Winterizing your car, pickup or SUV is mechanical insurance that can pay dividends this winter

Winter is coming. Time to start thinking

about winterizing your car, truck or SUV.
Think of it as mechanical insurance.

It’s a frigid night in January. The wind is cutting like a knife. All you want to do is run out to your SUV, jump in, start the SUV and, as you start to get some heat in there, drive home. But, when you try to start the car … NOTHING!

Or, maybe your car will start but your wipers are leaving big streaks and, apparently, you windshield fluid is frozen. You’re driving but your struggling to see where you’re going.

Then again, your pickup truck may start but you’re not getting any heat out of the vents. Not only are your shaking from the cold, but the windshield keeps fogging up and, once again, you can’t see where you’re going.

Your antifreeze may have frozen. Your tires may not provide the traction you need on ice and/or snow-covered roads. Your brakes aren’t up to the task and the slippery conditions make it dangerous when you want to stop. You may also find you have a headlight that’s out, compounding the problem of visibility on a winter night. Or some of your signal lights are out and other drivers are having a hard time seeing you or recognizing your intentions.

All of these are issues that are pertinent when winter arrives. If you have any of these problems, you could be in serious trouble. But, even short of a major problem, the inconvenience they could cause is something you’d probably prefer to avoid.

Let’s take the first example – your SUV won’t start. If you’re in a bad neighborhood, that’s not a pretty picture. If you’re out somewhere with no one else around, can you get help or will you be trying to avoid frostbite in a little while?

Those are extreme examples of what you might face in a situation like that. But even if it’s not a crisis. Maybe someone comes by with jumper cables to help you start your SUV, do you really want to jump out of the vehicle, pop the hood and hookup the cables while you’re hoping it will start?

The old Poor Richard quote, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is spot on when it comes to preparing your vehicle for the winter ahead.

You might skip the process of winterizing your vehicle and come through winter like a rose, not that you’d want to bet on it. But if you prepare your vehicle with some simple winterizing, you’ll have a far better chance at a problem-free winter driving experience.

Over the course of several weeks to come, we will be discussing what you need to do, or have a trusted auto repair technician do, to properly winterize your vehicle.

Winterizing your car is mechanical insurance that will help to keep you safely on the road all winter long. It’s well worth the effort and now is the time to start thinking about it.

Comments

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

October 20 Hootenanny will benefit veterans with PTSD

Been to a Hootenanny lately? When you read that question did you ask, “What?” Well, if you have gone to a Hootenanny in a while, or if you don’t know what a hootenanny is, we have an event for Oct. 20 that will clear up either question. From 6 p.m. to Midnight, Saturday, Oct. 20, MC3, the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce business networking group, is helping to host an inaugural Veterans R&R Wild Horse Hootenanny at Beyond Stable Farm (11129 Rte. 176, Woodstock). The event will benefit Veterans R&R Operation Wild Horse. Operation Wild Horse serves veterans with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Working with the horses has proven to have an incredibly calming effect on the veterans. And, it’s good for the horses, too, rescued wild mustangs. This means that the hootenanny is for a very good cause. But, it’s also a lot of fun. So, what is a hootenanny? According to a Google search, a hootenanny is “an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing.” The V...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog