Preparing Your Vehicle for Winter Weather

Preparing your car for winter weather should be done in the fall, before the winter weather hits your area. There are several things that you should do to your car for the cold weather. Doing the maintenance on the vehicle before it's needed will save you money, and may keep your vehicle from breaking down unexpectedly when you are least prepared for it.

Prepare you car by doing several things at the beginning of the season. The first thing is to check your car tires to ensure that the tires are properly inflated for the best traction. If your area get heavy snow more than a few times a year you may want to consider getting snow tires, or tire chains. Checking your lights to make sure that they are all in proper working condition is another task that you will need to do. Since there isn't much daylight hours in Winter, you need to have all the lights working for your safety.

In really cold climates you may need to change the weight of your oil. You can find tips for your type of car in the owners manual for your vehicle. Also needing changed will be the car radiation's. Antifreeze needs to be added to the vehicle in the winter to prevent plain water from freezing in the radiation and causing damage as well as a major repair bill.

It is extremely important to check the windshield fluid, for the winter months, you want to buy the fluid that is made for winter. If you use plain water in the fluid reservoir it will freeze, and not only could crack the reservoir, but will be useless to you if you need to clean off your windshield. Also check your windshield wipers. If your wipers leave streaks or appear to be worn now would be a good time to replace them. Test the fluid once you add it in the reservoir to make sure that your wipers will leave a clean clear view. .

Checking your battery at a shop is a great ideal. Since it works harder to start your car in colder weather, you want to be sure that your battery is up to the task. Make sure that your belts and hoses are not worn, or needed replaced.