As we all saw on Halloween, winter in Wisconsin is here despite what the official report says about our seasonal changes. This means at least another six months of waking up in the cold mornings and driving your cold car through the snow to work, or school or wherever it is you go.
There are a few important things we should all do to our cars to prepare them and ourselves for another bitter winter in Milwaukee. This list won’t guarantee you have a wonderful driving experience this winter, but it will at least help cut costs long-term, help make sure your car gets you where you need to go and avoid any potential crashes on the way.
Tires
Tires are the absolute most important part of your car when driving in snowy winter climates. At the very least your tires should be all-season tires with good tread, roughly seven to eight 32nds of an inch deep. To easily tell if you need new tires, try the penny test. Put the coin upside down and stick it in the tread’s rib. If Lincoln’s head is fully visible, it’s time for new tires.
Snow tires are the most preferred tire choice during winter in Wisconsin because they improve stopping, cornering grip and acceleration grip which all help keep your car on the road and get you out of plowed-in parking spots with less shoveling. Installing a set of snow tires is probably the most expensive item on this list, but they will also almost completely insure your car never gets stuck in the snow or ice.
Battery
Car batteries typical only last about three to five years and the extreme cold of Wisconsin winters only makes them weaker when it comes time to start your car. If your battery is more than five-years-old you should think about replacing it before you end up needing to call AAA when it’s 5 degrees and your car won’t start. Keeping your car in a heated or at least enclosed garage will help lengthen the life of your battery.
Wiper Fluid and Blades
Wiper fluid contains a lot of water, and because of this it starts to freeze as the temperature drops. Make sure to replace your wiper fluid with fluid that is rated for lower temperatures because if it freezes in your car not only does it not spray onto your windshield, but the expanding ice can also crack the reservoir causing all the fluid to leak out once it thaws.
Wiper blades should also be replaced before winter really starts to set in because nobody likes to replace worn out wiper blades in the middle of a snowstorm. Good condition wiper blades also help a lot with visibility during snowstorms or just to clear salt spray from other cars off the windshield.
Engine and Cabin Air Filters
Fall brings lots of fallen leaves on your car. These leaves have a tendency to get sucked up into the engine air filter inlet and get stuck on the filter along with other dirt that can clog it. The same thing happens with the air inlet that brings air from outside into your car for the heating and air condition ventilation system inside. Replacing both of these filters can usually be done without the assistance of a mechanic for under $50 in an afternoon. You can help eliminate some of the body smells in your car if you upgrade your cabin filter to one that is charcoal infused too.
Clean your Car
This is especially true if your car sits outside its whole life because far more leaves and dirt collect in the water drains and other cervices between the panels. Clogged water drains for the sunroof or doors can cause the interior carpet to get damp after a rain or even completely pool-up with water. Wet carpets not only get moldy and smell bad, but the extra moisture can kill expensive electronics inside the car. You can usually clean out these crevices and drains by looking up where the drains are on your car and poking the clog out with your finger, washing it all out with water from a hose and drying with a shop-vac on reverse or leaf blower.
Cleaning the underside of your car by going through a touchless car wash is also important because Wisconsin roads have so much salt on them which corrodes the metal underneath your car. Rust on the bottom of your car can eat through brake lines, fuel lines, emergency brake cables and even more important components. So, it is important to keep it clean, especially on older vehicles. Cleaning the inside of your windows can also make a huge difference on visibility in the winter when your windows start to fog up and you see all those streaks everywhere on your windshield.
Use roadside assistance programs
Getting stuck in a ditch in the middle of nowhere when it’s snowing is not a place anyone wants to be. Unfortunately, most drivers don’t even think about this kind of thing happening until it actually happening until it does, and then they have to go through all the extra steps and payments to signup for a roadside assistance program or face the wrath of private towing companies charging upwards of $175 just to pull a four-door sedan out of a snowy ditch.
Roadside assistance programs have the added benefit of offering assistance other than towing and recovery. AAA offers to send someone out to your location to jumpstart your car, replace the battery and even deliver you gas. While the initial cost of a membership to one of these programs seems expensive, just using the assistance once pays off because most private tow truck operators charge far more than the initial membership fee to tow your car just a few feet.