Niño schmiño. Spring is here. No, not officially. And sure, even when it is official, it’s bound to snow again at least once. Probably in May. But the dog days of winter—warming up the car in the morning, scraping ice off the windshields, defogging the windows—they are past. What you want to do now is get your car ready for springtime. Which means, mostly, cleaning, checking and rechecking, and switching things out.
While you’re at the car wash (and Santa Feans love to wash their cars), give the interior a good scrub, especially the floor mats, carpets, and car seats. Use something like ArmorAll Wipes for vinyl surfaces (dashboard and center console), and a can of compressed air for rooting the dust out of the air vents. Back on the outside, take that high-pressure sprayer and really dig around in your car’s undercarriage. If you’ve taken your car further than your driveway, you’ve likely exposed this part of your car to sand and salt and other gunk that can accumulate under there and if not grouted out can cause erosion. Afterward, wax the thing. Wax not only gives your car that supermodel sparkle, it’ll protect the paint and make it last longer.
Once the temperature gets above 44 degrees, consistently, not teasingly (like it did late in February before dropping down again and even snowing more), it’s time to switch out your winter tires for all-season tires (or performance tires).
Get your brakes checked. Come on in to Master Tech Auto Repair and let us make sure the cold weather and the salt didn’t corrode the metal on your brakes—the brake pads rely on clean well-lubricated metal frames in order to work properly. While your car’s up and here in our garage, let us do an alignment check as well. Potholes are a menace and wreak havoc on your tires and their alignment. And if you didn’t have winter tires on but left on the all-season tires of all-weather tires, it’d probably be a smart thing to rotate them. Also, because tires lose close to one to two pounds per square inch for every 10 degrees in temperature change, it’s smart to have your tires’ pressure checked as well.
Lastly, change out your windshield wipers. With all the snow we got this winter, that puts stress on the blades, and fresh blades give you a clearer, safer view of what’s ahead.
