[Vwdiesel] Grumpy starting

[William J Toensing]

I wouldn't waste time putting a heating pad under a battery. Instead, put a battery charger or trickle charger on the battery. This way the battery temperature is raised to around +70F &battery will be fully charged. Haven't owned a TDI although I would like to. If there are no accessible frost plugs, why not splice the lower radiator hose & install one there? Some of the Canadian & Alaska members should be able to find out what sort of engine heaters they use on TDIs. 
As to frost plugs, they are really there to clean the sand out of the block after it was cast, not as a protection against freezing. One pet peeve I have is that manufacturers use steel rather than brass. The steel will rust out but the brass plugs won't. Steel is used because it is cheaper. False economy, in my opinion. Had one of those front plugs rust out on my wife's Taurus. The plug was located in the behind the bell housing so the transmission has to be removed. Was over my head & expensive to have a professional remove it. Told him to remove every steel OEM frost plug & replace them with brass or bronze frost plugs. 
Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA