Car Maintenance Tips for This Winter

Winter Car Maintenance Tips You Need To Know

Winterization or preventive winter car maintenance is indispensable for more harsh winters like Canada. Suppose you know you will drive around in the cooler months coming up. In that case, it is best to know specific tips to prevent damage to your engine or even dreadful accidents. We share them below.

Ensure Visibility

All the salt, snow, and ice can obstruct your vision when driving your car. Specific car components like the lights or windshield have to be cleaned as part of the winter car maintenance to reduce risks and accidents.

You can easily clean your lights with a cloth. For the windshield, you want to use an ice scraper to remove the snow, ice, or ice in it. Be careful not to use your windshield wipers for this task, as you can ruin them.

Load Up On Essential Liquids

An essential part of car maintenance is to make sure your car is loaded to the best capacity with oil, fuel, refrigerant, and other liquids. The same principle applies to car maintenance in colder temperatures, with slight variations.

Always check before winter if your car has enough oil and fuel. For instance, if you don’t think you’ll be doing much driving, it’s always best to keep your tank at least half full. The last thing you’d want is to be left stranded in the cold due to an empty tank.

Antifreeze is essential for winter to regulate your engine’s temperature and keep it in optimum condition. There are also winter wiper fluids that contain antifreeze. Filling your car with the winter wiper fluid is a must of vehicle maintenance for the season.

Winter Tires

Perhaps you are unsure if you should get winter tires or not. Winter tires are made of a softer rubber for better grip and traction. This helps make your car more stable for easier driving. Your summer tires will also last longer this way.

Run Safety Inspections

You want to avoid bad surprises altogether because it can be tedious and dangerous to experience car issues in the winter. 

Battery Performance

One component you should pay a lot of attention to is your car’s battery when performing winter car maintenance. The lower the temperature, the lower the voltage it has. With the constant cooling and warming of your battery each time you start, it can reduce its life. Doing a load test with your battery fully charged will let you know the potential energy it has. If your battery is too old, it’s great to take advantage of these months to replace it.

Winter Equipment

We recommend always take certain things with you when driving during the winter. Some are useful for your car and some for emergencies. Your windshield can inevitably get obstructed with snow. To remove it, you need an ice-scraper. Another great tool that comes in handy is a shovel.

We want to share other items that aren’t strictly related to winter car maintenance because they will keep your safety. We list them here:

• Flashlights
• A blanket
• Phone battery chargers
• First Aid Kit
• Reflector
• Jumper Cables
• Gloves

Preventative Actions

There are a couple more good practices we’d like to share with you for winter car maintenance:

• If you leave your car parked, make sure the windshield wipers are up. Doing this will prevent them from freezing stuck to the windshield glass. If they get too stiff, replace them.
• You probably won’t be giving your car’s AC a lot of use, but part of the best car ac maintenance tips we’ve got is to use it so that all the components are lubricated. Running your AC for 15 minutes every few weeks when you are not driving is recommended.

Seek Professional Help If Any Issues Occur

Winter car ac maintenance is all about being prepared and executing preventative actions. Still, there will be cases when an unexpected issue happens, requiring the help of a professional. 

If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, you count on Amarz Auto Service for car maintenance and automotive repairs. We always care about your security, so make sure to stay ahead of things. Contact us today!