Winter Care Tips For All Cars

The cold weather affects your car too. Along with making driving more hazardous due to ice and snow, extreme winter weather can be stressful, especially on older cars.

As winter approaches take you car to your trusty mechanic and have him check the following items: battery, wipers, antifreeze levels, heating system, brakes, defroster.

You'll want to make sure your battery is fully charged as cold weather starting is a heavy drain on your battery. You'll want to make sure that your windshield wipers are in good condition as they'll get a lot of use brushing snow off, and, make sure you have plenty of windshield washer fluid in the reservoir and carry an extra gallon in your car. Your windshield washer fluid will get used up quickly keeping salt off the windshield. You will want to make sure that your antifreeze is at proper levels.

Antifreeze can prevent freezing of your engine to about 30 degrees below zero. It should be replaced every two years. Have your heating system checked, this will include your defroster, which you'll really need during the winter.

The cold weather affects your car too. Along with making driving more hazardous due to ice and snow, extreme winter weather can be stressful, especially on older cars.

As winter approaches take you car to your trusty mechanic and have him check the following items: battery, wipers, antifreeze levels, heating system, brakes, defroster.

Since this is a DIY forum wouldn't you think that many are capable of, well, doing it themselves?

You'll want to make sure your battery is fully charged as cold weather starting is a heavy drain on your battery.

Why wouldn't it be unless there was an issue with the charging system? It there was you would know within a day or two. Load testing the battery to measure its output capacity would be a much better idea or if your battery is older than 5 years old you may be on borrowed time.

You'll want to make sure that your windshield wipers are in good condition as they'll get a lot of use brushing snow off, and, make sure you have plenty of windshield washer fluid in the reservoir and carry an extra gallon in your car. Your windshield washer fluid will get used up quickly keeping salt off the windshield. You will want to make sure that your antifreeze is at proper levels.

Antifreeze can prevent freezing of your engine to about 30 degrees below zero. It should be replaced every two years.

Extended life coolants found in most late model vehicles last much longer than every two years. Even the old reliable "green stuff" has an accepted 3 year 36k mile service interval. Testing the coolant with a bulb tester is an easy way to determine its protection level and its physical condition.

Have your heating system checked, this will include your defroster, which you'll really need during the winter. For full report visit:

How about checking the plugs and ignition system. The colder the weather the harder for the ignition system to keep up. Worn out plugs can cause the engine to flood leaving the vehicle disabled.

How much tread is left on your tires? In places where snow flies you need traction. You may have gotten away with worn out tires during the summer but as soon as the roads become snow covered you're going nowhere! If your tires are in good shape its important to keep an eye on tire pressure as the temperatures start to drop. You can expect on average for your tire pressure to drop 1psi for every ten degrees the temperature drops. Winters already hard enough on fuel economy, keeping your tires properly inflated will be a big help.

The exterior of the car also can get some pre winter help. A fresh coat of wax will help protect the paint from all the chemicals used in keeping the roads clear over the winter. As we all know making it look good is almost more important than having it run good!?! :)

The winter months also brings less daylight. Headlamps that are turning dull or hazy will especially be noticed as you spend more time driving in the dark. There are many DIY kits to choose from to turn those dull, yellow, hazy headlamp lenses to an almost like new crystal clear appearance.

That's what I thought when I read this post. Being a DIY type forum, most members would rather attempt most of this maintenance themselves.
I'd like to expound on some of the items the OP listed to help with preparing your vehicle for winter. On the windshield wipers, you can switch to winter blades which have a rubber boot on them to keep excess snow and ice from jamming the wipers and keeping them from performing their intended purpose.For windshield wiper fluid, there are plenty of options now available with additives which help drivers in the winter. I use one with Rain X in it and it helps the snow and ice slide off while driving, helps the wipers do their job better and it even makes scraping and cleaning the windshield an easier task in the morning as the ice/snow tends to slide off the window easier.
When checking your heating system also consider replacing the cabin filter if your vehicle is equipped with one. Now is a good time to do this (just like replacing the batteries in your smoke detector, you do it at certain times of the year to make it easier to remember.)
If you live in an area that receives snow, consider snow tires. Most modern vehicles today now require a set of 4 rather than 2 for better traction and handling. Newer vehicles have systems such as traction control and stability control along with ABS and having 4 tires with the same wear or tread depth is important.
Also go along and spray the door hinges and other moving parts with lithium grease. Salt spray and rough winter weather can make it hard for these moving parts to do their job in the winter. I also spray non stick cooking spray like PAM on the weatherstripping to prevent the doors from sticking to them in the winter. I've seen many people including myself take a chunk out of the weatherstripping trying to open a frozen door.
Also keep a safety kit with various items such as a small shovel ( fold up ones are available) blankets, flares or other marking devices, kitty litter for traction, a flashlight, and spare batteries to name a few. Also make sure your spare tire is still in good shape and properly inflated.

Dandy thread, folks, but it does not belong in the Muscle Cars forum, since nobody in their right mind would drive a muscle car in winter.

Thread moved to Technical.

Silicone spray works really well for door seals as well. It works pretty well for lubing the window guides also.

Thanks. I forgot to do that. The OP posted 6 similar threads of this nature in this forum and I ended up merging and moving 5 of them off the forum, but left this one because it had a response. I wanted to post something and then move it to the proper forum but forgot :redface:. Got to love these spammers who choose he wrong forum to put their posts in :lol:

Just some additional info on wiper blades for winter... Someone above mentioned winter wiper blades, which do a mighty fine job. New on the scene since 2002-2004 are beam wiper blades (sometimes called flat blades). Beam blades (like trico neoform, trico tech and several others) cut-to-the-chase by permanently removing all the moving, freezable parts. They're billed as all weather blades. Lastly - and I always preach this: NO MATTER WHAT THOUGH, make sure you look up the correct blades that are BOTH the right length and have the correct attachment - otherwise you may have poor windshield contact due to improper mechanics. Not all blades fit all arms. Use the application book or computer box at the store or lookup the right size wipers online (google search something like "lookup wiper size") Good luck with those winterizations!! :)