You couldn’t possibly stay home the whole of winter and not go to work although in the coldest of days, you just want to spend your time lazing about in bed. For these times that you must and have to go out, you can winterize your car to ensure that you’re on the road safe, you ensure that you’re keeping your car in a good condition and you keep yourself away from expensive repair costs.

Regardless of the type of vehicle you drive, you’ll have a few tips to use when you’re driving in cold winter days. You can find these tips and recommendations on your vehicles manual. Keep this manual in your car and if you have time, read thoroughly on it. Take note of things like fuel consumption, maintenance and how to keep your car in tune even in the coldest of temperature. The more you know about winter car maintenance, the better you and your family will be when you’re riding out in winter.

Here are some tips for ensuring your car is in perfect running order in winter:

1. When you go out for routine maintenance, put a little extra effort for your battery and charging system in the winter season. Make sure they’re working efficiently. You see in the wintertime, the cranking power your battery gives out is greatly reduced. You’re going to have problems with starting your car if you don’t check on this in routine maintenance in winter. Make sure you bring a portable power pack or quality jumper cables in the trunk of your car when you’re driving in the cold.
2. Other parts to check into are your heater and your defrosters. Make sure they’re in good operating condition. Also, check your wiper blades.If they’re brittle or worn, replace them. If they’re smeary, replace them. It will be hard for you to see if your wipers don’t work well.
3. Winter driving will be easier for you if you check your filters, hoses and coolant. Filters for gas, air and oil have to be in good condition and your coolant level as well as your hermostat has to be fully functional so you can guarantee proper engine warmup. After every two years, your coolant has to be changed. Don’t forget your coolant tank pressure cap or your radiator cap. Hoses with leaks on it or feel soft need to be replaced.
4. One of the important things to remember before driving out in winter is lubrication. Use something like a multiviscosity oil like Mobil 1 0W30 or the 5W30. This will help you with engine startup. When temperature goes below zero, you need to have lubrication like fully synthetic oils to protect your engine. A tip to note is that when you use low viscosity oil, you have more speed with startup and you also reduce wear and tear on your car engine parts when the oil flows quickly in startup.
5. With regard to the condition of your tires, tread and pressure matter when you’re driving in cold weather. Check your tires for wear. Just like in normal temperatures, your tire air pressure has to be exact, anything over or under the recommended pressure is undesirable. You’ll be wearing your tire out more and using up more fuel if your tires are low in pressure. Overinflation and you reduce traction for your tires which can be very dangerous for you when you’re driving on icy roads. Tread matters so if you live in a place where there’s heavy snowfall, think about getting snow tires.
6. Vehicle warmup is another way to ensure the upkeep of your car in winter. When you start your car, run it idly for a few seconds. This will ensure that lubrication has already gone through the engine and this provides you with protection. Again, it’s only for a few seconds. If you keep your car running idly for a long time, you’re will be wasting fuel and it will do nothing for your car. After a few idle moments, drive extra slowly.
7. This next tip for winter car maintenance relates to number six. You have to drive slowly. Keep yourself within bounds of speed limits and if possible drive a notch or two slower than that. Drive a distance away from other cars. Pace yourself while your drive so you don’t need to make sudden stops. Remember, you’ll have mostly icy or wet road conditions to deal with and your car will have the tendency to slip before stopping entirely.
8. If you live in a place where snow comes in spades, have a few tools with you when you drive like de-icers, window ice scrapers, and a small shovel. Keep these tools in your trunk. You’ll use the de-icers for your locks just in case and if you have to dig out of snow, you can do it with ease using your shovel. It’s also good for your car if you keep a bag of sand in the trunk. This will provide you with traction if you have a rear wheel drive vehicle. Sprinkle the sand on the snow or ice if you need traction. Pack a blanket along in your car. That’s just in case you get stuck in a snow storm.
9. Drive in the snow fully equipped and this means, your rear window defroster has to be in good working order. Keep your window washer reservoir full. In your attempt to see clearly in inclement weather, these two thing will guarantee that. Don’t forget to check your fuel levels before you set out. You don’t want to get stranded in heavy snowfall.
10. Lastly, clean your car out of ice and snow and we mean your whole car.

