Other

Winterize Your Car and Driving Habits

Drive carefully. Brake carefully. Steer carefully.
Drive carefully. Brake carefully. Steer carefully.

Professional automotive service technician here willing to offer you all some free advice to help you avoid breakdowns and costly repairs

Step one

If you think you can do all of your own wrenching by watching YouTube videos, then please do. We'll be happy to charge you an extra fee for fixing your fuckups. Lord, how we wish that were legal! 🤣

In all seriousness, there are several things that you can do yourself to prepare for winter driving.

#1 Get your ass out of bed earlier.

It sucks but, if you leave earlier, you'll either get to work early and look good, or you can wait through the traffic and bad weather without showing up late.

#2 Slow down

Have you ever noticed people try to drive normally in the snow and ice? Have you ever noticed they're always the ones with folded up bumpers and poorly replaced, mismatch painted fenders, and they're always the ones to end up in the ditch?

Wet/snowy/icy roads are slippery. Your car's handling and braking will always suffer because the tires can't grip the road as well. You need to slow down and increase your following distance in order to allow more time to stop. Your drive times will increase. Hence the reason you need to get out of bed earlier.

#3 Maintenance

I don't want to bore anybody even though I find it fascinating and could real forever.

Take your vehicle to a good shop and ask them to inspect your vehicle and prepare it for the winter.

Whatever they try to sell you, they should be able to explain. There's far too much to list here and too many variables

Key items include but are not limited to

Battery

Tires

Suspension

Wipers

Brakes

Steering system

Coolant AKA antifreeze

Windshield washer fluid

Fuel system (Especially with this E85 ethanol shit that the tree humpers love so much. It costs more, reduces fuel economy, and corrodes your fuel system from the inside out. A triple whammy that will leave your bank account screaming for mercy)

And to a lesser extent, heating and defrosting systems

Things you can do yourself even if you know nothing about cars

Keep your fuel tank above 3/4 because cold fuel enters the pump and lines, goes to the engine, and unused fuel is returned hot. Any air in the tank will contain moisture which will condensate. Water is bad.

Bonus: If you get stuck, you'll have more fuel to leave the engine running longer for heat. I'll cover heating and defrosting in a minute.

Keep your windshield washer fluid topped off with de-icing fluid. Your parts store will be happy to show you where to add it but, most shops will top it off for free. Don't take advantage of this service.

Tire pressure

You can find this information in 3 places. All your shop to tell you. If it's a dealership that services your brand, any tech should be able to hear the make/model, and tell you the manufacturer's recommended tire pressure. Heavy duty trucks Vans and SUVS can be screwy though. Identical rigs will have different specs.

The owner's manual should have it somewhere.

What I do, is open the driver's door and look around the edge of the door and the door frame. All vehicles sold in America will have a white and yellow label in this area (and a VIN/build label). The white and yellow label will have Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, cargo capacity, towing capacity, tire size and rating requirements, and air pressure requirements.

DO NOT USE THE TIRE SIDE WALL MAXIMUM PRESSURE RATING

It's always higher than the vehicle manufacturer's recommended tire pressure specification.

The more air that is in a tire, the rounder is will stay when weighed down. This reduces rubber-to-road contact and therefore, reduces traction.

On bad roads, you can air down your tires 3-5PSI to give a tiny bit of added traction. However, they'll wear faster and have increased rolling resistance which reduces fuel economy.

In accordance with state law, you should have studded snow tires and/or chains

Emergency kit

In addition to first aid items you should have the following

Food

Water

Phone charger

Flashlight/batteries

Extra warm and dry clothing

Flares

Blankets

Some sort of reflective clothing at least one piece

Jumper cables

Tow strap(s) may be handy

In really bad snow and ice, you can keep Kitty litter and a small shovel

The shovel is to dig your car out of snow. The kitty litter is to place on the ground in front of the drive wheels to provide extra traction

How to use jumper cables correctly without shocking the fuck out of yourself

Examine the batteries on both vehicles. If your see wetness or leakage, stop. Call a wrecker.

Green or white fuzz is acid corrosion. Let a professional clean it off.

On the running vehicle, connect the red jumper cable to the red or + battery terminal. Red is always positive.

On the dead vehicle, attach the red cable to the positive battery terminal.

On the dead vehicle, attach the black cable to a good electrical ground on the engine. This will be a piece of metal, preferably not painted.

On the running vehicle, attach the black cable to a good engine ground.

Start the good vehicle and allow it's alternator to partially charge the dead battery.

DO NOT SHUT DOWN THE RUNNING VEHICLE

Start the dead vehicle and immediately disconnect the jumper cables in the reverse order.

Note: A lot of information was intentionally left out of this post. Always refer to a professional automotive service technician with any questions or concerns.

Stay the fuck out of those Jiffy Lube type places. They'll hire any idiot, fill his head with misinformation, and try like hell to upsell every customer, every time. Usually by employing subtle scare tactics.

In the professional industry, we love those places because they turn a $30 dollar oil change into a $5,000 engine replacement for us. Or, they over tighten and fuck up your engine oil drain plug, and we get to replace the entire oil pan because the threads in the hole are stripped out.

Last tip:

4 Wheel drive and All Wheel drive are intended to keep you from getting stuck or to get you unstuck. People often think 4WD/AWD means that they can drive normally in the snow and ice.

4WD does not improve traction, handling, or braking and those are always the idiots calling a wrecker to get them out of the ditch.

Again, lots of information has been intentionally left out due primarily to excess technical stuff that most people don't need or want to know

Winterize Your Car and Driving Habits
Post Opinion