The recent cold snap may be over, but that does not mean winter is behind us.
With the first day of spring two months away, proper maintenance remains vital in keeping vehicles running smoothly and safely throughout the remainder of the winter months.
AJ Kowalsky, owner and operator of Straight to You Mechanical Services, provides car maintenance services in any private parking area.
From big engine replacements, to changing wiper blades, Kowalsky has a wide range of experience in the industry.
I spoke with Kowalsky about the importance of car maintenance during the winter months, common misconceptions and advice for those looking to extend their vehicles lifespan.
Ethan Seaborn: What are some common misconceptions people have about car maintenance when it comes to the cold?
AJ Kowalsky: Well with the cold temperatures, a lot of manufacturers think that cold is like -25 C but, in Calgary we’re hitting those -30 C, -35 C, -40 C plus wind chill temperatures and cars really are not happy to be operating in those temperatures.
You get so used to just getting in your car, firing it up, driving from A to B. But when it’s that cold, every piece of rubber is just solid and every fluid is thick and hard to move and it’s not lubricating well. The fuel is not turning into a gas as fuel that can actually light off. It’s staying liquid and it’s really hard for vehicles to run and like I said people get so used to being able to just go from A to B.
What are the most crucial routine maintenance tasks that vehicle owners often overlook in the winter months?
Definitely tire pressures. A great idea is to proactively get your vehicle to a shop for a winter check over, and that’s where a shop or a vehicle owner would be checking all the fluid levels. Making sure there’s no leaks, making sure the batteries working well, the vehicles starting well, a nice fresh oil change. That’s common that people do.
But less common is to adjust those tire pressures after it gets cold. After it gets cold is when the pressures drop and if you’re being proactive you’ve already done your winter maintenance service, you’ve already done your oil change. So you’re driving down the street with your low tire pressures very susceptible to tire blowout.
What advice do you have for individuals looking to prolong the lifespan of their vehicle and avoid those major repairs in the winter?
Familiarize yourself with the owner’s manual. I know it’s really tedious. Everyone who gets a car, either new to you or brand new from a dealership, there’s that huge 300-page owner’s manual. Nobody wants to go through every single page but it’s really important to familiarize yourself with where the fluid levels are to be able to check your coolant check, the oil level. There’s recommendations in there for tire pressures, as well as the maintenance schedules in it and the maintenance schedule it changes with every single vehicle so every make and model could have a different maintenance schedule.
Some vehicles are very straightforward where you’re looking at an oil change once a year and maybe new spark plugs every 100,000 kilometers and an engine air filter every couple of years. But some vehicles it’s a little more stringent that you kind of stick to that, especially when you start looking at some of the European imported stuff but really everything is getting quite complicated nowadays. Adhering to those maintenance intervals keeps a lot of the lubricating systems fresh and happy and that helps avoid breakdowns.
How does the cold impact car alarms on severe cold days?
It circles back a little bit to that owner’s manual. That will show you the different warning lights on your dash you could see — that will give a breakdown of what they could mean. One reason why that could be happening, and very common, I would lean towards looking at the battery. The battery could get quite weak in the cold temperatures and if the vehicle were to lose voltage from the battery, it would reset a lot of systems and it could propagate a lot of lights on the dash.
Why is it important to plug your car in?
The most common block heater that we see is heating the cooling system. When you plug it in, the coolant starts to get warmer and the coolant circulates through that engine block, circulates through the head of the engine, and that brings that up to a bit of a higher temperature.
I talked about that fuel kind of staying liquid because it’s too cold to really atomize or evaporate. Heating up that block will help that fuel to atomize, to evaporate, and to light, and if that fuel mixture lights off, then you will have an ignition and your engine will start. Once it starts then it can keep going. If it’s too cold to get that first ignition, it can’t start and you’re stuck cranking it over and then the battery gets weak, wears out, dies, and then that circles back to the lights on the dash.
For those looking for more information regarding winter car maintenance and driving, visit ama.ab.ca.
Editor’s note: This story has been edited for length and clarity
