Winter Driving Tips: How to Prepare Your Mazda for the Cold Season

As the days grow shorter and temperatures plummet, it’s time to start thinking about preparing your Mazda for the cold season. Winter driving can be challenging in many parts of the U.S., but with the right precautions and maintenance, you can ensure a safe and comfortable ride throughout the winter months ahead.

Tips to Prepare Your Mazda for the Cold Season

Winter driving requires extra caution and preparation due to cold temperatures, icy roads, and reduced visibility. Pay close attention to these essential winter driving tips to help you navigate safely and get through the frosty months ahead.

Check Your Tires

It’s important to keep your tires in winter-ready condition. This includes checking your current tires as well as considering whether it’s a good idea to switch to winter tires for the seasons. These special tires are designed for cold weather conditions and provide better traction on snow and ice.

If you use the same tires year-round, known as all-season tires, keep in mind that cold weather negatively affects tire pressure at a rate of a one to two 2 psi (pound per square inch) drop per 10-degree decrease in temperature. Under-inflated tires are less likely to achieve optimal traction and grip in various winter road conditions. Therefore, make sure to check and inflate your all-season tires as needed throughout the winter months.

Fluids and Antifreeze

Another crucial element of readying your car for winter weather is maintaining fluids at their manufacturer-recommended levels. The four most important fluids in your vehicle for the winter are antifreeze, wiper fluid, brake fluid, and engine oil, as these are the fluids most affected by the day-to-day wear-and-tear changes that go along with driving in winter.

If you are not sure how to check or maintain these fluids, that’s okay. If you change your car’s oil at the recommended mileage, these checks are typically included. Most automotive service providers, including DePaula Mazda, check these fluid levels at every standard service appointment and provide you with the details in your final report.

Battery Health

Cold temperatures can strain your car’s battery, as it needs to work much harder in the winter months to accomplish tasks like starting the car and keeping it warm. Colder temperatures also affect the chemical reactions that take place inside the battery that are necessary to start the vehicle. Therefore, make sure you check your battery’s health using a multimeter yourself or specifically ask about it during your winter service appointment.

Inspect Your Brakes

Even in a brand-new vehicle with pristine brakes, it’s important to remember the number one rule of driving in icy and snowy conditions — leave plenty of room to stop. The decreased traction that comes with winter weather makes even the best brakes perform slower.

In addition, especially if your vehicle is a few years old, be sure to inspect your brakes early in the winter season. This starts with an auditory and visual inspection of your brakes. Turn off your music and open the window as you slow down, paying attention to squeaking, squealing, or grinding noises, all of which indicate brake deterioration. You can also perform a visual inspection. Check out your wheels for brake dust and then look a bit deeper at the pad itself. You want to see at least one-quarter-inch of thickness. If the pads are thinner than that, you need to replace your brake pads.

Maintain Visibility

The added time it takes to clear ice and snow from your vehicle each morning is one of the true pains of winter weather. However, failing to remove it is a safety hazard. Make sure you do a full walk-around of your vehicle any time it sits outside for an extended period and take time to remove snow and ice from all windows, lights, and mirrors before driving. Don’t forget to clear snow off the roof to prevent it from sliding onto the windshield while driving. It’s also important to allow enough time for your windows to defrost completely before driving by using the defroster. These steps will ensure you maintain good visibility, regardless of the driving conditions.

Emergency Kit

Packing an emergency roadside kit in your vehicle is good practice in any weather. Equipped with key items for vehicle care and first aid as well as weather-related concerns, car emergency kits should be a routine part of safe, smart driving. When preparing for winter, however, it’s important to check and refresh your kit with winter weather considerations in the front of your mind. Therefore, make sure to check that the kit has all your winter essentials like blankets, extra warm clothing, a flashlight, a first aid kit, and non-perishable snacks.

Keep Your Fuel Tank Full

It’s important to ensure your fuel tank never gets too low in any weather for many reasons. However, checking your fuel and keeping it at 50% full or more is especially important during the winter months for two specific reasons. First, when there is less gas in your tank, there is more room in that tank for condensation to form. As the temperature drops, condensation can freeze, causing fuel system corrosion and other major damage to your vehicle.

Second, the unpredictable nature of winter weather can have cascading effects on your driving. For example, low visibility may cause you to drive slower, burning more fuel in the process. Accidents and closed roads may also require you to drive farther or idle your car longer than in better weather conditions. In any scenario, the last thing you want to add to your burden is worrying about an empty fuel tank.

Get Your Mazda Serviced for the Winter at DePaula Mazda

At DePaula Mazda, we’re dedicated to helping you enjoy the full potential of your Mazda, no matter the weather. Call or stop by today, and we will get you scheduled for a complete DePaula Mazda winter service, where we will check your vehicle for all the winter essentials and help you stay safe on the road as the weather gets colder.