ready for winter?

[Piggy1987]

are you ready??

http://youtu.be/WNmiwpNua_A

[PeterN]

Nice clean engine compartment. I don't do anything to mine, just get in and drive it.

Peter

[Rolebama]

Sorry, but every car should be in a state of preparedness for winter all year round. All the checks should be done on a regular basis. What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that the point of regular checks is to show them there is a problem rather than suffer a 'sudden' failure.

[PeterN]

I was covering about 30,000 miles a year when I was working and apart from regular oil changes and checks I just did things as and when necessary and attended to faults when they occurred, Didn't have time to do things that may or may not need doing.

Peter

[Piggy1987]

@rolebama....its ok, apology accepted

it would be nice for everyone to do these checks on a regular basis...but heres hoping.

so if people would at least do these now, then they may save themselves some bother, or us when they are broken down causing tailbacks!!

[Welly]

There's a few 'extra' things I do for winter:

I stock up on Screen Wash throughout the year as and when I see it on offer (I remember in 2010 most local stores ran out of the stuff) and I run approx 50 to 75% mix.

I use a Silicone lubricant on the door rubbers because I got fed up of the doors freezing shut in the mornings.

I fit my Winter Tyres because I was lucky to bag a nice set second hand (this will be their third Winter and still have 5mm tread).

Other than that, keep the Glass clean inside so the windows don't mist up so much and that's about it really. The Antifreeze was flushed and replaced with long life stuff about 3 years ago so that's all good.

[Doggy]

There's a few 'extra' things I do for winter:

Did you miss these....

Functional test heated levvers
Reprogram alternate seat/mirror positions from 'autumn low sun avoidance' to 'space for winter coat' mode.

.....don't mention it, old chap.

[steve_earwig]

Nice clean engine compartment.

Indeed, very neat too considering the amount of plumbing in there.

I've finally managed to watch all of this vid, I don't have any objections to the checks, yes people should be doing a lot of these things anyway but I reckon it's worth a final check as it'll all be under more stress that normal and anyway, this is the last chance before it's minus something daft - do you really want to do all this next month with icicles hanging off your hooter?

I'm not sure about these "garages will test them for free" suggestions, I can imagine lots of sucking of teeth and replacement of stuff that's not needed. Most batteries probably won't be able to keep up with demand anyway, so they'll need the odd extra charge.

As far as I remember most TWIs are less then 1.6mm anyway, so if it's down to that then your tyres have been illegal/dangerous for months. Also, tyre looks a bit shiny, I suspect the OP gets through them too quickly to worry about but tyres can also be too old, when they go hard and will have almost no grip in the wet.

Winter tyres - 7 degrees, spot on, all 4 corners or it'll catch you out. The legal limit here on winter tyres is 4mm, make of that etc.

Very nice bag of goodies, bottle of water for you and/or your car, cookies, I have some dog blankets in the car all year around anyway. These days jump leads need a spark arrester (or whatever it's called) or it can fry the flimsy electronics of moderns...

[Bailes1992]

Most of these are basic checks that should be done once a week anyway! Even when I was doing 1200miles a week, working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week I managed to get them done, so there's no excuse really!
Every Friday morning I check all my fluids and top up my screenwash. Then I drive down to the petrol station, check my tyre pressures and tank up with diesel.

I keep jump leads, a tow rope, two hi vis jackets, set of lamps, assortment of fuses, a fire extinguisher, a compressor, few litres of water, screenwash and a litre of oil in the boot at all times. You'll be amazed at how often these things come in handy! I have a plastic box with a lid that everything fits into quite happily.
There's usually a bottle of two stroke oil floating around too but that gets added to my diesel.

I keep meaning to get a set of winter boots but every time this time of year comes around I've usually found myself spending so much money on other things I find it hard to spend money on a set of tyres. That said I've never got into any trouble with my summer boots, even in thick snow! But I would really like a set of steel wheels with some winter tyres.

I also drop down to a 0w30 oil for it's increased flow rate when cold. For the sake of an extra £30 over standard 5w30 oil I feel it's worth it. The oil light goes off much quicker and the clattering of the valvetrain that you get with all engines for a few seconds after starting from cold goes away much faster.

[GingerMagic]

I check my cars fluids just before I do a long journey - or when a light comes on.... but I do try to look after the battery during the winter as far as letting the car tick over for a bit before using the heater/lights/wipers etc

I did fit some winter tyres today, on some old 406 coupe rims, I normally wouldn't bother but as the tyres were £50 for 4 on eBay...

[Welly]

Does anyone else depress the clutch when starting their engine? I do. It's a bit old school but takes a bit of effort away from the starter/battery.

[GingerMagic]

Yes, I've always done that - otherwise the starter motor is turning the gears in the gearbox too....

[scotty73]

Does anyone else depress the clutch when starting their engine? I do. It's a bit old school but takes a bit of effort away from the starter/battery.

Yes but in the past (Until i bought the C5) all my cars have had shite handbrakes so the cars were always left in gear.... And I still leave it in gear through force of habit now.

[DaiRees]

Does anyone else depress the clutch when starting their engine?

I have to, it won't start without it.

Putting the winter boots on this weekend, it's been too mild for them thus far Only one cold morning last week and another one this morning, other than that it's consistently been above 7deg.

[Welly]

Just phoned a few places to fit my Winters this season (swapping tyres on the same rimz).

Was £40.00 last 2 years.

Place 1: £60.00
Place 2: "we're not fitting your tyres"
Place 3: £63.50



Place 3 is a mobile service so I'm getting them in to save on pez, and they can be fitting me tyres while I carry on working.

Fitting this Friday.