Important Car Care Tips for When It’s Freezing Out

Jan 02, 2020 09:49 AM EST | Ernest Hamilton

Important Car Care Tips for When It’s Freezing Out


(Photo : Important Car Care Tips for When It’s Freezing Out)

A car is a complex and potentially dangerous piece of machinery, so making sure it's working properly at all times is important. A well-maintained car can last a long time, and when you take into consideration how much a vehicle costs, it's well worth making sure your car is in working condition. Here are a few car care tips to keep in mind that'll help you keep your car working through the winter months.

One of the more obvious ways to keep your car working properly in cold weather is through the judicious use of antifreeze. While cars are generally very well made pieces of machinery, they are not immune damage from the elements. Most materials contract when they get colder, with one exception being of ice; it instead expands. A car is vulnerable to damage from the increased volume of frozen water, and antifreeze helps alleviate this issue. Water can be used in a car as a coolant, but it also carries the risk of damaging your car in temperatures below freezing. If antifreeze is added to your water-based coolant, it will not freeze nearly as easily. Interestingly, the terms "antifreeze" and "coolant" are interchangeable so don't be afraid to use coolant in this case if you want to keep your car from freezing.

Your windshield, though a relatively simple feature, is rather important unless you want to suffer extreme wind chill in cold weather while driving. The windshield needs to remain transparent to be functional, though, and the issue of frost obscuring vision through it is a common problem for people who need to drive when the weather turns cold. Even if you don't intend to use windshield washer fluid for getting rid of frost, it is important to take note of what liquid, if any, you store in the washer fluid reservoir. Keeping this reservoir empty is likely better than filling it with water in freezing temperatures, as you might damage the container. When washer fluid is used, making sure it's rated for the temperatures you expect to encounter is also important so your windshield does not frost unexpectedly. The windshield itself also can suffer from additional cracking if it was damaged in cold weather, so it may not be a bad idea to look up an Orlando windshield repair service, even if the damage initially appears to be minimal.

A car's battery, too, can be negatively affected by the harsh cold temperatures. While a car battery probably won't catastrophically fail and render a car worthless, making sure it is in decent condition is important to a car's operation nonetheless. Simply put, a cold battery will have a harder time outputting electricity. For this reason, an exceptionally old or weak battery should be replaced leading up to the winter months so you aren't left without a car that won't start.

Making sure your car is in working order is a top priority if you rely on it in your daily life, and even if you are in a situation where a car is not strictly required keeping it well maintained is a matter of safety as well as cost. Car maintenance is a topic with lots of material to cover, but so long as you carry out a few simple maintenance tasks once in a while you should be able to keep the smaller problems that do arise from turning into much larger ones. 

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