Spring has sprung, bringing with it that warmer weather we have been craving, and an opportunity to care for your vehicle, reviving it after a wet winter.
Long periods of fighting snow, cindered or salted roads, and frosty temperatures can negatively affect your vehicle, making seasonal change to spring a keen time to essential upkeep to post winter maintenance.
Our care in providing the right protection for you as you buckle up each day goes beyond the coverage and policies we match to you and your auto insurance needs– we want to provide a bit of a look at the essential post winter maintenance needed to make your vehicle comfortable and safe entering the new season.
Post Winter Maintenance on the Outside: Wash Away Winter’s Buildup
Post Winter Maintenance on the Outside: Wash Away Winter’s BuildupJust like when we get the itch to spring clean our homes, and clear away that build up of the season we are moving out of, you’ll get that same desire with your vehicle.
A great place to start? Washing away the grime of winter driving.
Driving in snow, and on salted or cindered roads, kicks up a lot of grime. Whether driving solo or in the thick mix of dirt being thrown around by other cars on the road, your whole vehicle is going to want a shower. Rinsing away the muck that has built up will help you remember what color your car is– and that is a satisfying place to start in pursuing these post winter maintenance tips.
Not only is it satisfying to watch the grime wash away, it’s also beneficial to your vehicle. A buildup of grime can cause rust and corrosion over time, if not appropriately removed. With salt being used on the roads to help with winter driving conditions such as ice, and its negative, corrosive effects on vehicles, it’s important to wash your vehicle (top to bottom, and the underside!) as a part of your post winter maintenance– especially if you are in one of the 25+ states that still utilize salt on their roads.
Post Winter Maintenance for Your Tires: Swap Out and Maintain
Snow and ice happen on roads in the winter, but sometimes the snow plows and road maintenance needed to navigate safely aren’t always aligned with everyone’s schedule. As a precaution to driving on snowy and potentially icy roads, and to ensure they have that winter foothold on the road, many drivers opt for the seasonal tire change to studded tires.
Becoming “TireWise” (as the Public Roadway Traffic Security Organization [NHTSA] calls it) is an essential part, not only of your post winter maintenance, but of overall safe driving. Studded tires, though providing extra layers of safety in the winter driving months, can become detrimental in the inapplicable months for the rest of the year. These tires wear and degrade roads at a faster rate, creating potential hazards in the quality of road you drive on for the other 3 seasons.
Having the right tires for the right time makes all the difference. Selecting the right tires for your vehicle and maintaining them with safe tread and the suggested PSI will not only make for a safer ride, but a more affordable ride as well!
Post Winter Maintenance for Your Fluids: Keep Your Car Going at Optimal Rates
Most of us know the importance of keeping up on the health and lifespan of the oil in our cars. Heck, most of us have that little sticker in the upper driver’s side window that reminds us when we need our next oil change.
Depending on age and design, some cars may need a different oil in the winter months compared to running in the hotter months of spring and summer. Just make sure if this is the case for your vehicle, you give your vehicle a nice oil update during our post winter maintenance.
What about all the other fluids that run through the veins of your car?
It’s always a good practice to check and top off the other fluids in your vehicles. Oftentimes there is more windshield fluid used in the rainy, snowy, and grimy months of winter, but that’s not the only fluid to check. Look at your brake fluid, coolant, power steering fluid, and transmission fluid.
Post Winter Maintenance for Your Battery: Commit to a Good Start Every Time
Post Winter Maintenance for Your Battery: Commit to a Good Start Every TimeI’m sure we all have been in a car at least once that just has a bit of a struggle to turn over in the cold winter months– a hard start if you will.
Winter can just be hard on batteries.
This is because of that magical chemical process in the battery itself that produces the needed electrical current actually slows down in colder weather. There are also the greater draws on the battery from increased accessory usage and increased starter draw. Due to this, the overall health of your battery may decrease at a faster rate.
To address the much needed post winter maintenance on your car battery, you can focus on a few things:
Remove any corrosive buildup around the battery terminals. Disconnect your battery first. Then, using a baking soda and water mixture with a stiff bristled toothbrush, you can brush away the built up gunk around your battery terminals.
Check your battery’s overall health. There are a number of auto parts stores and shops that offer a general battery health check up. This battery testing is often free of charge.
Post Winter Maintenance for Your Wiper Blades: Committing to Clear Vision in Spring Showers
Post Winter Maintenance for Your Wiper Blades: Committing to Clear Vision in Spring ShowersIt’s never fun to realize you need new wiper blades when you are caught in a spring storm. We often don’t fully realize the need for replacements until it’s too late.
With the thin sheets of ice and snow that cover our windshields throughout winter, and the often too-soon turn-on of our wiper blades, we degrade the thin rubber edge as it’s dragged across the rigid ice. This compromises the wiper blades ability to properly clear the water and vision-blurring elements when they start to build up on our windshields as we drive through our next storm.
Its always good practice to change your wiper blades with the season change. At any other time, take note of when they work and when they do not. At the very least, if you cant even remember the last time you changed them, its worth doing so. Nothing bad ever happens when you can see clearly.
Post Winter Maintenance on the Inside: So Fresh, So Clean
Post Winter Maintenance on the Inside: So Fresh, So CleanNo matter if it is a rainy or snowy winter, there most definitely dirt and mud that’s been tracked through your vehicle. Just as we started the post winter maintenance with that satisfying vision of all the grime being rinsed away as the exterior is cleaned, adding the finishing touches on the inside brings the whole vehicle revival together nicely.
We all have our preferred ways of cleaning the inside of our daily rides, but the main goal is to clean up the build up! You can vacuum deeply, wipe down the dash and doors, or wash the seat covers if you’re using them.
One key action to take that can benefit both your sensation of cleanliness but also your health is to replace your cabin air filter. Replacing this filter with a new one allows for a more efficient filter effect– that means less pollutants, allergens, and dust circulating in the cabin with you.
Post Winter Maintenance: The Extra Tips
Consult Your Owner’s Manual: Every car may have a unique suggestion according to the way they were designed and the way they ride. Its always good idea to reference your vehicle’s owner manual for any additional information or guidance that may help with your post winter maintenance.
Schedule a Professional Vehicle Check Up: We may not know every in and out to our entire vehicle, but thankfully there are those that do! Having a trusted mechanic that is familiar with your vehicle (At the very least the quirks of your make and model) can ensure that even the smallest indicator to something much bigger coming in the future.
Driving is a part of so many of our day to day lives. Driving in a vehicle that is clean, oftentimes leads to driving in vehicles that are cared for, maintained, and safe to drive.