Everything Auto: Prepping Your Ride for Winter

By Larry Walton

Preparing your automobile for the storms ahead.

In the olden days, getting ready for winter meant chopping enough firewood to cook and heat the house, and moving livestock from elevated pastures closer to home. Nowadays it’s quite a bit different. For many of us, digging out a winter jacket, changing seasonal sports gear and getting our cars ready to run easily and efficiently in frigid temperatures is about all that’s needed to survive the cold season.

Winter can be tough on a vehicle. Traction, visibility and daylight hours are all limited, but there seems to be no limit to rain, fog and snow. Tire pressures drop, oil gets thick, salt accumulates and roads get slippery. We need our wipers to wipe, our lights to light and our anti-freeze not to freeze.

All of the regular maintenance procedures apply for winter, and in some areas they are more important because a mechanical breakdown can be dangerous when the temperatures really get low.

My truck has an aFe intake, which improves horsepower and fuel efficiency. it also has the added advantage of being cleanable. Summer use gets an air filter dirty, so part of my winter prep is cleaning the filter.

Therefore, make sure that your oil changes, tire pressures, air filter, fuel filter and coolant levels are current. Depending on your mileage, you may be due for some of the longer term items such as injectors, plugs, igniters, shocks, transmission service and whatever else your owner’s manual says.

Thoroughly wash the filter with soap and water. Dish soap works well to cut the oil in the filter treatment products.