If you don't pay attention to these points when using the car in winter, it will break down and the car will be destroyed!

The last few issues of "Winter Car Maintenance" mainly made a detailed thematic interpretation of winter car maintenance and driving skills in snowy days. In this issue, we will explain the inspection and maintenance of key parts of vehicles from another angle:

Check the vehicle cooling system.

Many riders know that glass water with lower freezing point should be replaced in winter, but it is easy to ignore a more important liquid to maintain the normal operation of the engine-antifreeze.

Antifreeze, also known as coolant, is an important medium to ensure good heat dissipation of the engine under the harsh working conditions of high temperature and high pressure. Its boiling point and freezing point are higher/lower than water. Usually, when there is enough coolant in summer, the engine will not have the problem of water temperature rising and boiling. However, in severe winter weather, if the freezing point of the coolant is higher than the ambient temperature, it will be difficult to start the ignition, or it will freeze during the driving of the vehicle, which will not continue to dissipate heat for the normal working cycle of the engine and cause permanent irreversible damage to the engine.

Therefore, we should check and replace the coolant with low freezing point in time before the arrival of winter, combined with the local historical lowest temperature. At present, there are coolants ranging from-15℃ to 40℃ in the market, so it is safest to choose coolants with a freezing point lower than the local minimum temperature 10℃ or above.

Check the vehicle energy storage?

In winter, what we often hear is that the car can't start normally because the battery is dead. At present, most cars are equipped with maintenance-free Ni-MH batteries, which are very sensitive to ambient temperature. The capacity at low temperature is much lower than that at normal temperature. If you don't drive for another week or two, it will be easier to fall out. Imagine what a delay it would be if you suddenly couldn't catch fire while using the car.

Therefore, before the severe winter comes, we'd better go to a 4S shop or an auto repair shop, and ask professional technicians to clean the positive and negative poles of the battery and apply special grease to protect it, so as to ensure the healthy operation of the battery. At the same time, check the remaining power with a test pen, and replace it in time if it is too low.

If you don't drive for a long time (more than two weeks), you should take off the terminal clamp of the battery or take out the battery and store it indoors, so as to maximize the service life of the battery.

Check the air intake system

In winter, it is difficult to start the vehicle. In addition to the high freezing point of the coolant mentioned above and the loss of battery power, there is another possibility, that is, too much carbon is deposited in the air intake or throttle.

Too much carbon deposition has an all-round impact on vehicles, which will not only increase fuel consumption, but also lead to difficulties in starting vehicles in severe cases. In winter, this problem will be more prominent: because the low temperature will affect the normal volatilization of gasoline, the ignition efficiency of spark plugs will be weakened, which will not be so simple and will require multiple blows.

Therefore, it is recommended that you regularly (every 40,000 to 50,000 kilometers) clean up the carbon deposits in the throttle and engine intake. And the operation is very simple, and it can be done with little cost.

In addition, we'd better check the wear of the spark plug by the way to see if the contact is oxidized and the gap is too large. If there is any problem, replace it in time to ensure that our car can start normally anytime and anywhere.

Check the lighting of the whole vehicle.

There are many bad weather in winter, such as sleet, snow or foggy weather with extremely low visibility. If you don't keep enough safe distance, important lamps such as daytime running lights and dangerous warning lights will fail, which will not effectively attract the attention of surrounding vehicles and easily lead to rear-end collision or other serious traffic accidents.

Therefore, after winter, it is necessary to conduct a major inspection of the whole vehicle lighting, and timely find and replace damaged or unqualified light bulbs (all LED light group models can only be replaced as a whole), such as front and rear fog lights, high-position brake lights, turn signals, etc. It is not enough to expect to check the car every few years.

Finally, I wish everyone can use zero failure safely in 2020! (Auto Review/Low Frequency)

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.