If your tires are sliding, your brakes are grinding, or your windshield wipers are skidding, it's probably time to give your car a little maintenance before the onset of winter weather.
Many drivers have their oil changed and are back on the road 10 minutes later with no idea if anything else in the car needs work, according to Brian Wilson, the owner of Integra Tire in North Vancouver.
"It's a good thing to get your oil changed but there's a heck of a lot more to a vehicle," says Wilson, noting it's important to get tires rotated or they'll end up burning off the front tires because the fronts do 70 per cent of the work.
Regularly rotating your tires is a good way to ensure even wear on all four tires.
Drivers also often forget to regularly change their car's differential fluid, transfer case fluid and transmission fluid, according to Wilson. As the roads get colder, darker, and more slippery, Wilson also stresses the importance of having a mechanic pull off your car's wheels and inspecting the brakes.
"If the brakes are down to 20 per cent you know a brake job needs to be done in the near future," he says. "If you're not getting those brakes inspected you won't know that until all of a sudden you start hearing this horrible squealing or grinding as the warm brake pads are cutting into your rotor."
A car's coolant system is also essential and often overlooked, according to Wilson. "Coolant does age and after a number of years it can turn acidic so that it actually starts working against the innards of your engine because it can react with aluminum components," he says.
Radiator hoses tend to deteriorate from the inside and should be changed every 10 years or 200,000 kilometres, according to Wilson. Wilson also advises regularly checking the tire pressure.
Tire pressure tends to drop as the temperature falls, which is bad for gas mileage. Over-inflation can cause extra wear in the middle of the tire.
When it comes to putting on snow tires, Wilson recommends making the switch at about 7 C. When it's that cold, a summer tire or an all-season tire is not going to be performing well because the rubber compounds are going to get harder as it gets colder, and you could lose traction. For Wilson, all-season tires are a misnomer. "An all-season tire is really a three-season tire," he says, adding that a tire performing equally well in summer's heat and winter's cold is "physically and chemically impossible."
When it comes to visibility, Wilson reminds drivers to replace their wiper blades. "It's amazing how many streaky wiper blades we see," he says. "Wiper blades basically are only good for about a year. If you get two years out of a set of wiper blades they've done well for you."
Drivers should also get out of their car from time to time to make sure the headlights, turn signals and brake lights are all in working order. Besides dim bulbs, drivers should also be sure their headlights are properly aimed. While a backyard mechanic with a decent set of tools and an owner's manual can fix some problems, Wilson says a mechanic needs a lot of training to diagnose engine problems. He says he's seen many jobs that were made worse by uninformed tinkering.
"It happens regularly," he says, noting the first thing they've got to do is diagnose what the driver did wrong to find out "what we need to do right."
