5 Ways to Protect Your Car in Cold Weather

Do you live in a cool climate? The colder the weather, the riskier it is for your vehicle. These top tips can help you protect your car from those harsh elements, keeping your engine safe all year round.

The cold weather has the potential to completely drain your car’s battery. Not only that, but older vehicles can suffer dangerous cracks to the frame, harsh breakages of parts, and even split windscreens in the cold. Fortunately, humankind have developed many ways to protect our prized possessions over the years, even in the depths of winter.

Here are ways you can protect your car during winter, or even just a cold snap. Try the following tricks of the motor industry trade to keep your car running like a mid-winter’s dream.

Use Sand and De-Icer

Using de-icer stops you from throwing warm water on your windscreen. Warm water on your windscreen shocks the glass molecules and might cause shrinkage, breakage, or a full on implosion. Don’t risk it. Use a de-icer instead.

As for the sand, parking lot sanding and de-icing protects your tires from the roughest wear. IT stops you sliding out of your driveway and stops you driving on an ice rink when you return home. You can hire people to do it for you if you park your car in an open lot.

Think about a Car Cover

You can buy plastic covers which go over your entire car, thus keeping that deadly frost at bay. A car cover is not one-size-fits-all, so do make sure you buy the one made for your vehicle. A car cover will keep the worst of the wind and rain off your car in winter. However, it is no real substitute for a car port or garage.

Consider a Car Port

Car Ports are the obvious answers for cars left out in harsh conditions. They cost a fraction of the price to erect that a garage does. Of course, there are drawbacks. They have open sides, so sideways rain and wind still gets under it. They also don’t come with the second storey room addition potential of a car garage. However, they will keep the frost off your car and make it easier to start the engine first thing on an icy morning.

Don’t Take Battery Chances

Leaving your lights on or your music running while the car is idle is bad news at the best of times. However, in winter it is worse. Car batteries are temperature sensitive. This means they can lose their charge simply because of the extremes in cold. Keeping your battery topped up will work wonders for getting you through the winter without false starts. Don’t take any chances with that battery. If it fails often, have the mechanic check your alternator.

Change Your Tires

There is such a thing as a seasonally appropriate tire. In places where winter brings lots of snow, garages will sell snow tires. These are specific to the bad weather and come with the extra grip you need to stay on the road. Nothing says protecting your vehicle against cold like changing out for your winter tires.