Once again Winter is rapidly approaching. Now is the time to give your car a good going over and think about possible emergency situations you may be forced to deal with during the next six months. Mother Nature has a habit of catching us when we're the least prepared. During the winter months, especially in the northern states where temps can easily drop to -30 degrees below zero being prepared can easily be the difference between life and death.
Your first priority is a good mechanical inspection of your car. Make sure all servicing is current, if you change your own oil it's a whole lot more comfortable to do it now, rather then when there's a foot of snow on the ground. Make sure you fill your engine with the lightest grade oil recommended by the manufacturer, most often this will be 5w-30w. Inspect all belts under the hood, check for cracks or shredding, if you see any damage at all its time to replace them. How old is your battery? Has it been run low on water, needed a recharge recently, over four years old, any of those scenarios would indicate its time to buy a new one.
Check all fluid levels, make sure the windshield washer is filled with fluid rated not to freeze in your area. Test the antifreeze to see how cold your engine is protected to. Run the engine up to operating temperature, does the heater produce good heat for the passenger compartment, if not you might need a new thermostat in the cooling system.
Windshield, inspect it for rock chips. If not taken care of they will probably take off into a nice crack with temperature variations. Chips can be filled using a kit from your local big box store with a visit to their auto section. Less then $5 will take care of it. If you prefer you can go to anyplace that replaces windshields and they can do it for about $35, which ever is to your liking. While your at it install new wiper blades. They get hard over the summer from the heat so they won't do a good job with snow and ice.
Your first priority is a good mechanical inspection of your car. Make sure all servicing is current, if you change your own oil it's a whole lot more comfortable to do it now, rather then when there's a foot of snow on the ground. Make sure you fill your engine with the lightest grade oil recommended by the manufacturer, most often this will be 5w-30w. Inspect all belts under the hood, check for cracks or shredding, if you see any damage at all its time to replace them. How old is your battery? Has it been run low on water, needed a recharge recently, over four years old, any of those scenarios would indicate its time to buy a new one.
Check all fluid levels, make sure the windshield washer is filled with fluid rated not to freeze in your area. Test the antifreeze to see how cold your engine is protected to. Run the engine up to operating temperature, does the heater produce good heat for the passenger compartment, if not you might need a new thermostat in the cooling system.
Windshield, inspect it for rock chips. If not taken care of they will probably take off into a nice crack with temperature variations. Chips can be filled using a kit from your local big box store with a visit to their auto section. Less then $5 will take care of it. If you prefer you can go to anyplace that replaces windshields and they can do it for about $35, which ever is to your liking. While your at it install new wiper blades. They get hard over the summer from the heat so they won't do a good job with snow and ice.
- Winter Survival
Comments
Thanks for sharing
Welcome to AC, Curtis! This is a very useful article. Before we know it winter will be here and the colder states will have to brace themselves for possible car trouble.
Sophie
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