A Thorough Cleaning

One of the most important maintenance items coming out of a long winter is to perform a deep clean of your vehicle. During the winter, salt is used on the roads to melt ice. While this is good for your safety, it’s terrible for your car. Excess salt on your vehicle can cause corrosion and rust.

Washing Your Car’s Exterior

While you should wash your car on a regular basis, you also need to perform a thorough cleaning after the last of the salt has washed away from the roadways. First, rinse your car with fresh water. Applying soapy water directly to dry paint can cause you to grind the salt and dirt into the car’s paint finish, scratching it. Second, always have two buckets (one with soapy water and one with clean water) for washing your car. Wash your vehicle from the top down, cleaning your sponge in the clean water before returning to the soapy water.

It is vitally important that you pay attention to your car’s undercarriage during the cleaning process. It’s the closest to the road surface and therefore the most susceptible to corrosion. The unprotected metal components there can quickly become rusted or damaged from salt. After cleaning, be sure to wax your car. This is an effective way to prevent corrosion and damage to the paint finish.

Cleaning Your Car’s Interior

While the exterior might seem like the part to focus on first, it’s also important to clean out your car’s interior. Salt, dirt, and rocks easily make their way inside your vehicle during the winter months, and their presence can scratch the plastic parts of the interior, adversely affect the brake and gas pedals, and more.

It’s also important to clean out any garbage, including food wrappers, that are left in your car during the winter. Mice, chipmunks, and other creatures are crafty at entering the inside of vehicles even when they are locked tight. You do not want anything getting into your vehicle and making a mess, or even worse, chewing on wires and damaging your vehicle.

Switching to Summer Tires

With roadways clear of snow and slush, this is the time to switch out your winter tires for summer ones. Continuing to ride on winter tires can negatively affect your car’s performance, including shortening its braking power, and making it more susceptible to hydroplaning. Winter tires are not designed for the hot pavement of summer months and should be switched out for summer tires as soon as the snow is gone.

Topping Off Fluids

If summer road trips are on the horizon, it is important to ensure that all fluids, including brake, transmission, coolant, and power steering fluids, as well as engine oil, are at the correct level for safe vehicle operation. It can be dangerous to drive without properly filled fluids as you are risking catastrophic damage to your engine.

Winter is finally on its way out, so be sure that your vehicle is ready to welcome the summer. Book a service or maintenance appointment to ensure your car is ready for warm-weather travel by clicking on the button below.