10 Tips on good car care this Winter :
During this cold winter days, it is still important to take care of your car, just like we need some TLC in winter days, so do our vehicles.
Here are a few tips how you can take care of your vehicle in these cold and windy days:
- Keep your lights clean:
-Vehicles get dirty in these winter months, so just take a cloth and wipe the lamps if your vehicle does not have a headlamp washer.
-Your vehicle’s lights can loose as much as 40% of brightness on damp and gritted roads.
- Test your battery:
-A faulty or flat battery is one of the most common reasons of vehicle breakdowns.
-Be sure to have your battery tested by Specialist to determine whether it is due for a new battery.
-Warning lights of battery failure can result in your engine turning over more slowly and makes it hard to start some days – especially those cold mornings.
- Check your oil levels and fuel levels:
-You can check the oil level on the dipstick of your car, by pulling it out and checking if it’s not over max and not less that minimum.
-Being low on oil can lead to serious damage on your engine-so be gentle and check that level!
-Regarding the fuel, its best you get to a filing station as soon as your light comes on, low fuel is bad for the fuel pump due to the fuel pump working so hard to try and pump fuel that there is none of , it then sucks up all the bad things that’s underneath in the fuel tank – so rather take out a bit of money to keep your car on the go that to have your car in for repairs.
- Inspect your tires regularly:
-Worn tires are dangerous, but especially on cold roads where the stopping distance is much more.
-Your tires minimum thread depth is 1.6mm but in winter its best to have 3 mm of depth.
-Don’t forget the spare wheel as well!
- Pay close attention to your dashboard warning lights:
-Many people do not know what these funny lights are, but that’s no problem, just take your vehicle to a specialist. Rather safe that sorry I always say.
-Best of that is, now you can also know what these lights mean.
- Top up your coolant:
-Coolant stops the water in the engine from freezing.
-Coolant should be changed every 2-5 years depending on your vehicle’s type and coolant required.
- Check if your vehicle is due for a service:
-Vehicles should be serviced every 12 months or 15 000km.
-Its best that everything is fresh so that your vehicle has its new coat to it warm.
- Check your brakes:
-It’s important to have fully control on your vehicle in winter months.
-Some roads are wet and slippery, so be sure that your brakes are fully functional in case you need to have a quick brake – get that 🙂
- Check your wiper blades and top up your windscreen washer fluid:
-Be sure that your wipers are in good condition, why? well some mornings could get a bit more cold that others and your windscreen could be a bit frozen up.
-You could unfreeze the windscreen by spraying from the windscreen washer to remove most of the frosting.
- Last but not least, try to be gentler on how you drive your vehicle this winter 🙂 Just for safety sake.
That’s all folks!
