Each year most of us are faced with the chilling conditions of a very cold winter, digging deep into our closet and bringing out those winter coats. The thing about winter is…your car gets cold too. The power steering rack or power steering gearbox get cold and fluid is harder to pump. In many ways your car is just like you, it breaths, it eats, and it feels cold.
A car may not shiver when the temp but it has other signs that make it obvious when it is not ready for the low temperatures. Winter readying a vehicle may take a few min but it can reward you with not being stuck on the side of the road. To get a vehicle ready for winter there are a few simple steps to follow.
The first step is to make sure that your car has the correct amount of coolant, while this may seem strange coolant or “anit-freeze” has a lower freezing point than water. This means that even when it is freezing outside the car can still move the belt driven water pump and thus it will start. Next check the tires of your car, while winter or “snow” tires are good it is just a good idea to make sure you have a good amount of tread on your tires. Shallow tread depth means no traction in snow and even less on ice.
More modern cars have many underbody pieces that are added to the underside of a car to give it more of an aerodynamic shape in the air but if any of them are lose and hanging they become a catch for any snow on the road. To keep this from happening just use a zip tie and get the piece back where it is supposed to be. Make sure to check the wipers on your vehicle as well, if there are cracked or brittle they cannot provide the visibility needed during extreme weather.
Make sure to have a winter survival kit in the car. This can literally save your life if the roads get packed with snow or ice and travel is impossible. You never know where you will be when bad weather strikes so be ready. A weather kit should have a warm blanket, flares, gravel (for traction), jack, spare tire, fix a flat, and flash light. Being stuck on ice and no way to get out till the morning can be a bad situation so be ready and plan for the worst. Plan for the worst and get the best result, we all hope we never have to use these things but it is nice to know we are ready in the case of bad weather.
