Be kind to your car

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

x-posted to b0st0n

Ok, folks, we have the first really severe cold weather of the year, and it's time to remind everyone of some basic car-care tips to help your ride survive the weather.



First of all, it is uber-important to take the time to warm your car up in the morning. Let the engine run for 5 to 10 minutes before you take off. Remember, your motor oil is about the consistency of molasses in a freezer and until it warms up, won't be doing squat to protect your engine. Same goes for your transmission fluid as well. If you don't allow them to warm up, your engine and tranny have next to no protection. Which leads to this.....

Metal doesn't like cold. Metal gets brittle. Metal can easily fatigue and snap. This goes for your engine parts, the transmission, and your suspension. If you roar off doing your usual Thunder Road trip and hit a pot hole, you will snap your suspension. Which in some instances would be fitting karmic revenge, but generally, most of you are pretty decent folks who don't deserve such a fate. For those who do deserve it, most likely this will happen in a place that will inconvenience the most amount of people, like the Expressway at 4pm. Take it slow and easy, especially when you first get going.

When you start your car and put on your heater, do not run the defrost at full blast. Why? Because you will cause the windshield to expand and it may well crack or shatter. Even just the sun, as weak as it is, can cause this to happen. Run your heater first or if you run the defroster, don't run it at high temperature. And when you drive, be aware of any strange noises, especially cracking ones that indicate your windshield is letting go. Under the worst-case scenario, the whole thing may shatter as you're driving. Be aware and keep your stereo turned down when you're driving at a decent clip, just so you can be a little better prepared.

A few maintenance tips. Keep your gas tank at least half full. Before they started adding ethanol to gas, it was a good idea to add drygas, which is just alcohol, to your gas. I'm not sure if ethanol has the similar qualities and if anyone is a mechanic or just knows the answer to this, let us know.

Check your antifreeze. As the name implies, it will keep your engine from freezing and if you are low or the antifreeze in your engine is weak, your engine block can freeze and crack and then you have major major problems and may as well just set your car on fire and blame it on the neighborhood thugs. If you're not mechanically inclined, you can buy pre-mixed antifreeze and add it yourself to your reservior, usually located on the front passenger side of the engine and has a hot/cold level mark on it.

Check your windshield washer fluid too. I recommend the low-temperature yellow/orange fluid, rather than the blue. Lower freezing temperature. Quick fix too is a bottle of common rubbing (isopropyl) alchohol dumped into the washer fluid tank if your lines happen to freeze. Also, a tip I learned from a mechanic- let your windshield wipers warm up a bit before using them. They get cold and brittle and won't do squat until they regain their flexibility.

Get yourself a little thing of de-icer for your locks in case they freeze. Another quick fix is to hit your lock and/or your key with a lighter.

When you park at night, turn off all your electrical things- headlights, radio, heater fan, etc- and let your engine run for a couple of minutes. This will help charge your battery to full and that little extra bit might make the difference between your car turning over in the morning or just sitting there coughing and mocking you.

Good luck and stay warm everyone!

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[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

That's me. A free radical.