Check anti-freeze as first priority

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 28

Check anti-freeze as first priority

Your first priority for winter motoring, especially if the car is not regularly garaged overnight, is to ensure that it has the correct concentration of anti-freeze in its engine cooling system. In general terms, the concentration should range from one part anti-freeze to two or three parts water. Some car owners leave anti-freeze in their engine cooling system the year round. This is not a desirable practice and it is wiser to drain and flush out the system as soon as the likelihood of winter’s frosts becomes remote.

In any case, owners whose cars’ cooling systems still contain anti-freeze from last winter would be wise to drain and flush their radiators, for it is highly likely that the concentration of anti-freeze has diminished with water replenishment over the intervening months.

In winter, when days tend to be dull and nights are

sometimes foggy or misty, clear vision is of paramount importance. Glass tends to fog up within the car and ice can form on exterior surfaces. Obviously, it is important to ensure that the car’s heating and ventilation system is functioning efficiently. The ducting should be checked to ensure that warm air does not escape at loose connections. Glass fragments from a shattered windscreen can wreak havoc in the blower mechanism of a heating and ventilation system and although most repair shops will spare no effort to ensure that all fragments are removed after a windscreen breakage, it is not uncommon for isolated fragments to remain undetected, only to dislodge themselves and find their way into the blower after a period of sustained use of the heater.

If a disturbing rattle should arise from somewhere within the heating system, it is advisable to switch off the booster fan immediately. To leave it running is to court costly trouble. The rattle is an indication that a foreign body, most likely a glass fragment, has found its way into the boaster mechanism, and it will most likely rattle around in the booster chamber until such time as it jams the fan. It is the jamming that causes the damage. Although a car’s heater, operating in the windscreen demister mode, will clear the interior surface fairly quickly, the heat generated will not be instrumental in de-icing the windscreen either quickly or 100 per cent effectively. Once there are signs of the ice melting however, a

plastic scraper will prove quite effective, although perhaps the best method of removing the ice is to spray the screen with de-icing fluid from an aerosol can. A quick spray, followed by some vigorous rubbing with a clean cloth first thing in the morning will generally ensure a safe and trouble-free trip to work. It also makes sense to add some de-icing fluid to the water in the windscreen washer reservoir. There are a number of additives on the market that, like the deicing fluid found in aerosol cans, have been formulated so as not to be injurious to paintwork or the windscreen surround. As a general rule, a solution comprising four parts additive to six parts water is effective. Such a solution should keep a windscreen ice-free if the necessity arises to drive in freezing

temperatures in mist or fog. It is equally important that a driver know what is going on behind his car. These days most cars come fitted with rear-window demisters but many of the older models are not so equipped. Easily fitted rear-window demisters are sold by car accessory shops and most service stations, and are well worth the money in-

volved. Nowadays, most hatchbacks are fitted with wipers to clear their large rear screens and, more often than not, there is some arrangement for washing the rear window also. Rear screens are just as liable to ice over as front screens, so do not forget to add the de-icing additive to the rear screen-washing reservoir also.