Winter is just around the corner and you need to get your vehicle in tip-top shape for trouble-free driving. The good news is that winterizing your car doesn’t have to cost a bundle. You can perform most of these maintenance tasks yourself!
Keeping your cool
Let’s start with coolant. In the old days, you could check your coolant’s freeze protection with an inexpensive tester. But today there are several different kinds of coolants, so you have to match the tester to the type of coolant in your system. The different coolants cannot be intermixed and you should not substitute one for anther. A word of caution: Coolant manufacturers promote G-05 Yellow as a “Universal” coolant, but most car makers don’t agree with that claim. In other words, follow your car manufacturer’s specifications for coolant type, even if that means buying it directly from the dealer. Filling your vehicle with the right coolant at the proper intervals is far less expensive than replacing a corroded radiator, heater core, or water pump. Here’s a brief explanation of the different types of coolants.
Traditional Green coolant—This coolant uses silicates and phosphates as corrosion inhibitors. They act quickly to deposit a protective film on cooling system components. But they have a short service life. Change this coolant every 24-30 months or 24,000-30,000 miles.
Organic Acid Technology (OAT)—Used in late model vehicles, this coolant doesn’t have any silicates or phosphates. It is usually Orange (GM), Pink (Volkswagen/Audi), or Dark Green (Honda). This chemistry takes much longer to provide corrosion protection, but has a much longer life—in some cases as long as 5 years and 100,000 miles.
Hybrid OAT coolant (also known as G-05 yellow)—This hybrid formulation uses organic acids and silicates. The silicates offer better protection for aluminum components and can actually repair erosion damage caused by air bubbles in system. It’s the preferred coolant for many European car makers as well as late model Ford and Chrysler vehicles. Like OAT coolant, HOAT is also lasts much longer than traditional green coolant.
Whether you decide to flush the entire cooling system or just drain and refill the radiator, remember to use distilled (not reverse osmosis or tap) water to dilute the concentrate. Or buy the coolant premixed. Also remember that used coolant is considered toxic waste. You cannot dump it down the sewer or let it drain into the street. Take it to your local recycling center for disposal.
Keep the juice flowing
Fall is also the time to clean up your electrical system connections. Wide temperature swings, from freezing to several hundred degrees under the hood, can cause electrical connectors to expand, contract, and corrode. When that happens, you end up with starting problems and crazy behavior in computer controlled systems. Electrical corrosion are easy to prevent. Disconnect the battery terminals and clean the posts and terminal ends with a wire brush or battery terminal cleaning tool. Clean the top of the battery to remove any grease or battery acid corrosion. Then, disconnect the ground wire connections that run from the negative battery cable to the radiator support, engine block, or fender. Clean the connections and apply a light coat of dielectric grease (available at auto parts stores) to prevent future corrosion. Then reinstall the connections.
Speaking of batteries—consult your maintenance records to see when you last replaced yours. Many drivers try to squeeze every ounce of life out of their old batteries. That’s a bad habit that can leave you stranded when you least expect it. Car batteries rarely last longer than four years (even less in hot climates). If yours is older than that, it’s already living on borrowed time. You’re going to have to replace it anyway in the coming years. So why not replace it before the snow flies and save the cost and inconvenience of a tow or jump start?