With so many things to look out for and so many ways to take care of your car, the question now is where do you start and what do you do at certain points in time. With a car maintenance schedule, you’ll make sure that every part of your car is looked after and you’ll know exactly which part to have checked up at specific times.

1. The first thing you have to check off the list of car maintenance is car wash. This is the simplest and also the cheapest car job you can do in the way of maintenance. You can do it yourself on your free days or you can go to a car wash center. You’ll only be paying somewhere $5 to $10 per washing.
2. The next items to take care of with car maintenance happen every week or every time to you go to the gas station to refuel. Check your car fluid levels and fluids cover for oil, coolant, wiper fluid and power steering fluid. If they need to be replaced, go ahead and replace them. This will help with your goal of increasing the life of your car and it also helps preserve your car engine’s character. Don’t forget to use quality branded engine oil. One that’s synthetic oil treated and has additives will help control the friction in your engine. Again, check car fluid levels when you go for a gas fill up. You should also check car fluid levels before you go on a long trip. It will cost you somewhere between $50 and $120 to get an oil change.
3. You also have to check your tire condition, pressure and alignment while you’re at the gas station for a fill up. When your tires are properly inflated, it will help you with regard to fuel economy, it improves it. Alignment helps improve gas mileage for your car and this will only cost you about $60.
4. When your car mileage hits 3,000, or after three months, it’s time to change engine oil and filter. With air and fuel filters, you’re keeping things in check so that no harm is caused to your car engine. This will cost about $10 to $15 for air filters. You have to check hoses for any bulging or leaking and you also have to check the wiper blades.For the tires, tread depth has to be looked into too. Battery terminals as well as the cables should be checked for corrosion. While the battery is the most important part of a car, it can be the most ignored part. If you take care of the battery, paying about $50 to $120 for its care, you’ll have a longer battery life.
5. After six months have passed or every time you rake up 7,500 more miles on your mileage, it’s time for you to get a check up on your service battery, the rotation and balance of your tires and the wear of your brake pad. Again, car for your battery will increase its life and it will only cost you $50 to $120 to look into the condition of your batteries. Your brake pad can be at the mercy of your foot and it needs to be replaced every six months.You ensure a smoother ride when you have your tires checked for rotation and balance and this will cost you $60 and for the suspension work on your car as it relates to alignment, it will be worth $60 to $100. If the suspension system needs to be replaced you need to shell out $1000 to $2000 or more if you drive a luxury car.
6. Every year or every 15,000 miles, car maintenance consists of flushing and filling transmission fluid and changing the transmission filter. You also have to replace the air and fuel filters at this time. PCV and breather elements need to be replaced as well as the carbon canister filter. Again, in maintaining the integrity of your car’s filters will amount to $10 to $15 for the air filters and fuel filter change will be worth about $25.This is also the time to lubricate the parking brake, locks, hinges and doors of your car. Go ahead and check your car’s lignment as well as the CV joint boots of your car.
7. After two years or with every 30,000 miles listed on your mileage counter, your radiator coolant must be flushed and replaced. Brake fluid should also be flushed and refilled. The parts of your car like the distributor cap, wires, rotor, spark plugs, differential/transfer case fluid and the cabin air filter have to be replaced as well. Finally, for the two year car maintenance, you have to inspect the exhaust system of your car.The small parts will be fairly priced and inspection can also be done for you by your mechanic for a small amount.
8. When four years have passed or with every 60,000 miles added to your mileage counter, the power steering fluid of your car has to be flushed and refilled. The timing belt or chain also has to be replaced. If your car has a long warranty, you can get the parts you need replaced for a discount and you can get labor charges on your car waived.

