Warming up your car for winters

The winter is just setting in or well, almost setting in if you live in Mumbai. Given the kind of climate shifts happening over the past few months in India, even some our own lot now believe that India may just be the primary target for the so-called 2012 apocalypse. While there is little we can do to help you prepare your car for the apocalypse, yet, we can at least help you keep your car healthy through this elongated winter.

Problem: That shivering engine

Remember that your car too needs enough warmth in its system to perform efficiently. Cranking up the car and immediately driving out of the parking spot is like waking someone up with a splash of chilled water on a cold morning and forcing the poor soul clean up the refrigerator! Pure evil, is what we call it!

Solution: Ideally, after turning on the ignition, wait for a few seconds before you crank up the engine. During this time the car’s computers do a quick self -check to tell you if most of the critical components of the car and the engine are working as expected. Rushing through this process can lead to failures of the electrical components and / or vital sensors. Start the engine only after you have allowed your car these few moments and let it idle for a while. During winters, temperatures for most vital fluids within the car drop below the expected level. Letting the engine idle heats up the system and brings them to an optimum temperature where they are happy to resume business as usual.