Classic Cars

With Bob Gelber

Cold driving tips for the huddled masses. First of all, the best cold driving tip I can offer is to get the hell outta here. Give your car a well-earned vacation at the airport long-term parking lot and go to the Islands, Florida, Hawaii, or anywhere it doesn’t snow. However, if you’re like most of us and have a job, you’ve got to slog out to your car every morning and bring home the bacon.

When it’s really below freezing, avoid locking your car overnight, especially if it’s parked outside, simply because the locks can freeze. Most new cars thankfully have remote locking and opening features, which is great, because at least one doesn’t have to worry about a frozen key slot. If, presently, you don’t have this feature in your car, look for it in your next automobile purchase. Also, avoid using the parking brake when parked overnight if it’s slushy or snowy. It is very easy for the parking brake cable to freeze and immobilize the car. Most cars today have automatic transmissions so owners just leave them in the “park” position on the shifter. This is just fine and in fact the only time I ever use the handbrake in an automatic transmission equipped vehicle is when I’m parked on a steep hill.

Make sure you have fresh wiper blades for the windshield. Also make sure the windshield washer reservoir is full with winter blend washer fluid. Winter blend fluid is important, because if not mixed for the winter, it can freeze and split the water bottle. Also and this is very important, never but never turn on your windshield wipers to clean heavy snow or packed ice off the windshield. Clear the glass first, and make sure the wipers are not frozen stuck to the windshield. The most common winter related car repair is the replacement of the windshield wiper motor that has been turned on while the wipers are somehow frozen to the windshield. This is expensive damage, labor intensive to repair, with a cost of between 500 to 1,000 bucks.

Make sure you have a fresh battery in the car. When it’s below thirty-two degrees, even the newest batteries develop less than 50% of their cranking power on a cold start. In my experience, even the best batteries have a life span of about three years. Today’s new cars, with all their electronic gizmos, use about the same amount of electricity as a small Vietnamese village, so be aware of your battery’s condition. If the lights seem to get brighter when you give it gas, or it seems to struggle to start, the odds are the battery is on its way out.

Sometimes when it’s really cold out, the inside of the car’s windows seem to fog up. The best thing to do under these conditions is to put on the air conditioning. With most cars, you can mix the dry air conditioned air with heated air. This is the best trick of all. In fact, in cars that have a automatic climate control system, the air conditioning usually comes on automatically even in the coldest weather simply to keep the windows clear.

Make sure your tires have a lot of meat on them. If you drive a two-wheel drive automobile, this is very important. It may sound obvious, but thick tread is better in the snow. Forget about trying to drive on high performance rubber, which many tire manufacturers call summer tires, in the snow. They are terrible and frankly dangerous in snow or icy conditions. I usually don’t give product recommendations, but several years ago Bridgestone lent me a set of four Bridgestone Blizzack winter snow tires that I mounted on my front wheel drive car for one season. I have to say that the snow adhesion was simply amazing and the tires went through all sorts of muck and mire almost like it was a four-wheel drive SUV. The only downside to these tires is that you have to mount them on all four wheels, with the routine handling on dry pavement degraded.

When starting out on a really cold morning, let the car warm up for about a minute and then start driving very, very slowly. I usually tap the brakes just to make sure nothing is frozen in that vital area. Keep your eye on the water temperature gauge. That and the amount of heat coming out of your heater vents will tell you when the car is warmed up enough to accelerate hard. One of the worst things you can do to a cold car engine is to give it full throttle. Also, be aware that even though the water in the system may initially be warm, the oil in the engine lags about five minutes behind the water in reaching proper operating temperature. Most wear in a car’s engine occurs during cold starts. Now, that’s something to think about.

What do cars like about cold weather? Well, basically nothing, except for the fact that they run cooler at high speeds. Oh yeah, turbocharged and supercharged cars love cold air because they actually develop more horsepower when the air is cold and dense. But these are rare birds. Most normal cars are just like you and me. They like being warm and taken care of. They hate getting wet except when being washed. They like a nice garage roof over their heads. They don’t want to be abused, just loved. Take care of them and they will take care of you. Oh yeah, one more thing: they like the Hamptons better in the summer than in the winter.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com