Getting My Car Ready for Winter Storage

Published Oct 31st 2016, 6:00am by Brandy A. Schaffels in Featured Articles

Yikes! As much as I don’t like to think about it, winter is just around the corner.

Right now, many of us are enjoying the beautiful fall weather and watching the leaves change colour. I will enjoy this as well, but in the back of my mind, I’m also thinking about the things I need to do to get ready for winter. I need to put my gardens to bed by pulling out and trimming back lots of plants, pile firewood since that’s my primary heat source, get out my snow shovel, put away the lawn tractor and the list goes on.

The other thing I need to do is get my car ready for winter storage. Maybe you have a car that you store in the winter as well?

Here are some things I do to get my baby put to bed for the winter.

I call my insurance company and drop my coverage down to fire and theft only beginning on November 1.
Have an oil change performed, since I don’t want to have dirty oil laying in the oil pan throughout the winter.
Wash my car. I don’t like to leave brake dust on my rims all winter long since it can damage the paint.
Fill up the gas tank to the top and add fuel stabilizer. This can be bought at any automotive parts supplier. Read the instructions regarding how much to add.
Put Irish springs soap in my glove box and other areas of my car. I want my car to smell fresh when I bring it out in the spring. :) That’s not the only reason though; mice don’t like the smell of the soap, so I am trying to deter them from wintering in my car. Mice seem to like my cabin air filter. They can also chew your wires and you end up with phantom electrical problems.
Pump up the tires with an additional 5 to 10 pounds of air. I don’t want my tires to feel like the Flintstones (square blocks) when I bring my car out in the spring.
Hook up my battery maintainer. This keeps my battery from going dead in the winter and doesn’t really use much energy
Put on my car cover!

Now it’s already for its winter sleep until April when I get to bring it back out!

Race car driver, educator, safety advocate, TV personality, Kelly Williams started racing cars at 17 years old and continued to race for 15 years. Now she works in the automotive industry, teaching women about taking care of their vehicles. She also teaches performance driver training with BMW as well as other manufacturers, keeps busy as a spokesperson for Be Car Care Aware, hosts ladies' Car Care clinics across Canada, and has recently launched a new consumer website www.KellysGarage.ca