Is Your Ride Ready for Winter?

When we think about getting our vehicle ready for winter most of us think about the coolant. We use one of those squeeze bulbs watching how many of those colored balls float. If enough of them are floating for the cold weather we call it good. This is very important but you may have some other things in want of attention that I like to do before winter.  Having no shop to get out of the weather makes this even more of a priority. Winter usually means wet conditions for long periods of time. For me, this means I want to make sure my brakes and tires are in good shape. This is easy to check. I feel sorry for you if you just found out you need new tires. That kinda hurts the piggy bank. While I’m checking the brakes I go ahead and check the wheel bearings. That is one place you do not want moisture! If the bearings are good I just re-pack them to keep that water out.  While the wheels are off I like to get the grease gun out and lube all the zerks I can find. This keeps the moisture out of all these joints too. Next on the list would be wiper blades. I like to check my windshield washer fluid setup too. On this old truck the washer fluid lines can get clogged or cracked. Kinda hard to get that ice film off with no fluid. Speaking of old trucks, might as well make sure that defrost works! Here is a fix I had to do on the 99 XJ
The colder it gets the harder that battery has to work. Might want to swing in a place like Les Schwab to check your cold cranking amps.  We wouldn’t want you to be late for work on the first 10 degree day! Oh last thing I can think of, if you ended up getting those new tires, make sure your tire chains fit before you need them.

Please comment and let me know what you like to check before snow flies!