Winter can be a very dangerous time of year to drive so it is important to make sure you prepare your car for the winter.  The unexpected snow, slippery ice, and dangerous driving conditions cause a lot of accidents every year.  To make sure you are as safe as possible try to winterize your vehicle before winter hits.  How can you prepare your vehicle for the winter?  Read below for some ideas!

Tires – How good are your tires?  When the roads get icy you want to make sure you have good tires with good tread marks.  If you’re tires are older, take them into the shop to get them looked at.  You want to be as safe as possible on those slippery roads, and good tires will help you with that.

Tire pressure – Always make sure your tires are properly inflated.  Not even just before winter but 365 days out of the year.  Not only can leaking tires cause major tire damage they can be very expensive to fit.  Flat tires call for dangerous driving.

Four- wheel drive – Does your vehicle have four-wheel drive?  If so make sure it’s working properly!  You never want to get on a slippery road and then find out your four-wheel doesn’t work.

Check your engine oil – It is always a good idea to check your engine oil before the winter time.  The cold makes it all the more difficult to keep up with your oil changes.  Make sure you are at a good level and the oil is still that light-medium brown color. 

Inspect the belts and hoses - You want to make sure you check these out before winter as well.  They usually last a long time on cars but there is never a set time for when they will die on you.  Cold temperatures can sometimes accelerate their lifetime.

Inspect wipers and windshield fluid – When there is an unexpected snow fall there is nothing more dangerous than driving and not being able to see.  When windshield wipers get old they tend to miss a lot of what needs to be taken off of the windshield to see.  Also when the salt gets really heavy in the winter it leaves awful white streaks on the windshield.  To be able to see you want to make sure you get good windshield wipers and make sure you have enough windshield wiper fluid at all times.

Check your battery – You don’t ever want to get stranded due to a dead car battery.  Cold temperatures can take your batteries life by 50%.  To make sure you don’t get the unexpected, get your battery tested at a local auto mechanic shop.  They can test how well it’s working and maybe determine how long it will last.

Check your antifreeze – You want to make sure you have a perfect mixture of 50% antifreeze and 50% water.  If you have an uneven mixture your fluids may freeze if the temperature hits 32 degrees.  Try to keep a good eye on this especially when the temperatures start to drop.

Emergency car kit- Do you have an emergency car kit?  If not you should create one as soon as possible.  We never know when the unexpected is going to happen.  Make sure you supply yourself with a flashlight, jumper cables, extra food and water, a warm blanket (or warm clothing), a bag of abrasive material to help you when you’re stuck (kitty litter, sand or salt – this helps create traction if you’re stuck and can’t move due to the ice), and snow scraper.

There is a lot to consider when preparing your vehicle for the winter.  To make sure you are safe this winter, winterize your vehicle as best as possible before the winter hits!