Winter car care tips
Winter car care tips
Posted on November 19, 2021
The cold winter months are fastly approaching, which means that it is time to get your vehicle ready for the winter. Extreme cold temperatures can be brutal on the different components of your car. To ensure that your car is able to operate properly all winter long, here is a look at some of the most important things that you need to do to your car to get ready for the winter.
1. Check Your Battery
If you commonly take long road trips during the summer, your car battery could be too worn down to sustain in the winter. When your battery gets hot in the summer, it can cause certain components to wear down which will shorten its life span. In the winter, the cold makes the vehicle's oil thicker, which means that it takes more power to crank the engine. Because your battery is required to produce more power, it is common for it to die in extreme temperatures.
To ensure that you don't wake up one morning to find that your battery has died, it is a good idea to get the batter tested before the temperatures get too cold. A service technician can check for any corrosion around the post and also check the voltage of the battery to ensure that it is able to last all winter long.
2. Purchase a Set of Winter Tires
It is very important that you have a set of tires on your car that are able to grip the road properly. This can probably go without saying, but when the road is covered in snow and ice, your car's tires have a harder time keeping traction with the road.
Winter tires have a deeper tread and are made of thicker rubber. This helps them to keep traction on slippery and cold roads. If you plan on travelling to Quebec from December through March 15th, you are required by law to have winter tires on your vehicle. In the rest of the country, it is strongly recommended that all vehicles be equipped with winter tires when the temperatures reach around seven degrees.
3. Check the Tire Pressure
Whether or not you have winter tires on your car, you need to check the tire pressure frequently in the winter. When the temperature starts to drop, so does the air pressure in your tire. Whenever it gets time to wear a coat outdoors, you need to start checking the air pressure in your tires. Having low pressure can cause unnecessary damage to your tires.
4. Protect Your Windshield Wipers
If you do not park your car in a garage at night, you may want to leave the windshield wipers in the up position. This will help to prevent moisture from settling n the wipers and freezing, causing your wipers to get stuck to the windshield.
5. Pack a Safety Kit
All sorts of unexpected things can happen on the road during icy and snowy conditions. Your car could slide into a ditch, you could be stuck in stand-still traffic for hours because of a car wreck that happened a few kilometres down the road, or anything else could happen that may cause you to become stranded for an extended period of time.
When winter hits, it is a good idea to keep an emergency kit in your car at all times. You will want to pack some necessary items, such as blankets, a change of clothes, bottled water, and snacks. You should keep the kit in your trunk or another part of your car at all times to ensure that you won't forget it when you leave the house.