Tips to keep your vehicle running well this winter

Winter is upon us, along with the cold weather, and there are a few helpful tips to keep our vehicles running properly.

Now days it is a great deal easier for us to winterize our vehicles. Cars and trucks are now made to deal with the colder temperatures.

Cliff Anderson, a service worker at Krapohl Ford Lincoln-Mercury said, “It’s not like the old days when you had to flush out the cooling system every 30,000 miles and the belts and hoses did not last as long.”

There are precautions that Anderson said should still be done. Make sure your anti-freeze is full and make sure you have decent tires. Also, make sure that your washer fluid is full.

“Sometimes the roads get pretty sloppy and there is a lot of salt spray,” Anderson said. “That’s a terrible time to run out of washer fluid.”

Melissa Schlicht, a service worker at Heritage Automall Inc, also offered some helpful tips to keep your vehicle running well this winter.

Make sure that your wiper blades have no rips or tears in them.

Make sure your tire depth and pressure is good. In cars you want the tires with the best tread depth in the front, and on trucks the tires with the best tread depth in the back.

Clean your battery post because it can get corroded. This can be done with brake cleaner and a wire brush.

Lastly, make sure you have a blanket, flashlight, and anything else you may need in case you do break down.

“Anything can happen out there,” Schlicht said. “You need to be prepared for anything a Michigan winter can bring.”