Car Maintenance Tips for Australian Winter

Each season comes with its features, and each feature has different adverse effects on your car. While summer can cause cosmetic damage to your car, winter can affect your battery and tire pressure. 

Now that winter is fast approaching, you are on the search for how to prepare your car for Australian winter. 

This is a necessary move, as Australian winter can be harsh on your ride. 

Preparing your vehicle for the winter means it is in great condition during the season and that you and your family are safe using your vehicle. 

Here are key tips to maintain your car during winter:

Tips for Safe Rides This Winter

Maintenance is important, but it won’t save your car from bad driving habits. Every year, over 1,300 people die, and at least 116,800 people sustain injuries in vehicle crashes on snowy, slushy, or icy pavement.

And most of these accidents are avoidable. They are a product of poor human habits, and these habits come in various forms.

Here are some habits you must avoid to keep your car safe this winter season. 

Use Winter Tires

Listen, normal tires harden during cold temperatures. This hardness results in reduced traction, longer stopping distances, and hydroplaning. So they are more likely to cause skidding and accidents.

That’s why engineers designed winter tires. Winter tires enhance traction and reduce skidding during the winter season. If you want to avoid vehicle breakdowns and accidents this winter, you should change your car tires to winter tires every winter season.

Avoid Tailgating

Tailgating means driving too close to the car ahead of you, as it can destroy your car beyond repair during the winter season.

You want to get home quickly, and you want to pressure the driver in front of you to move faster, but tailgating is a poor solution to the problem. 

Because it reduces your reaction time and stopping distance in case of an unexpected event. Unfortunately, this may destroy your car beyond maintenance.

Hence, if you can’t overtake or switch lanes, follow the 3-second rule. The 3-second rule helps keep a safe distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you.

Look at how it works:

1. Pick a stationary object on the road, a signpost, for example

2. When the vehicle ahead of you exceeds that signpost, count “one thousand one,” “one thousand two,” and “one thousand three” mentally.

3. Ensure you don’t exceed the object before you complete the count. If you pass the object before completing the count, you’re tailgating the vehicle ahead of you.

Avoid Overloading

The winter season can overlap with a few holidays in Australia. But that’s not always good news. 

Most people transport tons of winter gear and equipment for their holiday vacations. So they overload their vehicles with more load than the vehicles should carry.

Don’t join the crowd. Overloading your car during winter leads to extended stopping time, tire stress, and reduced traction. These impairments can cause dangerous winter accidents to both your life and your car.

That is a good reason to take note of your vehicle’s GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) and GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating). Sticking to these ratings will help prevent overloading your vehicle while protecting your life.

4 Essential Tips to Keep Your Car Safe This Winter

1.      Inspect Your Car Battery Health and Tire Health 

Cold temperatures reduce battery health. This is because the chemicals inside the battery slow down. Plus, there’s an increase in current demand for electronics in the car.

Hence, it makes sense to check your battery health regularly during the winter. The best way to perform this inspection is voltage measurement and battery-life duration.

For voltage measurement, use a voltmeter to check the voltage reading. A fully charged battery should read between 12.6 and 13V, and the battery longevity test should indicate it’s strong enough to power the car at all times. 

Likewise, you can ask professional car technicians to help you test the battery duration. You can get a technician for this in Victoria, Australia, at ASL High-Performance Autoworks. The engineers can also help check your car’s overall performance, such as the tyres, suspension, brakes, fuel type, and exhaust.  

2.      Inspect Your Car Tire Health 

The cold weather in the winter season affects your car pressure and makes it easier for your car to experience hydroplaning.

Hence, it is advisable to keep an eye on your car’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) on your dashboard and ensure your battery has a 1.6mm thread length by law. This will help you avoid skidding and accidents.

3.      Examine Your Car Brakes and Fluids

During the winter season, roads become slippery, and you need to ensure your car has a short stopping time. The only way to achieve this goal is to examine your brake pads and discs for wear and tear.

On the same note, you should change your engine oil and coolants based on your car manufacturer’s recommended schedule and temperature ranges, respectively. This will help you avoid unexpected breakdowns.

In addition to that, make sure your gas/fuel tank is at least half full at all times. This precaution will help remove moisture in your gas lines to avoid freezing in cold temperatures.

4.      Inspect Your Wiper Blade, Heating/Anti-Freezing Systems, and Lights 

Other parts of your car to inspect to prepare your car for the Australian winter include your wiper blades, windscreen wash, and car lights. Failure to do these checkups can keep you stuck on the roadside on a cold winter day, which you want to avoid.

Hence, keep your wiper blades in good shape without wear or tear. Ensure your windscreen fluids contain anti-freezers to avoid freezing. Also, ensure you carry out preventive maintenance on your car lights weekly.

Final Thoughts

The winter season is the worst time to have a car breakdown or accident. And like most extreme weather seasons, it adversely affects your car health.

This blog post has provided you with key rules to follow to avoid accidents and breakdowns. Likewise, the post outlined and explained expert-recommended maintenance tips to keep your car safe this winter.

However, when preparing your vehicle for the winter, you may need a professional to help examine it to know if it is in an ideal condition for the coming season. This is where you need ASL High-Performance Autoworks. 

At ASL High-Performance Autoworks, our technicians and engineers are available to check our vehicle and rate it for winter readiness. 

Contact us today.