How to make your car safer for winter.

We’re going to go over a few basic things to know how to get your car ready for winter. It doesn’t matter whether you drive a big truck with nice big meaty tires, or a SUV, or a small car with a tiny engine and tiny wheels, a lot of these things apply to every vehicle. First recommendation is to get snow tires no matter what vehicle you have, whether you’ve got a thousand horsepower or a hundred horsepower, a flat tire will leave you by the side of the road. Winter tires have a softer rubber, so they grip better. All season tires are not meant for winter, they should be called three season tires. All season tires are made of a tougher rubber and they grip less. Winter tires are softer, then they will wear quicker but they grip more, so think of it this way, if you have a vehicle and you want it to last 120,000 miles, you are going to have to put two sets of tires on, anyway might as well make one of those a set of winter tires and put them on when it’s cold and make your summer tires last all summer. Check your tire pressure, check your tread and rotate your tires, that’s just regular maintenance but for winter it’s very important to put winter tires on.

Second recommendation is to make sure your vehicle will start whenever you need it to be. Now the colder it is, the lower your voltage is as your battery gets colder. You take a freezing-cold battery that’s outside minus 4 and then you start your car and it will warm up, the juices start flowing, it gets warm but then you shut your car off it gets cold again, then hot, then cold and so on. This really reduces the life of that battery, so during fall time check your battery. Generally speaking, if your battery is four years or older in harsh weather, go ahead and replace it. It has done its job and just put in a new one. The battery is the root of all the electronics involved in the vehicles these days and don’t worry, replacing your battery is actually very cheap. You also want to do a load test on your battery periodically, we want 12 and a half volts if we are looking at a healthy battery. Also pop the battery caps off and just make sure that the fluid level is all the way up.

The third recommendation is to make sure that your washer bottle is topped up, that you have a spare bottle in your trunk and that your wiper blades are in good condition. Replace anything that’s dry, cracked or stiff, you want a nice soft rubber that does a good job cleaning the entire view area. Now one thing you might not think about is the exhaust. If your exhaust has a leak, the gasses might get into the cabin and you don’t want that. At least once a year somebody dies in their vehicle because they got stuck in a snowbank on the side of the road and they leave their car running. Now if you have a good exhaust and it’s full of snow, the emissions can’t escape and your engine will stall. The emissions have to leave the engine before fresh air can go in and burn again. If you have a leak, it will keep running and what happens when you have a leak is that carbon monoxide goes inside the cabin. Don’t leave your vehicle running if you’re stuck in a snowbank, turn it off but make sure your exhaust is in good shape before you get to that point.

Another part that you want to check is your defrost and if your cabin air filter is plugged. Usually the air filter is behind the glovebox, a little trapdoor that you can open up and check the filter. Another good thing to check is the condition of your antifreeze, make sure you change it once winter gets close. Also, it’s always a good idea to keep a blanket somewhere visible and also keep some candles and a lighter in the glovebox. Lighting a candle will keep the car and the occupants warm enough for hours while you’re waiting for help and it doesn’t take up much space. So keep these recommendations in mind, drive safe, take it slow, take your time and remember that getting to where you’re going is more important than being there on time.