Preparing your car for winter can take as little as a few minutes before a journey, potentially saving you from a breakdown.
Cold, wet and damp conditions will soon expose any faults that have been developing through the year, so follow these basic tips to keep your car on the road during the harsh weather.
Winter Car Maintenance Checklist
As winter approaches, there are a few things that you should pay more attention to than normal. We will include tips on the following:
Tyre Safety
Battery Care
Antifreeze
Bulbs
Wipers
Winter Car Kit
Tyre Safety
It is essential to regularly check your tyre’s pressure, condition and tread depth, especially during the winter.
The legal minimum tread depth is 1.6mm, but it is recommended that during harsher, colder times of year to keep them above 3mm. You can easily check this using any tyre depth gauge.
Your tyre pressure can be checked using a pressure gauge. The recommended pressure can be found in your vehicle handbook, not on the tyre! That will be it’s maximum possible load and is not specific to your vehicle.
Regularly check the condition of your tyres by looking over them for any cuts or bulges.
Car Battery Maintenance
We recommend that you pay extra attention to your car battery during colder weather. Use a multimeter to check its charge.
Keep your battery clean using a baking soda and water solution.
If stored for long periods of time, use a smart charger to maintain its charge.
You can read more about how to care for and maintain your car battery on our blog.
For more information on Yuasa’s full range of batteries – Read here.
Top Up With Antifreeze
It’s is extremely important that you top up your antifreeze when temperatures drop below freezing. The mixture of antifreeze to water should be 50/50, and you may need to top it up with more antifreeze overtime as it will slowly dilute.
You can find out how effective your antifreeze is with a tester. Simply dip the tube into your coolant reservoir and squeeze the rubber ball to suck some of the coolant into the tester and it will give you the freezing point of the coolant.
Learn more about antifreeze and how it works https://www.apd.co.uk/blog/antifreeze
Check your Lights
Look over your lights for any cracked lenses or blown bulbs. Make sure to inspect and test your sidelights, main beam, high beam, indicators, rear lights and number plates lights. Also, your fog lights if you have them, but remember that some vehicles will only have one fog light.
If they are all in order, give them a wiper down with a cloth to improve visibility. If not, you can order replacements from https://www.apd.co.uk/bulbs.
Windscreen and Wipers
If you notice that your wipers are not very effective, leaving streaks or smears and if they have any cracks or tears along the rubber, they most likely need replacing.
You can find replacement wipers easily on our site https://www.apd.co.uk/wipers and it will only take you five minutes to change them over. Read up on our wiper blade FAQs.
Keep your screen wash topped up as you don’t want to run out when you have a grimy windscreen. With a clean windscreen, check for any cracks as they can worsen in the cold weather.
Winter Car Kit
Finally, we recommend that you keep some winter essentials in your car all the time in case of an emergency or a breakdown.
- Hi-Vis Jacket/clothing
- Ice scraper and de-icer
- A torch with spare batteries
- A phone charger
- A snow shovel
- A blanket or spare warm clothing
- Emergency Snacks
Use our Vehicle Registration Lookup to get the exact part for your vehicle