Prepping the car for adverse weather |
| By Jay MacDonald
• Bankrate.com |
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As winter approaches, we know to keep the ice scraper
handy and to check the antifreeze. But using the wrong techniques to
prepare your vehicle for cold weather can damage your ride
and cost you big bucks.
When it comes to winter, all drivers are not created
equal, according to Boston master mechanic John Paul, AAA's "Car
Doctor."
"It has to do with where you grew up," he says. "For people who deal with it all the time, winter is just like a sunny day, it's something that just happens. But if you moved to New England from Florida, winter is a catastrophic event and people don't know quite how to deal with it.
"In New England, we have wet, we have cold and
our drivers aren't always the best. Fortunately, we have really
good hospitals."
Automotive writer Paul Duchene says that as temperatures
go down, the cost of repairs goes up.
"Anything that is going to be done to your car
in the wintertime when everything is wet and cold is going to be
that much nastier for the guys who are going to have to do it --
and that much more expensive and inconvenient," he says.
We asked our experts to shovel out the do's from the don'ts when it comes to winterizing your ride. Where mistakes require service, we've based the repair estimates on parts for a 2004 Subaru Outback and shop labor at $85 per hour. Parts quotes are courtesy of AutoZone's Alldata Web site.
| Don't let these common mistakes turn your winter wonderland into a costly winter blunderland. |
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| Bankrate's winter system check |
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1. Battery
Paul says battery-related issues are AAA's most common service calls.
Winter causes sort of a chain reaction: It makes your engine oil
thicker, which requires your starter to crank longer, which places
additional demand on your battery. As a result, you lose about 30
percent of your battery's capacity in cold weather. Batteries last,
on average, three to five years. If yours is older, it will most
likely die in winter.
Bad move: Going into winter
with a 5-year-old battery.
Good move: Buying a new
one on sale in the fall for under $50. And don't forget to clean
away the corrosion and tighten the cables against the cold.
2. Warm-up
The winter ritual of starting your car and letting it warm up forever is an unnecessary waste of fuel. The engine actually warms sufficiently -- meaning oil moves to all the important engine parts -- within the first minute. The real danger occurs if you get into your "warmed" car and immediately floor it before other moving parts, such as the transmission, have had their lubricating cuppa joe.
Bad
move: Flooring it out of the driveway in extreme cold --
you could break a gear. Cost for a new transmission: $5,500 + five
hours labor = $5,925.
Good move: Warming the
engine briefly (30 seconds to a minute), then driving slowly the
first couple of miles to allow fluids to reach all moving parts.
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