It takes a little bit of effort to making sure your car is in top condition. With the little things you do, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of money from having to get your car repaired or having to buy a new car because you’ll be lengthening your car’s life using the car maintenance schedule. Little attentions here and there go a long way.

There are a few solutions to the problem of mold inside your car however that are pretty easy, and can clean up the mold pretty quickly.

The first thing to remember, is that bleach is a bad idea. Bleach doesn’t work well on porous surfaces, and thus will not work on your car upholstery. Also, you run the risk of damaging the colour in your car’s interior.

One of my favorite home remedies for mold on the inside of your car is white vinegar. Specifically distilled white vinegar because it’s stronger and you will need less of it.

How to remove mold in your car seats with white vinegar:

1. Take your distilled white vinegar and put it in a clean spray bottle… make sure your spray bottle is VERY clean.
2. Open up your car to let it ventilate for at least 5 minutes. You don’t want to work inside a car that is filled with mold spores.
3. You’re probably going to want to find a paper mask (like a 3M mask) to protect your lungs during the removal of the mold. This of course depends on how much mold is in the car, but it’s always better to be safe.
4. Spray the white distilled vinegar on the mold, and about 1 foot around the mold (the spores can be growing before they’re visible).
5. Make sure the area is completely saturated. This will obviously make your car smell of vinegar, but it will go away once we remove the mold and let the car air out.
6. Let the vinegar sit on the mold – DON’T WIPE IT OFF – for at least 10 minutes. This will kill the mold.
7. After the vinegar has sat on the mold for some time, you can wipe off the residue left by the mold.
8. Use a mold testing kit to make sure there are no more airborne spores in your car. If there are, it may be damaging to your health to continue to use the car.

1. If the mold test kit still shows there is significant mold in the car, consider getting the car professionally cleaned or your upholstery replaced.

The white vinegar will clean up vinyl or leather car interiors much better than cloth, but it will still work on cloth.

Removing mold from automotive carpet is a bit more difficult, but you can still use vinegar to kill it. Also, Borax is a natural mold killer that you can use to clean carpets and hard surfaces of your vehicles interior.

I would suggest using a wet vac both before and after the vinegar to ensure that you pick up any mold spores from inside the carpet. Once you’ve used the wet vac to pick up any left over vinegar and mold, be sure to properly clean the vacuum to ensure you do not spread the mold that you’ve picked up. If your vacuum has a bag, dispose of the bag right away.

There are a number of carpet cleaning services available in every town as well that would be able to help you clean the mold from your carpets. They can cost a bit more, but it’s worth it if you need to save your mouldy carpets.

Have you ever had any problems with mold in a car? Let us know in the comments below.

Car Stereo Features
It all comes down to what the receiver has to offer. The old ones can play audio CDs, cassette tapes and radio stations but there are more forms of media supported by the latest car stereos. MP3 and WMA files are also now supported. You just insert a disk with these files and most receivers can read and play the content. Even other multimedia formats are now supported such as JPEG for photos and AVI or DVD files for videos. Many portable and mass storage devices such as MP3 players and iPods are also now compatible with car stereos, thanks to the USB ports that are now available. One plug and your music library suddenly expands it can last you days, even weeks, to finish your entire playlist.

With the latest car stereo decks, AM/FM radios are a thing of the past. The latest receivers now offer satellite and high-definition radio. These two are an upgrade to the traditional analog radio signals we used to listen to. Satellite radio is a subscription service just like a cable television where you can choose from a wide range of radio programming of individual music genres, news, sports and talk shows. All of these are free of commercials so it is also like a huge music library. HD radio is a new technology that transmits digital sound instead of analog so there are no more static or bad reception problems. This also gives a huge improvement to the quality of the sound transmitted by the radio station, whether FM or AM station.

