There’s plenty to do to maintain your vehicle throughout the year, whether it’s verifying everything’s good or performing scheduled maintenance based on the manufacturer's recommended intervals. Each season has its own set of car care practices, from equipping your car with snow tires during the winter to waxing the paint so the summer sun doesn’t cause lasting damage.
The guide below includes seasonal car care tips that are integral to maintaining your vehicle in the current and upcoming seasons. While finding time to act on these tips can prove challenging, it’s better than facing unexpected problems or expenses down the road. Drift’s exclusive car fresheners are a perfect addition to routine maintenance, especially the scents released every 30 days via the Scent of the Month Club.
Why Seasonal Car Care is Important
Caring for your vehicle throughout the seasons looks different depending on where you live, how often you drive, and where you drive. However, seasonal car care aims to increase your car’s longevity, improve your safety, and reduce the chances of catastrophic failures that could leave you stranded. As with any good habit, splitting up the care and maintenance tasks throughout the seasons ensures your vehicle’s up for whatever the road has to throw at it.
As you review the various car care tips below, you’ll notice repeated elements throughout the seasons. Although it’s tempting to overlook these, their repetition indicates their critical importance to ensuring your vehicle is roadworthy. For example, checking the brakes every season might seem redundant, but the one time you find something amiss, your efforts will be well worth it.
Spring Car Care Tips
As the snow starts to melt and the birds begin chirping again, your spring car care efforts should focus on recovering from the winter months and preparing for the summer ahead. Spring in your area could still invite as many snow showers as rainstorms, so it’s important to incorporate this type of weather into your plans. For example, you might wait until there are only rain storms forecasted to remove your snow tires and replace them with the tires you’ll run until autumn.
Use the following spring car care tips to keep your vehicle on the road longer:
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Inspect the wiper blades, brakes, and tires.
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Exchange the existing engine and cabin air filters for new ones.
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Test your car’s lighting system, including headlights, tail lights, reverse lights, turn signals, and fog lights.
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Check your car’s fluid levels and conditions, including the oil, coolant, power steering, brake fluid, windshield washer fluid, and transmission fluid.
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Clean your vehicle inside and out.
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Remove any contaminants on the paint and apply a coating of wax.
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Check the alignment and have it adjusted if necessary.
Winter emergency kits can help you survive until help arrives if you get stranded in a snowstorm. During the spring, replenish your winter emergency kit with anything you used during the winter months, from non-perishable food to first aid supplies. If you needed something during those months and didn’t have it, include it in your kit for next time.
Summer Car Care Tips
Caring for your vehicle during the summer requires protecting it from the sun’s damaging rays. The following summer car care tips help protect your vehicle’s interior and exterior:
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Exchange the existing engine and cabin air filters for new ones.
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Test the battery to ensure it’s working properly.
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Inspect the wiper blades, brakes, and tires.
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Verify the air conditioning works.
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Test your car’s lighting system, including headlights, tail lights, reverse lights, turn signals, and fog lights.
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Invest in sunshades to protect your vehicle’s interior from fading.
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Check your car’s fluid levels and conditions, including the oil, coolant, power steering, brake fluid, windshield washer fluid, and transmission fluid.
If you can, park your car inside to avoid damaging the paint. Even parking beneath an awning or in a carport can help maintain the paint’s color and condition. It’s also much nicer to get into a cooler vehicle during the summer, especially if you’re wearing shorts.
Autumn Car Care Tips
Car care during the autumn centers on preparing your vehicle for the cold weather to come. Here are fall car care tips you can use to approach the holiday season without having to worry about your vehicle on top of everything else:
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Check all four tires for appropriate tread depth and pressure, ensuring they’re in working condition.
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Exchange the existing engine and cabin air filters for new ones.
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Clean your vehicle inside and out.
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Inspect the wiper blades, brakes, and tires.
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Remove any contaminants on the paint—including leaves, which can deposit tree sap and permanently stain paint—and apply a coating of wax.
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Test your car’s lighting system, including headlights, tail lights, reverse lights, turn signals, and fog lights.
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Verify the heater works.
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Check your car’s fluid levels and conditions, including the oil, coolant, power steering, brake fluid, windshield washer fluid, and transmission fluid.
Many car owners choose to do maintenance work during the fall to prepare for the winter. Whether you do the work yourself or pay someone to do it, it’s easier to work on the vehicle when it’s not snowy and cold out.
Winter Car Care Tips
Staying warm and on the road are the name of the game for winter car care tips. Follow along as you wrap up the year and ring in the next 365 days:
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Check your car’s fluid levels and conditions, including the oil, coolant, power steering, brake fluid, windshield washer fluid, and transmission fluid.
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Inspect the wiper blades, brakes, and tires.
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Test your car’s lighting system, including headlights, tail lights, reverse lights, turn signals, and fog lights.
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Exchange the existing engine and cabin air filters for new ones.
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Test the battery to ensure it’s working properly.
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Place a snow brush in your vehicle to help clear off snow.
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Swap your summer tires for winter tires.
It’s a good rule of thumb to keep your gas tank at least half full during the winter. If you get lost somewhere, you’ll have more gas to work with, which can keep you warm until help arrives or help you drive back to civilization. The last thing you want to do in a blizzard is run out of gas.
How to Integrate These Car Car Tips Into Your Schedule
It goes without saying that life has a way of filling up our schedules without much help. Yet, finding time to look over your vehicle every one to three months doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Once you break down each element into its corresponding frequency, it’s all about setting aside a few minutes here and an extra 10 minutes there.
For example, inspecting your lights can be a fun task to share with your kids. As you go through the car’s headlights, taillights, turn signals, reverse lights, and fog lights, make it a game to verify which ones work and which are burnt out. If you need to find the part number of the corresponding burnt-out bulb, teach your children how to reference the owner’s manual.
Even if you don’t have children, you can still make car care an easy part of your routine. Simply input the tasks into your calendar and check them off as you complete them. If you space out each task so there are only one or two a week, proper car care can seem much more manageable.
Take This Car Care Tip With You Everywhere, All Year Long
A pleasant-smelling vehicle is something we often take for granted, but it’s essential to caring for your car beyond infusing the interior with premium fragrance. Treat yourself to a Drift car freshener designed to welcome the season, regardless of the time of year. Better yet, join the Scent of the Month Club to discover more amazing scents throughout the year.
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