Preparing Your Car for Winter

How to Winterize a Car

These AAA approved mechanics explain how to prepare your car for winter. Be sure to check out the related videos for more tips on winterizing specific parts of your car.

Getting Your Vehicle Ready For Winter

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights. This lasts 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol. Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking and squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence and clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar.

Frost on its way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water and spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water, preventing the water from freezing.

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors and rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber.

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield and wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key and the lock and the problems solved.

Source: Sent to me by a friend who lives in Michigan

By Bobbie G from Rockwall, TX

Furniture Polish To Prevent Freezing Car Doors

To keep car doors from freezing shut, just wipe the inside door weather stripping with furniture polish. I use Pledge. Works great.

By Janette from Parkersburg, WV

Prevent Your Car Doors from Freezing

Spraying the rubber gaskets on your car doors with PAM or similar cooking spray will keep the doors from freezing shut. Just spray and then rub in with paper towel.

Source: freebie website

By Cinnamon from Williams Lake, BC

Preparing A Suitcase Winter Kit

Last year we had a lot of snow. I kept a new cheap broom in the car for brushing off the snow before letting it warm up. My hands did not get cold and wet from scraping. I used an old suitcase and put in extra winter clothes that don't normally like to wear, my store bought emergency roadside kit, and rubber dish washing gloves. I cut off the cord from an old electric blanket that no longer worked. I put the blanket and all of this on the back passenger seat floor board.

I felt better driving home from my second shift job knowing I was prepared. I ended up using the blanket to cover a woman who had been accident. I'll never see the blanket again, but hopefully it helped her not go into shock before the emergency personnel arrived!

By tnphoenixrising from Clarksville, TN