Posted on 12/1/2018
Several decades ago (prior to about 1980), winterizing your car was often a complicated ritual, but critical if you wanted your car to start when the temperature dropped. Luckily, modern cars don’t need quite as much babying when the weather turns cold, because nowadays automotive technology is such that cars can start in extremely frigid temperatures without the need for a lot of special winterizing preparations. However, if you want your vehicle to start on cold mornings and run well when the cold weather hits, it’s still important to prepare your car for winter by doing a few simple things (or having your auto mechanic do them). Switch to winter-grade oil in the winter. Motor oil thins as it heats and thickens as it cools. In colder weather, thinner oil is better. The first number in the oil specification index for a motor oil indicates the oil viscosity; for example, 5W-30 is more viscous than 10W-30, and if you generally use 10W-30 oil in the warmer months, switching ... read more