What to do to your Subaru Before The Rest Of Winter arrives!
Now is the time not the day of or the day before your next trip up the mountains, or through the woods to Grandmas house, to make sure your Subie is Ready for the worst mother nature can through at it.
Here are some items that should be serviced, or inspected, as well as a suggested few items for the cargo area.
First of all, as winter approaches its important to remember to not let the fuel tank run lower than ¼ of a tank, the extra fuel in the tank aids in rear traction, and the less air in the tank, the less moisture and the more stable the fuel will be on those cold morning start ups.
Carry a tire pressure gauge, be ready in case you encounter snow, a good way to increase traction is to lower the tire pressure a few pounds in each tire, maintaining even pressure at all 4 tires.
Start out winter with Fresh oil. The cold of winter can be very hard on your Engines oil, the single easiest way to combat this is have an oil change done even if it’s a little early at the start of winter. If you are close to any Scheduled Maintenance such as a 30k service do it early, having fresh transmission fluid is a great idea in colder temperatures.
Inspect or have inspected your belts and hoses, Cold weather is very hard on Rubber.
Know where the freeze protection of your coolant is at; if it’s been more than 2 years since the coolant has been changed consider changing it now.
Have your battery tested, and the connections cleaned, the fact that the battery still starts the car does not mean it will once the temperature drops.
Replace your wiper blades; being able to see in the rain or snow is pretty important. If they Streak or chatter they wont get better on their own. Make sure you have ample freeze protection in the windshield washer tank as well.
Check all of you external lights, being seen by others on the road is part of defensive driving.
If your tires have less than 5/32 of an inch of tread life remaining, it’s a gamble they will get you around in the snow, even with All Wheel Drive.
Consult the owners manual regarding the use of chains for your Model Subaru, if its advised for your car, buy a set.
Aside form the cars tool kit, you should carry a flashlight, water, jumper cables and a few basic tools. You can elaborate on this as much as you want to.
Thanks For Reading and Happy Thanksgiving!
Justin
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