Navigating icy roads can be treacherous enough, but if you don’t winterize your car properly, you might not even make it out of your driveway.
Local mechanics suggest to avoid the frustrating experience of a car that won’t start in the cold, the solutions are easy – starting with checking antifreeze, your car’s battery, tires and wiper blades.
Use the correct antifreeze: Steven Oakes, supervisor of Performance Auto & Tires in Pittsboro, said the first step for drivers is to get the right coolant or antifreeze.
“You need to make sure that it will handle the temperatures during the winter,” Oakes said. “Usually around here it doesn’t get below zero, so you want something rated for that. You can easily crack your radiator if you don’t keep an eye on the coolant. Then you’re dealing with a bigger and lengthy repair.”
Oakes said his crew will see lots of “busted hoses and cracked radiators” during the winter months.
In fact, your entire engine block could crack without the proper fluids, according to Jimmy Brower, owner of Siler City Automotive.
“The radiator takes heat as you drive,” Brower said. “But those radiator fluids will freeze and not circulate if you don’t have the right antifreeze. Your car can overheat easily if you don’t pay attention.”
Check your battery: “You want to make sure that your battery isn’t drained and can handle the extra juice that your defroster and heater will require,” Oakes said.
Keep an eye on tire pressure: “Colder weather makes the pressure go down in your tires,” Oakes said. “When you’re driving on slick roads, you want to make sure that you have as much traction as possible.”
Browner added, “When you’re driving on different terrain and different surfaces, you need to make sure your tires have the right amount of pressure.”
Functioning wiper blades are also a must during winter driving. “You definitely want to have working wiper blades all year round,” Oakes said. “But during the winter, they need to be able to hold up to the frost and the ice and snow. They need to have durable blades.”
“You need to make sure your wiper blades aren’t torn,” Brower added. “And make sure you have antifreeze in your wiper fluid. Straight water will freeze.”
Both Performance Auto & Tires and Siler City Automotive winterize cars as a part of normal service.
“We winterize cars when we do oil changes,” Brower said. “We start winterizing in August, because by the time people hit the 3,000 miles for their next oil change, it may already be the dead of winter.”
Joel Caviness doesn’t just have to worry about his own vehicle during the winter. As Chatham County Schools’ director of transportation, he has to make sure that more than 200 of the school district’s vehicles, including 140 buses, are performing at the optimal level.
Because Chatham County and Chatham County Schools share a Joint Transportation and Vehicle Maintenance Facility, Caviness and his 14 employees are also responsible for the care of 275 vehicles belonging to the county.
“We keep an eye on them all year long,” Caviness said.
He said that there’s no special preparation for the winter any different than the rest of the year.
“We do make sure the wipers are working properly, and we change them out if they are worn,” he said. “We are always monitoring the coolant. The tires are constantly checked and changed if they need to be. We try to make the vehicles ready to handle all seasons.”
