The best part about driving your own vehicle in the UK is the total freedom it provides you. You can simply hop into your car and start driving, taking yourself anywhere you want to go, assuming your car will make it there. One way of ensuring your vehicle will be able to continue to take you on these adventures is to take a bit of time at the beginning of each season to do some high-quality preventive maintenance, which will extend the lifespan of your vehicle.
What Seasons Are the Worst for Your Car?
The seasons that will cause major issues for you if you aren’t prepared are the winter and spring months. Those who don’t take preventative steps are leaving themselves open to unnecessary wear and tear, rusting wheel arches, and more.
Why are the Winter Months Worse than Other Months?
If you regularly apply protections against rusting to your vehicle and protective coatings to the underside of your car, you need not worry about the extra maintenance because you have already taken the steps to protect your vehicular investment. If you, like most other car owners in the UK, don’t do regular checks or apply any preventative rust coatings, you will want to consider the elements that bombard your car every day in the winter.
Snow and Ice
The extra moisture that is present in the winter months can do real damage to the underside of your car, particularly to the exposed metal surfaces that are susceptible to rust.
Road Salt
Road salt, ever since it was introduced in the 1940’s, has done incredible damage to vehicles of all sorts. A vehicle that may at one point have had excellent protection from rust on its underside could be severely damaged in a short period of time if the original layer of undersea fails.
Should I protect my car in the spring?
Spring is also a season that can do significant damage due to excess moisture and rainfall, loosening stones, and splattering the chassis rails with mud, oftentimes with road salt residue and other abrasive elements in it.
How Can I Protect My Car?
For excellent protection and long-lasting peace of mind, there are a few maintenance tips and seasonal pointers that will help you protect your vehicle from the elements.
- Underseal your vehicle! Even if your car is somewhat new, it is worth having it looked at in case there were failures in the original undersea. This is an extremely cost-effective and efficient way to provide excellent protection for the underside of your car.
- Regularly wash your vehicles! For those in the UK, washing your vehicles isn’t typically high on the list of things that need to be done, but even semi-regularly washing your car will create significant improvements in the long term for the vehicles you wash.
- Polish and wax your cars for better paint protection. Dings and scratches may not be completely avoidable, but the act of polishing and waxing your car will give your paint job the best capability to ward off any potential scratches.
- Do seasonal inspections of your car. This will ensure that you stay up-to-date on the state of your vehicle, enabling you to take preventative measures when necessary.