Oil

Oil is the first area you need to pay attention to winterizing your vehicle. A thin and less viscous oil is better during the winter months, especially if you live in a place where it’s likely to get below freezing. When you take your car in for your fall oil change, switch out to 5W-30 motor oil. Of course, it’s always best to check your owner’s manual before making this kind of change. Your local Lehigh Valley Honda, Hyundai, Acura, and Suzuki dealership can help you decide which oil is best, as well.

Coolant

Next you need to consider your engine’s cooling system. Coolant doesn’t only keep your engine cool; it keeps your engine from corroding, and from freezing during cold weather. Make sure you have coolant that contains ethylene glycol, and that you have the right ratio of coolant to water. Generally speaking a car needs to have a 60% coolant and 40% water ration during the winter.

Battery

Oil and coolant help your engine, but the engine isn’t the only part of your car that needs some attention for the winter. Your battery is also vulnerable. During the winter, your battery’s capacity is reduced. Make sure your battery is in good shape, and that the cables, terminals and fluid all look good. Watch for cable breaks. Make sure the terminals are tight. uncover the refill hole of your battery, and check to see how the fluid looks. Add distilled water if the battery fluid is below the refill line. If you’re not comfortable checking the battery on your own, the folks at your Lehigh Valley repair shop can check it out for you.

Tires

Your tires could also use some preparation for winter. You can buy snow tires to use during the winter, especially if you live in an area that’s hard to get to during the winter. During the rest of the year, you want to use less aggressive tires, because those winter tires will definitely affect your fuel efficiency. Alternatively, you can use all-season tires year round.

Other preparations

Use a washer fluid that contains antifreeze components to help keep your window clear of frost and ice during the winter.

Keep a lock de-icer handy at all times for when your locks freeze up, too.

Finally, put an emergency kit that includes blankets, a radio, a flashlight, flares, oil, coolant and washer fluid in your trunk. An emergency kit like this can come in very handy during those winter months.

You see, your tires have a large impact on your gas mileage. If your tires aren’t inflated correctly, you’re going to lose gas mileage. Why is this? Well, it has to do with the way tires work.

The tires on your Acura, Honda, Hyundai, or Suzuki are similar to a balloon. The more air that’s inside the tire, the more firm and the more round your tire will be. If your tire is inflated to the recommended level, you might have six square inches of tire that touch the road when you’re driving. If you remove just 5 psi from your tire, you may have as many as 8 square inches of tire touching the road. That means your engine has to work a little harder because there’s more of your tire creating more friction on the road.

Some research suggests that proper inflation of your tires can gain you between three and four miles per gallon of gas. For the average vehicle, that works out to be more than 1,500 extra miles you’ll be able to drive each year, for free.

In addition, having tires that are properly inflated can help avoid tire blowouts and other accidents.

Whether you need new tires or just an oil change, come see us at your Lehigh Valley Honda, Hyundai, Acura, and Suzuki dealer today.

The first thing you need to look at is the outside of your car. Check your tires twice a month to make sure they’re properly inflated. You should use a tire gauge at least once a month. You’ll also want to check for body and bumper damage regularly.

Leaking fluids are always a sign of some trouble, too. Make sure you look under your car on a regular basis to see if you’re losing oil, coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid or transmission fluid. You should know that finding water under the air conditioner is normal, however, and just comes from condensation.

You’ll also want to watch for smoke in your fuel exhaust. This can almost always indicate a problem of some sort with your engine.

Finally, look out for those engine or fluid warning lights. You might be tempted to ignore that “service engine soon” light, but if you let it go you may wind up with extremely costly repairs.