With HD radio on enabled decks, there is also another neat feature called iTunes tagging. Digital sounds are not the only things transmitted by HD radio but other information as well such as song data including artist and song title. When you press the tag button on the receiver, the song data gets saved in the memory and when you later plug in your iPod, the information is transferred. When you sync the iPod with your computer, you can buy the song through iTunes then you will be able to download the song. This is very useful when you hear something that you like but do not know the title or artist. You will no longer have to search the Internet for some lines from the lyrics that you barely remember. How about if it is in an instrumental piece?

The latest car stereo decks are also concerned about the skyrocketing car accidents due to cell phone use while driving. You can now use your cell phones hands free via Bluetooth technology with just a press on your stereo. It also automatically stops anything that is playing such as the radio or your portable music player. On the little screen, the number of the person calling you will appear so you can decide whether you want to take the call or not.

To make it even more impressive, especially for anyone riding with you, some car stereo receivers also have remote control using infrared technology. Persons in the backseat can also control what is playing on the stereo without having to reach all the way to the front.

Of course, you want your car stereo to be user-friendly as well. When you buy a new receiver, look for something that has a neat graphical user interface and organized, labeled buttons and knobs so you know what you are doing. Let us face it, we are not really fond of reading user manuals that much. Having one look and understanding the layout and set up of the stereo is important for you to maximize its use.

Great sound is the most important aspect of the stereo since it is what you meant to have in the first place. Some stereo receivers now have technology to reverse the compression of audio files for a better sound. Built-in amplifiers are also improved and equalizer presets and adjustability enables you to control the output of the sound.

Car Stereo Pricing
About half of your decision to buy a car stereo deck is probably influenced by the price of the receiver. When you weigh the price and the features and see that you get your bang for a buck, you will definitely buy it. Car stereo decks are priced differently depending on the manufacturer and the features included in it. Normally, the more features there are, the more expensive it gets, although some would throw in some features for free. Wouldn’t you like to control your gate, garage door or even your front yard lights with your stereo as well? For the basic features, the price of car stereo receivers can be as low as $300. More sophisticated and feature-rich ones can go up to $1,000.

A Tip Before Buying your new Car Stereo
You cannot base your decision to buy a car stereo solely on what the salesman has told you. Yes, the product may indeed have all the features mentioned but will it last long? How is their customer service for technical support? These and other things can only be learned from others who bought it. Scout the Internet for reviews and feedbacks and if it is majorly positive, then by all means, get yourself that new car stereo deck.

Repairing your cloth car upholstery can really be easy if you know what to do, and depending on the specific situation. The most common problem your cloth car upholstery gets is stains. Yup, just like your clothes, your cloth car upholstery can get those too so you better be careful.

If you have kids, then you’ve got to be extra careful as kids can sometimes be rough on your upholstery. There are a lot of affordable and efficient cleaners out in the market, why not try out a few and see what works best for you? Just be sure to carefully read and follow the instructions to avoid further complications.

Timing is everything. Clean a stain immediately as it happens to avoid further damage on your cloth car upholstery. The longer you wait, the farther the stain is going to seep into your cloth car upholstery and eventually it will be permanent.

We find that the foaming cleaners work the best to get out stains in car upholstery. When you spray the cleaner onto your cloth upholstery it will foam and expand. You then leave it on for a few minutes and it will draw out the stain.

Another tip on repairing your cloth car upholstery deals with holes or rips. Just like stains, you need to take care of a hole or rip in your car upholstery to prevent further damage. The concept is really simple; all you have to do is securely sew the rip with a thick thread to do the trick. If sewing won’t do the trick especially when the damage is big, patch it up with cloth of a matching color.

There are kits available nowadays that you can buy at the store which has everything from cohesives, to threads, to pieces of patch up cloth with different colors. You should be able to find them at a good car parts store, or an online retailer like Autozone.

There are cases when the entire car seal upholstery is damaged beyond repair. If that is the case, unfortunately you’ll have to dish out some cash to get new cloth put on your car seats.

Ever had to repair a cloth interior? Let us know in the comments below.