Are Your Car & Wallet Ready for Winter?

4 ways to save money and hassles when the snow falls

If you’re the kind of driver who f inds winter full of frustrations, help is here. There’s no reason you have to be confounded by icy windshields, hard starts, spinning tires or the mournful groan of a dying battery. With a little preparation now, you can fend off many of the hassles that make the words “brutal” and “winter” such a natural combination. Try these four steps to save aggravation and, in some cases, cold cash:

Stay Charged. Do thoughts of winter bring visions of jumper cables?

Save yourself some grief in the season ahead and have your battery tested now. Not just checked to make sure that corroded terminals aren’t impeding the flow of current. You want to know that your battery can serve up the necessary juice under load and under the power-zapping stress of subfreezing temperatures.

It’s important to recognize that what counts is not the voltage of an idle battery but how much the voltage drops when it’s cranking the engine. To get this essential information you need a technician using a resistance-type battery tester. And if you have any doubts before the mercury drops, it’s battery-replacement time.

Don’t Freeze Up. Generations of drivers made a winter ritual of pouring little bottles of “dry gas” into their fuel tanks. Typically methanol, this additive absorbed moisture and prevented a frozen fuel system. But these days, with a minimum 10 percent ethanol in all of our gasoline, we’re pretty well protected against fuel-line freezeups right at the pump. Though it’s not as effective as methanol in very low temperatures, today’s cornbased ethanol absorbs water to such an extent that most drivers don’t Need anything else.

If stalling and hard, coldweather starts lead your mechanic to suspect the presence of a lot of moisture from condensation in your fuel system, he could supplement the ethanol with a methanol-based gasoline anti-freeze/water-remover.

Give iCe the Slip. Too many drivers approach ice and snow on their car’s windows with the stance of an Old West gunfighter—scraper/ brush in one holster, spray-on de-icer in the other. But your best bet is to prepare your glass before the first flakes fly. Get the exterior glass squeaky clean, and then apply a coat of glass treatment. Rain-X is a popular brand. This type of coating helps snow and ice slip right off the glass, as well as repel water. It also can save you can after can of spray-on de-icer.

Of course, if ice is caked on, commercial de-icers are almost irresistible because they typically work very, very well. But use them sparingly. Their active ingredients — usually methanol and ethylene glycol— can poison pets and other animals drawn to the slushy residue, as well as harm some expensive automotive finishes.

Get a grip. You know that correct tire pressure is essential to the safe handling of your car, as well as maximizing tire life. But as winter Sets in, we often forget that tire pressure drops along with the temperature. A good rule of thumb is that tire pressure drops one pound per square inch for every 10 degrees the temperature drops. And while your car probably has tirepressure indicators, they often don’t alert you until the pressure has dropped about 25 percent. That’s too low for optimum performance. So, as the air cools, keep Tabs on your tire pressure. You’ll find the proper inflation level in the owner’s manual, as well as on a sticker inside the driver’s-side door or in the glove box. Don’t follow the inflation levels that you see on the tires—those are not necessarily the correct levels for your car.

If you do get stuck on ice, don’t follow that “old driver’s tale” of letting air out of your tires to increase surface area. And don’t slip floor mats or other objects under the tires. They could fly out, injuring people or damaging cars. Instead, give the drive wheels a little extra grip by tossing some cat litter under the tires. A few-cents’ worth of this non-clumping clay can be a godsend. (You do have a container of cat litter in the trunk, alongside the snow shovel, right?) This is the kind of simple, inexpensive preparation that can take the worst winter has to offer and consign it to the litter box.