How to winterize your car so it’s ready for winter

Learn how to winterize your car

As winter approaches, it’s essential to prepare your vehicle for the cold weather to ensure safety, reliability, and longevity. Winterizing your car involves several steps, from checking fluids and tires to inspecting crucial components. This guide will walk you through the necessary procedures to winterize your car so it starts every day and gets you to work and home safely.

Start with your battery

In winter, you put the greatest demands on your car’s battery and charging system. That’s because it takes more power to start a cold engine, and it’s harder to recharge your battery after you’ve been driving with your blower motor on high, defogger keeping the rear window clean, seat heaters running, and headlights on.

Clean the battery terminals to reduce resistance and ensure proper battery charging

Remove the battery cable terminals and clean the inside of the terminal and the battery post with a battery cleaning brush

Corrosion on the battery terminals produces high resistance, causing the alternator to work harder and your battery to be under-charged.

You’ll have to remove the battery terminals from the posts to clean everything. However, since most late-model engines have an electronic throttle body, it’s best to use a jumper pack and OBDII cable to retain the throttle body base idle memory while you clean the battery terminals. That eliminates the need to perform a throttle body relearn when you’re done.

• Remove the negative battery terminal first— That ensures you won’t see any sparks if your tools touch a ground point when disconnecting the positive terminal. Then, remove the positive terminal. Use a battery cleaning tool or wire brush to clean the terminals and battery posts.

Neutralize battery corrosion and protect against future corrosion with these product. Find them at any auto parts store.

• Neutralize acid buildup— If you have corrosion buildup, spray the posts, terminals, and battery top with a battery cleaning spray that neutralizes battery acid. Or, use a baking soda and water solution. Then wipe off the cleaner.
• Use a battery terminal and post wire brush— Scuff the inside of the battery terminals and the posts with a battery brush tool
• Reinstall the positive terminal first, then the negative terminal.
• Spray a battery protectant spray on the terminals to reduce further corrosion.

Clean the battery posts and terminals with a special wire brush

Test your car battery

Car batteries have a limited life, usually less than four years. But you can test the condition of your battery with a battery tester or take it to an auto parts store and have them test it for you. Don’t rely on a simple voltage test—that’s inaccurate enough to judge the battery’s overall condition or predict how well it will perform in cold weather.

Modern battery testers perform a conductance, resistance, and simulated load test that can accurately predict your battery’s condition. If yours is on the edge, replace it now because it will fail when the temps fall.

Replace your wiper blades before winter

Winter wiper blades don’t plug up with ice and snow like regular wiper blades, so you get better wiper performance without streaks. Winter wiper blades cost about $13 each and are available at any auto parts store. They’re well worth the money.

If you can’t find winter blades for your vehicle, at least put on new ones. Streaking wiper blades dramatically reduce night-time vision, especially in winter.

Check or replace your engine coolant

Engine coolant is the modern term for antifreeze. It prevents freezing, which can destroy your engine, but it does more than that. Engine coolant also contains anti-corrosion additives to prevent internal system corrosion that can eat away at your radiator, heater core, water pump, and steel heater lines. So, it’s critical that you check the level of freeze protection of your engine coolant, as well as its pH balance and anti-electrolysis properties.

Check your engine coolant for freeze protection

Buy an engine coolant tester at any auto parts store. The tester must be rated for the type of coolant in your engine. They’re not all the same. Squeeze the rubber bulb and suck in some engine coolant. Then, read the freeze protection level on the chart. If the engine coolant tests to the temperatures you’ll encounter in your area, move on to the next test.

Check engine coolant for pH balance

Use engine coolant test strips to test your coolant pH balance. Get a full coolant flush if it fails the test

Buy engine coolant test strips at any auto parts store. Simply dip the strip into the coolant reservoir, wait the recommended time and compare the color to the chart. If it passes the test, move on to the electrolysis test.

Check your coolant’s anti-corrosion protection using a digital multimeter

Use a digital meter to check your coolant’s anti-corrosion properties

Set your digital multi-meter to read 12 volts DC. Connect one-meter lead to the negative battery terminal. Submerse the other end into the coolant. Start the engine and rev it to 2,000 RPM. Then read the voltage on the meter. Any reading over .3-.4 volts indicates that the coolant is conducting too much electricity. Replace the coolant right away to avoid internal cooling system corrosion.

