Tips to keep your vehicle running through the extreme cold

Everybody has advice for vehicle maintenance in the winter, especially in cold temperatures like we’re seeing this week.

Rob Ellis from Driven Automotive joined the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Monday morning to share some tips.

Let’s start with how long we’re actually supposed to warm up our vehicles on a morning like this.

Well, manufacturers will say about 40 seconds to a minute but that’s a general statement. We recommend here at Driven Automotive three minutes minimum.

Then, if you want to warm it up longer for comfort, 10 to 15 minutes is fine. It will actually heat up a little bit faster to drive it.

The oil you’re using in your vehicle is pretty important too. It’s all about the weight, isn’t it?

So you have 30 weight, 20 weight, synthetic and just regular oil.

In the wintertime, if 30 weight is what your car takes, 5W30, you’d probably want to put a full synthetic in.

It’s going to stay more liquid. It wouldn’t be like molasses like a regular oil would be. Then when you start the car, that oil is going to get into your cylinders and provide the protection that it needs.

Any battery care we should consider?

Short trips are the worst thing you can do on a car. So if you think you’re going to hop into it and go to the grocery store and then go home, that’s actually worse for a vehicle because it doesn’t really charge the battery.

You want to drive it for at least half an hour.

What’s your opinion of those battery warmers?

They’ll help keep your battery warm but won’t really do anything for the cranking power.

You can’t plug it in when you go someplace. Your battery goes dead. It doesn’t really do anything. It just prolongs the issue.

Is it important to add anything to our gas tanks?

In today’s gas, they have all the additives built into it. Years ago, they didn’t have that so you’d add a gas line antifreeze into it.

Use a premium gas if you can. Every second tank wouldn’t hurt to have a premium in there.

The only time you would want to do a gas additive is if you’re going to clean out your injectors or intake. But most likely, you don’t need anything like that.

Interview condensed for length and clarity.