Crucial Car Services to Prepare for the Cold Season

NSW is home to some of Australia's chilliest cities, including Cooma, Berridale, and Woolbrook. If you recently moved to any of the cities, you should understand that cold weather can do a number on your car. Notably, extremely low temperatures affect car performance unless you prepare the vehicle accordingly. Luckily, you can take certain steps to ensure that your vehicle is ready for the cold weather. This article highlights maintenance services you should perform on your car before the frigid season arrives.

Clean Headlights

One thing synonymous with cold weather is reduced visibility on roads. However, you will be surprised by the number of motorists who go into the winter season with dirty and cloudy headlights. With visibility reduced to a couple of metres during cold seasons, foggy lights can lead to accidents. Furthermore, headlights tend to lose their luminosity during winter, making matters worse if you already have cloudy lights. Therefore, you must take your car to a garage for professional headlight cleaning. Clearing cloudy headlights is easy with abrasive cleaning agents, such as baking soda, that do not harm the plastic covering. In case of UV damage, professional-grade polishing compounds are necessary. Ultimately, driving into the winter season with clear headlights guarantees your safety on the road.

Top-Up Antifreeze

You already know that the engine in your car can get really hot; therefore, a radiator is necessary to keep the motor cool at all times. Notably, a radiator achieves the function by circulating water around an engine to absorb excess heat. However, water freezes during winter, putting your engine at risk. Therefore, it is critical to add antifreeze to a car engine's cooling system to prevent the water from freezing. Over time, antifreeze levels under the hood reduce, exposing a car engine to frigid conditions. While motorists should top up antifreeze once every 5 years, winter conditions call for a refill.

Test the Battery

Low temperatures can adversely affect the performance of a car battery, especially if it has not been serviced in a long time. Thus, battery servicing is critical if you consider that a flat and faulty battery is one of the major causes of vehicle breakdowns in icy conditions. In addition, a mechanic will clean the terminals to ensure no deposits affect energy flow. You should also get an insulating blanket ready if you do not have one. The blanket maintains temperatures within a battery for optimal performance.

Call a car service for help.