Winter Vehicle Maintenance
During the winter months, it is more important than ever that your vehicle is in good condition and well-maintained to keep you safe from breaking down when the weather is at its worst.
There is nothing worse than being stuck at the side of the road on a cold, windy, wet and dark winter night.
To avoid such inconvenience, here are a couple of tips to help you keep moving:
- Make sure your battery is in good condition & is fully charged. A faulty battery will let you down, undoubtedly at the most inconvenient time - so if in doubt replace it before it fails!
- Have your vehicle fully serviced before winter starts, and have the anti-freeze tested.
- Check that your lights are clean and working.
- Always keep the windscreen and windows clean, and the washer bottle filled with screenwash at the correct concentration. This will prevent the solution from freezing in the washer bottle, or worse on your windscreen.
- Check all tyres for condition, correct pressure and tread depth. Motoring organisations advise at least 3mm of tyre tread for winter motoring, and certainly no less than 2mm.
- Use air conditioning for faster demisting and to reduce condensation on cold windscreen/windows.
Further winter vehicle maintenance tips from some of the UK breakdown recovery organisations can be found at:
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/seasonal/winter_motoring.html
http://www.greenflag.com/magazines/winter/uk/
http://www.rac.co.uk/news-advice/blog/post/2010/11/rac-patrol-tips-for-winter-driving/
