Nothing is worse than stumbling out on a cold winter morning only to find that your car won’t start. Before you freeze to death working under the hood to try and find out what is wrong with it, there is one thing you can do to prevent this from happening. In the winter time, if you don’t keep your car in the garage, warming up your car can be an essential part of keeping your car running and healthy. Therefore, if you haven’t been doing these steps to allow your car time to warm up in the winter, you may want to start to keep you from getting in that situation!
Step 1: Safety First
Before you do anything, make sure you and your vehicle are parked in a safe place. Make sure your car is not parked on the street, a place where there is a ton of traffic or robberies. Your garage, driveway, or a well lit parking lot are all good places.
Step 2: Defrost!
Turn the vehicle on and then instantly hit that defroster button. This will help clear the windows while the engine starts to warm up.
Step 3: Let it Run!
This can be the most annoying part of warming up your car. When you’re in a hurry, it can frustrating to wait for your car to warm up. Although, letting it run for about 30 seconds to a minute will help. Most vehicles only need about 30 seconds. If your car is completely covered in snow, it could probably use one to two minutes to warm up.
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Step 4: Take it Slow
Your first 5-15 minutes of driving are crucial when your car is defrosting. Therefore, for your first five to fifteen minutes, be sure to take it slow and don’t decide to be a race car driver during this time. If you don’t, you could easily stress out your engine before it has time to get to its normal performance levels.
With all that being said, spend the extra 10 minutes in the mornings to warm up your car so you don’t end up having trouble starting it on other mornings. Warming up your car is the most effective way to prevent being stuck in the freezing cold trying to diagnose your car.
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