Car Care Tips – 5 Steps to Winterizing Your Car

January and February are typically the coldest months of the year in Atlanta, and the weather can put a strain on your car. Here are a few tips to prevent little problems from becoming bigger ones, and help you to avoid major repairs or the inconvenience of being stranded in icy weather:

  1. Check your battery. The power your battery has available to start your car is diminished at cold temperatures. If your car batter is more than three years old, be sure to have it checked. Batteries in modern cars give very little warning before they fail, so it’s best to replace batteries that are nearing the end of their rated life.
  2. Check your antifreeze. When temperatures fall below freezing at night, vehicles without sufficient antifreeze in the cooling system are at risk of freezing solid. If this happens, expensive damage to radiator and hoses can occur, or even more serious damage if you run the engine with the cooling system frozen. There are several kinds of antifreeze in use today, and not all types are compatible with each other. Motorcars International can quickly determine if your car has the correct type, test it to make sure it is doing its job, and clean and replace your coolant if needed.
  3. Check your wipers. This is one of the simplest but most important things you can do. Visibility is key to driver safety, and winter weather makes it hard enough to see without being handicapped by worn-out wiper blades or an empty washer reservoir.
  4. Check your tires. Have you been putting off getting a new set of tires? When roadways are slick with ice and rain you need all the traction your can get, so if your tires are down to 1/16” of tread or less it’s time to replace them. Proper inflation pressure is important too!
  5. Check your thermostat. Does your heater take forever to warm up the car? It could be that your radiator thermostat has failed. Not only does this make winter driving uncomfortable, it also negatively affects your engine’s performance. The good news is replacing a stuck thermostat is quick and inexpensive, so why not bring your car in today?

The professional technicians at Motorcars International will check all of these things and more to make sure your vehicle will be ready for another wet, cold winter in Atlanta – or even that skiing trip out west!

Business Hours:
8:00am - 6:00pm
Monday through Friday

 

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