Tune-Up Tips for Winter Driving
As you shift into gear for winter driving conditions, check out these car care tips to keep your engine humming and your vehicle performance high when temperatures drop. A few preventative car winterizing measures can potentially save you lots of time, trouble, and best of all, money:
1. Check your Antifreeze - Have your antifreeze (coolant) checked for proper strength. It should work to -35 degrees C. Buy only ethylene glycol-based fluid with low freezing and high boiling points.
2. Keep Fluids Fluid - Check your vehicle owner’s manual for the manufacturer’s recommended winter rating. Use the oil rated for your vehicle by the manufacturer. Special cold weather oils are available for arctic or alpine winter conditions. When it comes to wiper-washer fluids, keep your reservoir full of a solvent that is good to at least -10 degrees C. Make sure your transmission fluid is clean.
3. See and Be Seen – If necessary, replace your windshield wipers in anticipation of night driving, and encounters with rain, sleet and snow. Double-check your rear window defroster. If some of the heat-producing grid lines don’t work, they can be repaired, and rearward visibility restored.
4. Tire Treads - Driving in colder conditions and on icy, slushy or snowy roads requires as much traction as your tires can deliver. Inspect tires, and if the tread or sidewall is worn or damaged, replace them with winter ones.
5. Bolster your Battery - Winter driving requires more power from your battery, and as the temperature slides, batteries tend to lose performance. Consider buying a stronger rated battery.
6. Fill your Trunk - Keep the following items in your trunk in case of emergency: heavy-duty jumper cables, a flashlight, emergency flares, a small shovel, a bag of sand, a blanket, gloves, heavy socks, winter boots, and tire chains (if you don’t have winter tires).
7. Don’t Run on Empty - Always maintain a full gas tank. This will help prevent gas lines from freezing. Remember, if you are unfortunate enough to be stranded this winter, your engine can be your only source of heat.
Comments
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Most important tip not shown here -- Downshift your automatic!!! It is a more controlled way to slow down by reducing speed of the tires and you are less likely to slide. If your going less than 30mph, you can throw it into "2".
Ryan, 2WD, front wheel drive is perfectly fine in the snow. No need for 4WD unless you are going off road. I've plowed through 12" of snow on roadways with front wheel just fine.
Ice tires, snow tires, what's the difference?
In any case, I used to live in the mountains. Sure you could maybe get by with all-seasons and a 4wd setup. I've seen 4wd vehicles that don't have 4-high, only 4-low, so that isn't a real 4wd vehicle - can't even exceed 20kph in that. So what to do if you have one of those, or you have a 2wd? You _need_ good winter tires. Aka snow tires. And according to kate, also known as 'ice tires'. Eg:
www.tirerack.com/tires...
I've driven on these tires, in a 2wd on packed snow and nice, and it was good times. Clearly its not a dry road, but you have much more control than you might have.
As for studded tires, I really don't respect them. Most serious drivers use snow tires, I would never get studded tires. Why cause all that road damage?
I'd reccomend spending a little to save a lot. Buy good ice tires. Ice tires are not studded tires, they are tires made out of a different compostion material than regualr tires. The 'rubber' stays pliable at very cold temperatures, so you keep traction on ice without studs. Ice tires perform as well as studded tires on ice, but perform significantly better on dry pavement than studded tires do. Some western states have begun banning studded tires because of the damage they do to dry road-beds. I totaled a cadillac sedan I was purchasing from my dad on an icy patch. When I replaced that car, in November, in Uath, I bought ice tires from costco. There is nothing like paying on two car loans at once to teach you the value of spending money on good tires.