Winter Car Care Tips

Summer is over, which means winter is ahead, so it's a good time to review a few rules for caring for your car during the cold season.

While it's still dry outside, buy floor mats with raised edges. Mats come in rubber or plastic, and they keep dirty shoes from soiling or soaking the floor of the cabin in fall and winter. But getting melted water out of a mat isn't easy either. If you try to do it right after a drive, you can easily spill it onto the floor if the mat catches on something. So it's better to wait a while. Some of the water may evaporate on its own, and the rest will freeze. Then the ice is easy to shake out together with the dried-on dirt.

When winter is in full swing, it's best not to wash your car, but if you have to, the simplest option is a car wash. Right after you leave, though, you'll need to do the following:

1. Wipe all door edges and weather seals with a rag.

2. Lubricate the door and trunk locks.

3. Open and close the doors several times and work the door latches. Otherwise, before long your doors may freeze and won't open or close. If you can't get to a car wash, you can try washing the car yourself with hot water and a sponge. Don't use rags, though, because you can't shake all the clinging sand out of them, and you may scratch your paint. 

When parking in winter (especially with a front-wheel-drive car), don't set the parking brake too tightly, because snow or water from puddles can get inside the rear drums and melt there. A little later the brake shoes will freeze in place, and the rear wheels won't turn. You won't be able to move off.

For winter you need thinner, winter-grade oil and a good battery. In severe frost, many drivers remove the battery and take it indoors. Others leave it in the car and warm it up before starting the engine by switching on the high beams for just a few seconds. While starting, press the clutch pedal. The engine should fire up, but don't take your foot off the pedal right away. Some also recommend a starting-fluid spray: on a carbureted engine it goes into the carburetor, and on a fuel-injected engine it's sprayed near the air filter intake.

If you don't drive your car in winter, whether to leave it outside or in a garage is up to you. But it's worth knowing that when experts appraise a used car, every year it sits unused lowers its value by about five percent.

Also, keep a repair and maintenance manual for your car with you. It can spare you a lot of trouble, and if your car stalls in winter, you probably won't need a tow truck, because you'll be able to get it running yourself and continue on your way.