Auto Trends

It’s coming… the chill is in the air… the days are growing shorter, and before we know it the snow will begin to fall and it will be too late to prepare our vehicles for the most difficult time of the year… winter. There are several things that we all know to do, such as check your battery, spark plugs and wires, and give your car a good wax to protect it from the harsh chemicals spread on the road through the winter. There are also a few less know things that would be a good idea to take a day out to prepare.

• The chemicals they spread on the road during the winter are bad enough for your paint, but if you let them get into contact with bare metal, you are going to be talking about even worse troubles, like accelerated rusting. With this in mind, it would be a good idea to take a quick look around your car and make sure that you do not have any serious rock chips exposing bare metal. If you do, you can either have it repaired by a chip specialist or do the job yourself (we will feature these instructions in a soon to come edition).

• Purchase a radiator fluid check device from your local parts store. It will look like a syringe with a bulb on top and several beads inside the glass base. Making sure the fluid is cool enough to work with (wait at least an hour after driving), suck in the fluid using your overflow container and compare the number of beads that float in the mixture with their freezing level. You will want to be sure that your current mixture is capable of handling the coldest possibility that you cold be faced with this winter.

• Thoroughly check all hoses and belts in the engine compartment. With the extreme temperature changes of the engine compartment in the winter, the rubber will find itself expanding and contracting to a rather extreme capacity. This could cause quick failure to an already well worn component. Any signs of cracks and bulges should prompt you to replace them immediately. Not only does winter accelerate wear and tear on certain components, but it also creates an especially dangerous situation if you have to perform a repair while on the side of the road. Fixing before it happens is always the best policy.

(to be continued…)