Visiting friends and family for the holidays is great, but the happiness quotient tumbles markedly if you run afoul of mechanical problems during your travels. If you spend just a few minutes conducting visual inspections of your vehicles before you travel, you can avoid costly and potentially dangerous breakdowns that wreak havoc on your holiday plans and leave you stranded on the roadside in cold weather.
“The best time to prepare your vehicle for holiday travel and winter is now, before a trip begins and before severe winter weather arrives," says Bryan Gregory, director of consumer education for Advance Auto Parts. “There are a number of simple preventative maintenance items that any consumer can perform in their driveway.”
Here are a few important ones:
- Inspect your antifreeze while your engine is cold by using a tester to check the mixture for its freeze point. Simply remove the radiator cap and draw a small amount of antifreeze into the tester, and it will tell you how far your antifreeze will go before freezing, causing engine damage.
- Visually inspect all lights: marker bulbs, taillights, third-level brake lights and especially headlights and driving lights. The winter months provide less daylight, and that requires bulbs to work longer hours and may cause them to dim or burn out faster.
- Assess your tire-tread condition yourself or have it checked. Winter driving requires good traction in snow and ice, and tires with compromised tread don’t offer the grip and water-shedding ability that tires with proper tread do. You should also check your tire pressure regularly, especially in colder temperatures. Follow the pounds per square inch (PSI) recommendation typically found on the driver’s-side doorpost for maximum traction.
- Finally, have your charging system checked. It’s not something you can do at home, but service stations and retailers will do it for you, often at no charge. Cold weather makes your battery work much harder, so you want it in tip-top condition before driving to Grandma’s.
