10 Tips to winterize your car for winter
Winter is not too far! It is very crucial to get prepared for snow, sleet and heavy ice-covered roads. If you’re planning for any vacation, obviously you would not like to experience any car breakdowns like no-starts, frozen doors and windows, engine freezing up, and accidents.
QCCollision – Auto body shop in Surrey has come up with the checklist to winterize your car. So before it’s too late, spend some time to prepare your car for winter to avoid any unexpected breakdowns or accidents.
- Change the oil and its filters: Change the oil frequently to prevent the overheating of your car engines, build-up of grime, lowers the risk of engine failure and improves the fuel efficiency.
During winters, make sure to use synthetic oil as this will not become thick in low temperature when compared to traditional oil.
- Get a tune-up: When the temperature drops off, there is a possibility that the older existing issues in your vehicle such as slow performance, hard starts and idling issues.
- Check your car brakes: Brake is one of the important checklists to care in winters. You must test the car brakes before it’s too late. Make sure to check it more often especially when you have planned a long trip.
Reach out your auto body shop repair shop and let them check all the brakes including emergency ones.
- Change the fluids: There are almost six fluids in the car such as coolant, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, washer fluid, brake system fluid, and suspension differential fluid.
Take an advice from your mechanic to change the transmission oil as they would guide you checking the age and wear of your car and let you know if change of oil is required or not. Most important is to keep the windshield reservoir full, carry an extra bottle of cold-weather washer fluid which has anti-freezing components in it.
- Check the heater and defroster: Check the heater and defroster of your car frequently especially in winter. Don’t wait for the time to get in trouble by checking it only if are in need of it. Make sure to check at least before you start the trip.
- Check your battery: Winter can be quite harsh on batteries due to the drop in temperature. As the temperature decreases, the battery stops giving expected amount of output and engine oil becomes thick. This will make the car engine even harder to start over.
Hence, one must check the battery and charging system without fail to get the optimum performance.
- Replace the wiper blades: Generally wiper blades must be replaced for every 6 months. Wiper blades must clean your windshield glass such that there are no patches or streaks left out on the glass. If yours do not clean up well then it’s the right time to replace it.
- Check your headlights: As in winter you get more time to ride in the dark, headlights should be perfect. Therefore it is very important to check all the headlights, taillights, brake lights, turn lights, emergency flashers, and back-up lights. Replace them if required.
- Check your tires: Switch your summer tires to snow tires to get the best traction in winter. These tires will give the best performance even on heavy snow and frosty temperature on dry roads too.
- Make sure your gas tank is full: In winters we can never predict when there could be a sudden snowfall and it might stretch your commute to hours on the road. To be in a safer side, it is better to keep your gas at least half-filled every time you travel as it would reduce the moisture formation in the gas lined and freeze them.
Bonus Tips
Make sure to carry winter kit. Often we come across some unexpected situations like storm or stranded for a few hours that could slide off the icy roads into a secluded area.
Read the infographic below.