Use the recommended oil

Double check to ensure you’re using the recommended oil for winter

Cold temperatures cause oil to thicken and make it harder to pump and start your car. Using the wrong viscosity for winter temperatures can cause your engine to struggle to start and drain your battery quickly.

Oil recommendations are in your owner’s manual. Don’t substitute your preferences for the car maker’s. If the car maker recommends synthetic oil, they feel it’ll provide the best starting and gas mileage and the lowest engine wear. Using the proper motor oil viscosity is critical to get your car ready for winter
.

Check the tire tread depth

Winterize your car by checking tread depth and replacing worn tires before the first snow flies

Forget about using a penny to check tread depth. Low tread depth can be fatal in winter because the tread can’t grip the road. A single slide into a curb can easily cause over $2.000 in damage. You can file an insurance claim, but you’ll still have to pay the deductible and increased rates for several years.

Consider the safety advantages of winter tires

Winterize your car and get the best snow and ice traction with winter tires

For about the same price as your deductible, you can buy winter tires that can help you avoid those kinds of accidents in the first place. Winter tires accelerate better and stop faster than even new all-season tires. Independent testing proves that winter tires stop you 66% faster (an amazing 30-ft shorter) than the same vehicle equipped with all-season tires. The tests were done by accelerating to 30MPH and slamming on the brakes (vehicle equipped with ABS). Here’s why they stop faster:

Snow-on-snow grips better than rubber-on-snow. You may think the aggressive tread on snow tires is designed to grip the snow and throw it out of the tread voids. That’s wrong. Winter tires are designed to pack the snow into the tread voids and keep it there because squeezing snow against snow provides more grip. Think of how well snow packs together when making a snowball!

Winter tires stop faster on ice too

The same tests show that winter tires also help you stop 44% faster (18-ft) on ice. That’s due to the tire’s sipping and rubber compound that squeezes water off the ice.

Check tire pressure when temperatures change by more than 40°F

Tire pressure fluctuates with the outside temperature. If you check tire pressure at 40° it will be lower than the recommended pressure when temps drop to 0°. Driving on low tire pressure wears out your tires prematurely and increases stopping distance because you have less tread in contact with the road.

Check your engine’s drive belts and hoses

As I mentioned earlier, winter weather puts a big strain on your starting and charging system, and it’s all run by the alternator, which relies on the serpentine belt. A worn belt can cause the alternator to produce too little power. Older-style serpentine belts were made from neoprene that cracked as they aged, so you could see when they needed replacement. But the newer belts are made from EPDM and they don’t crack as they wear. See this post to learn how to check for belt wear.

Winterize your car’s lock cylinders

Lubricate the door locks with a lock lubricant/deicer

I know you use your remote keyless entry to unlock your doors. But one of these days, that’s going to fail. If you haven’t lubricated the door and truck lock cylinders, you may find that your keys don’t work. Lubricate door locks with graphite, silicone or dry Teflon lube spray. Do NOT use an all-purpose lubricant like WD-40. The oil in those products attracts dust and dirt and gums up the lock cylinder.

Winterize your car’s weatherstripping to prevent door freeze up

Lubricate the weather stripping using silicone spray

New cars don’t have rain gutters, so the water rolls off the roof and right into the opening at the top of your door. When it freezes, it bonds the weather stripping to the door frame, preventing you from opening the door. To avoid that problem, spray silicone or dry Teflon lubricant on a rag and wipe it on the weather stripping and door frame. That way, the water won’t stick when it freezes.

Lubricate the window channels

Lubricate the window channels to prevent freezing and provide smoother operation in cold weather

Snow and ice can also cause problems with your windows. If your window freezes in the track and you try to open it, the cable-operated mechanism can break, costing you hundreds of dollars. Prevent that freezing by spraying the window tracks with silicone spray or dry Teflon lube.

Winterize your car by packing an emergency kit

Pack a winter survival kit and store it in the vehicle

Be prepared for winter emergencies by packing an emergency kit. Aside from some basic tools, always pack these items:

• a hat and warm gloves—there’s nothing worse than trying to change a flat tire in freezing conditions with your bare hands.
• Can of flat repair and plug in tire inflation pump
• Candle and matches (to keep warm inside if you’re stuck),
• Warning flares or flashing warning light
• Rags and hand cleaner
• Energy bars
• Plug in (power port) light with long cable to do repairs or change tire
• Cheap rain poncho or large garbage bag.
• Blanket
• Hand warmers

© 2016, Rick Muscoplat