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Winter Prep for Your Kanata Car

Is your car ready for another Canada winter? Here’s a quick checklist of things for you or Kanata garage to look at.

Oil
Your car’s oil needs to be changed. No one likes to do it, but heading into winter a Kanata oil change is even more important as motor oil has a tendency to thicken in cold weather, making it harder to circulate to upper engine parts at startup. Older oil will thicken even faster. If you haven’t ever used synthetic oil before, ask your Kanata auto technician if this is an option for your car. Synthetic oil is more expensive, but it doesn’t thicken in sub-freezing temperatures.

Wipers
Even top-of-the-line windshield wipers only last about a year. The last place you want to be caught is on a Kanata highway with wipers that won’t get rid of the grit and grime from snow removal trucks and other vehicles.  We’ve all been there and it is terrifying – make sure you get new wiper bldes so you don’t face that again.

Cooling system
If you can’t remember the last time your coolant was changed, it’s pretty easy for a technician to test it. Remember that coolant, a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and distilled water, prevents engine freezing.

Heater and defroster
Since the heater is part of the cooling system, a flush of the system will help remove any scale or corrosion that may have built up in the heater core.

Tires:
Make sure your tires are in good shape, with plenty of tread depth, and check the inflation. Remember that air expands when hot, so be sure to check tire pressure when the tires are still cold. That also means they’ll lose a couple of pounds of air pressure when the temperatures are really cold.

You can’t do much about winter weather, but you can at least up your chances of getting through it unscathed when your car’s in good shape for winter driving!