snow mode, maybe will test it out when "Icy conditions" alert is triggered.

For tyres, it's interesting that people have seen issues with low pressure warnings. Mine goes all the way to 2.2 bar early morning and warns up to 2.5 without any alerts. It's been about two months of ownership (barely 1K miles in the meantime) but may be worth pumping in some air and top it all up to 2.5bar in the morning. I always thought "cold tyre" meant not after a drive, but room-temperature (20C) weather conditions.

I recommend 2.7 bar just because in cold they tend to drop a lot and you'll be spammed with the annoying "The X tyre pressure is low" even if its showing as 2.4/2.5

This was the funny part of our first experience with the Trophy. The fine folks at the MG dealership brought out the car for a test drive. We drive out to the main road and the TPMS triggers. We found our way back to them and they are like, "back so early?". and when I pointed out the TPMS, they went, "Ah yes, don't worry about that. It is something of a nothingburger". Not the best first experience with the dealership (we walked into the showroom and it was unlocked but empty). Apparently they were prioritising the Honda part of their operation, across the road, which was manned. Fortunately, we just needed a test drive to get the basic feel.

 

[APMG]

The sensors unfortunately seem to be made out of cheap chinese crap and I am pretty sure they're wildly incorrect.

When I pulled via the API the alert seems to sound if they go under 2.44 Bar, the displays round this so only ever so 2.44 or if its 2.46 it goes to 2.5 on screen.

So to avoid this, one I turned of the sound alert so the moaning murtle doesn't complain when I got in my car and then drove to an EV forecourt of which has free air and pumped those suckers to 2.7 I still do see them on a cold morning go to 2.5 but if any warnings it usually buggers off quickly.

 

[MGFour]

You are correct - that is the standard advice.

Yes agree recommended tyre pressure is for cold tyres.
Another thing to note regarding winter driving is to add more pressure, wouldn't say above the MAX recommended but this helps to open up the tread, also helps heat get into the tyre and is better to scrape away top layer of any slippy stuff to the grippier underneath. Octopus used to carry out online workshops/training on different subjects and one was winter driving, may be worth seeing if still available as I found it very useful and took the above info from that which was the opposite of what I previously thought.

 

[Rolfe]

I thought I'd inflated mine to 2.8 bar going by the gauge on my foot pump, but when I looked at the car they were all reading 2.7. Anyway, I haven't had any more warning pings since doing that.