Winter is coming: so get your car ready

Thursday, 30 May 2019

There's plenty you can do yourself to make sure your car is healthy for cold-weather driving.

Now that you don't have to spend all of your free time in Game of Thrones chat rooms, you could focus on getting your car ready for the cold weather and slippery conditions that lie ahead over the winter months.

Here are five simple things that you can check on yourself.

Get into the groove

Winter-is-coming themed photo shoot ruined by discarded coffee cup. Oh, and check your tyres.

You should always be on top of the condition and pressure of your tyres as they're the main thing keeping you on the road.

* Tips to stay safe in wet-weather driving

* Winter driving: 10 tips for driving this winter**

Both wiper arms and blades need to be correctly adjusted - or replaced - to keep your windscreen clear.

But it's especially important in winter as road conditions can be much more difficult. Having the correct pressures means your car will track straight and respond to your inputs more reliably on low-friction surfaces, while having good tread depth will help them disperse standing water as you drive along.

The minimum is 1.5mm but in winter driving, it should be much more.

Make sure your wiper fluid is topped up before the winter weather hits.

Final thought: if it looks like time to upgrade your tyres, don't be tempted to just freshen the fronts on the theory that they're the ones doing the steering. Having a huge differential in grip between front and rear in wet conditions can be very dangerous indeed and send your car into a spin.

Blade runners

You're going to really count on your wipers in the winter months, so give the arms and blades a good check over.

The arms have a lot of work to do (including many changes of direction). If they're not adjusted correctly the blades won't have the right pressure to keep the glass clear.

The blades should not be pressing hard vertically on the windscreen, but rather sit at a sight angle. You can give the arms a little twist to correct them - but be gentle.

Give the blades a clean with soapy water or rubbing alcohol, but if they're really worn it's the right time to replace them.

Not all car-battery covers are as flash as this. But they all need a bit of love sometimes.

Doing so is easy and shouldn't require any tools - although the exact process is slightly different depending on individual design.

While you're in that area, make sure your washer fluid is topped up and that it has a good additive; it not only helps clean the winter filth off the glass, it prevents the water from freezing.

Freeze frame

Speaking of water and additives, anti-freeze is something you should have in your car's coolant all year round. Because it not only prevents, ahem, freezing, it can also stop overheating and keep rust at bay.

But the onset of winter is as good a time as any to check. A full flush and coolant renewal is something your mechanic can do, but if you need to top up as part of regular maintenance make sure you do so with the correct mix of water and anti-freeze. That depends on the product you're using, but it's usually 30-50 per cent.

The terminal

Cold and wet weather can be really hard on a car's battery. Maintaining it might sounds a bit techy, but you you achieve a lot with a few simple steps.

Make sure the battery is clean: a thick mixture of baking soda and water and an old toothbrush can work wonders - but make sure the terminals are disconnected first.

Open the covers and check the cells: the electrolyte fluid should cover them and be the same level across all. If a cell is nearly exposed, add distilled water.

Breaking bad

This is more paperwork than practical, but still very important.

If you have a new(ish) car that's still under warranty, you'll probably automatically have membership to a breakdown service. Check on the status and make sure it's active.

If you have an older car and don't have a breakdown service, it's a good idea to spend the money.

Fact is, you're much more likely to have car trouble in winter thanks to bad road conditions and water getting into places it shouldn't.

It's good to know that help will be at hand and even if you're truly handy and reckon you can fix stuff yourself, you don't want to be doing do so in poor visibility or in the pouring rain.