Winterize a Car - Heaters, Defrosters, Wipers

Ed Kriston: Hi! I am Ed Kriston from AAA Mid-Atlantic's approved auto repair department. While talking about winterizing your car, one of the things we are going to talk about is Heaters, Defrosters and Wipers. We are actually going to start with wipers. And we are going to talk about Windshield Wipers as well, so we are also going to talk about the Windshield Washers. Every car has a reservoir for the windshield washer fluid. They are located in different places. On this vehicle it happens to be right here. To open it up and go ahead and check the level. Some of them are going to give you a full level that you can see the line, some are not. This one is actually just fill it up till it comes up towards the top. And normally you would use a new bottle of windshield washer fluid and they are usually going to be sealed because they are alcohol based. So you will end up with alcohol evaporating, that is why, they put that on there. So make sure when you put the cap back on, you put it on tight. And we will go ahead and fill this up so that it comes up towards the top and that will do it.

Now that we know that it is full and it has sufficient washer fluid in it, what happens when you hit the switch inside the car? There is an electric pump normally connected to the reservoir. This is going to pump that fluid up through this hose on this vehicle which goes up here underneath to the windshield's quarter on the driver side which is right here. And continues on across to the other side of the hood to the windshield's quarter on the passenger side. Those are cleanable, adjustable in most cases and they get adjusted so that they are spraying on the windshield and not over top of the car to the one behind you which I am sure you have seen. One of the things that is really important, specially during a winter time, when you turn it to defrost position so that it clears the inside of your windshield; it not only turns on the heater but it also turn on the air conditioning. And that is to remove the moisture from the air so that it doesn't blow that moisture up on to the windshield. So it is really kind of important during the winter time even to make sure that you air conditioner is working properly. And making sure that, that is filling is it's supposed to.

Next thing we will do is we will go ahead and talk about windshield wipers but that is going to require me to close the hoods. So I will go ahead and do that then will get to wipers.

When is it time to change a wiper blade? When it is constantly streaking the windshield, when it is visibly coming apart, when it chatters going across the windshield all the time; it is time for you to change it. It is a good idea to change them because if it gets bad enough, what we will do? It will end up streaking, or cutting into the windshield and leaving a mark all the way across for the wiper's sweep. To change them is not hard to do. On this model for example, it has a little release right here, once you push the release, it will slide back and come right off. And this is the wiper that was on there, and it is a, we call it a summer time wiper. Since we are talking about winterizing your car, it might be a good idea to go to a winter blade. If you have noticed, this one is much different where the top of the blade is actually covered in. What that does? That keeps ice and snow from getting caught up underneath the blade and actually making it worse; not cleaned the windshield as well as it should . Putting the blade back on, is no different than taking the old blade off. Once it's in, pull it till it clicks; make sure it is connected securely. Okay, one blade is successfully changed.

And now Jeff will take in and come and talk to you about Cooling systems.