heated parking in the area?

[kazbotch.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know of a short-term heated parking garage in the Davis-ish area? I've searched online and can't seem to find much information. I don't mind paying.

My last "full service, fill all fluids" oil change seems to have resulted in non-winter windshield washer fluid being put into my car (in early December, which is a bit silly). It's seemingly frozen solid, or at least the hose is frozen, so I hope that thawing it out will help so I can empty the tank and refill it with the proper winter solution. (Warming up my car and driving for over an hour didn't help!)

All I can think of is the Alewife garage, which is above ground and open-air, and the Cambridgeside Galleria, which has no information listed online about whether it is heated or not. I don't use parking garages near home often enough to know of other possibilities...

Comments

[ron_newman]

I don't know if they are actually heated, but Harvard Square has the University Park garage, the Charles Hotel garage, and the garage above the Dunkin Donuts on Eliot Street.

Edit: also under the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library?

[kazbotch.livejournal.com]

Perfect. T-accessible is ideal. I can get my car somewhere, but I'd also need to get home!

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Maybe try a hair dryer?

[kazbotch.livejournal.com]

I may try that if I find parking directly in front of my house and use an outdoor extension cord...

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

The Galleria garage is all underground. I don't think it's technically heated, but it is usually warmer than outside, at least. Might be worth a try, or a call to check?

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

I think you are going to be better off finding a friend with a garage that you can put a space heater in (or rig an exhaust line to just run the car in their garage).

Alternatively, pick an underground garage (and the Boston Common garage is fairly cheap on weekends) and try that.

[kazbotch.livejournal.com]

I have a coworker that offered to help me out tomorrow. If I can't fix it tonight, I'll drive to her house and park in her garage during the work day.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I agree with paradox: find a friend with a small garage and put in a space heater. Alternately, find a repair shop and ask if you can put your car in there overnight to unfreeze the hose/reservoir. If it freezes solid, it's likely there's a crack somewhere (those parts are normally plastic) so your problem at this point might not be "it's frozen" but "it's empty" because all the fluid has leaked out through the crack. If that's the case, the shop that put in non-freezable fluid should fix it for your for free because they caused the damage to occur.

[kazbotch.livejournal.com]

I don't think the damage is more than being frozen, but thanks for the suggestions. If thawing doesn't work, I'm definitely going back to the drive-in oil change shop that I went to. Unfortunately, when I Googled "frozen washer fluid", I saw a comment about how the same chain used non-winter washer fluid late in the fall for another person...I assume that's the same problem I'm having.

Maybe someone can just adjust this weather for me (us all!) so it's not so frigid? ;)

[ron_newman]

Can you tell us what shop made this mistake, so we can all be sure to avoid it in the future?

[kazbotch.livejournal.com]

Jiffy Lube in Watertown- I drive through that area on my way to and from work. They are usually GREAT and I would recommend them for fast, affordable service for simple work, but I have a feeling that they hadn't switched their fluids over to the winter wiper fluid when I was there last month. I haven't filled my fluid since then and it was probably close to empty when they filled it, so it's the only guess I had as to why it froze. I don't blame them, though, I blame this weather! :)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

This used to happen to me sometimes, when I owned a different car many years ago. One thing I found was that simply driving the car around, getting the engine warmed up, and then parking, was often enough for the radiant heat from the engine to melt the frozen washer fluid. Typically the tank doesn't freeze until it's a solid block of ice, at least not right away; it's the stuff in the pump, in the tubing, and in the nozzles that freezes first, and is also the easiest to thaw with radiant engine heat.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

This happened to my brother. He had his car serviced in California then moved to Vermont in January. The Windshield fluid froze somewhere in Nebraska and did not thaw until Spring. He didn't need the car all that much, so he didn't bother trying to fix it.