Fall is here; time to get prepared for the rains and winter.
Rain, snow, and ice all come with fall and winter. Your tires are your first line of defense between you and the road. Poor tires are just plain dangerous for you and the other people on the road. Make sure your tires are in good condition. Check your tire pressure, the pressure is determined by the automobile manufacturer, not the tire company. You will find your recommended tire pressure on the driver’s door jamb, glove box lid or in your owner’s manual.
Coolant check, 50-50 mixture of antifreeze/water. That will bring it down to -34 the recommended level for winter and so the cooling system doesn’t corrode and rust.
Battery check. A battery receives its electric energy from chemical reactions. The colder it is, the less power a battery has. And on top of this, a cold engine requires more power to crank it over. Cold weather is a test for a battery. Get your battery checked before it deserts you. A good battery has a life of 6 years at the best.
Replace your windshield wipers every fall.
Make sure your heater operation, defrost and air conditioning (A/C) is working properly. A/C takes the moisture out of the air so your windows don’t fog up
Check your washer fluid and operation. Make sure your windshield is clean both inside and out, that the headlights are clean and adjusted correctly. Sight is 99% of the input for driving, make sure you can see.
When driving in the rain, I put Rain-x or another window polish on your windshield. It really improves your vision.
No need to warn up your vehicle before driving, it only wastes fuel and pollutes the air.
Just drive without putting the engine under heavy load until the temperature is normal. The only reason for warming it before driving is get ice off the windshield or warms the interior for you.
Better fuel mileage from just tires?
I just put a set of new tires on my Rav4 that claim to provide better fuel mileage. Can this be true? I have an app on my smart phones throughout the life of this vehicle that keeps track of my fuel mileage among other expensive. In the first 4 fill ups, my highway mileage is up 1.5 miles per gallon and my city driving is up about 1 mile per gallon. I will continue to keep checking this and report.
How is this done? The short answer is to have less rolling resistance, not as much energy is used.
On this subject of fuel mileage checks, it needs to be done over many fill ups to be able to truly know what you fuel mileage is.
Another point that I can bring up is some of the wonderful apps for smart phones to help you keep track of service internals, service cost, fuel cost and cost per mile to owe your vehicle. The app I have even tracks where I buy fuel and the time it takes to fuel up. It also graphs the mile per gallon and the fuel cost. It’s a really neat program for under $5.00 for the paid version. My is Car Care by KB Production for my IPhone . I know there are other great apps also.