Winter is coming, and you need to winterize your car before it gets too cold to start! Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to winterize your budding vehicle. It’ll give you peace of mind knowing your car is ready for the long ride ahead.
The first step is to make sure your car has an oil change and check the engine oil level.
The next step is to blow out all the hoses and clean them with a shop vacuum or “duster” as I like to call it. Vacuum the fuel lines, brake lines, and exhaust lines to remove any dirt or rust from inside the lines.
It is important to check the battery and alternator too. They may need replacement if they are deteriorating.
You will want to make sure your tires are in good condition, in particular checking the inflation pressure and tread depth and cleaning the lights/reflectors on your car to remove dirt.
If you drive a manual transmission car, be sure to change the transmission oil as well. Add friction modifier and new automatic transmission fluid too.
Next you want to remove any excess weight from your car. Remove clothes, shoes, gym bags, and other clutter or nonessential objects from your car.
In the process of removing clutter from your car (or van), you may find unnecessary stuff that’s been sitting in there for months or years: Soda cans, wrappers, old receipts, etc. This junk can be thrown out or donated to charity.
Remove unnecessary magazines, papers, and paper bags from your car. This can be a lot of fun, but it’s important to remember that you can’t remove the stuff from your car without damaging it!
During this process, you will remove any excessive filters on your air conditioner and heater.
After removing the excess weight or clutter from the car you will want to make sure there is plenty of room for all 3 rows of seats in your car (or if a van has an entire cargo area).
You can either remove seats or push the seats together. Some might be brave enough to remove the entire back seat, but that’s not recommended unless you have a lot of extra time on your hands.
Doing all this may take several days, so make sure you have plenty of time set aside for this task!
Lastly, you need to fill your tires with water! This is a good idea because in the winter they lose pressure when they freeze and by filling them with water you can help prevent them from freezing.
Our respondent also advises you to prepare the hoses and connections that maintain the proper fluid level in your car, as well as drain the transmission fluid, coolant system, engine oil, windshield washer fluid and antifreeze.
If your car has a skid plate underneath it (usually found in front of the oil pan), you need to remove it before draining your oil. Be careful doing this because the oil pan is the bottom-most part of your engine. You don’t want to drop it and damage it, or crack the skid plate.
Also, make sure you drain ALL your fluids before placing any chemical flushes into them. This will prevent clogging and damaging any components of your engine.
Once all the fluid levels are where they need to be, there are a couple other things you need to check and get ready too. First off, make sure your battery is charged and has enough water in it to start your car.
Next, make sure you have a good set of jumper cables (one cable attached to the positive terminal of each battery) in order to jump-start your car if needed. Then, check the fuel filter on your car to make sure that it is not clogged.
If it is, clean that filter out using either a paper towel or a rag and some soapy water.
Once these are done, you can relax in the knowledge that your car is ready for winter-time driving. By following this guide, you know how to winterize your car.
Be sure to always let your car sit on a flat surface while filling the reservoir and flushing out the system with any chemical flushes too. You don’t want to have any problems with stuck valves or flooded systems later on down the road.
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