Repair Tips
The Minnesota Winter Checklist
Battery, tires, coolant, wipers, and the block heater if you have one. A battery that cranks fine in October can fail at −15°F, because cold cuts available cranking amps roughly in half while thick oil makes the engine harder to turn. Get it load-tested in the fall, not on the morning it doesn't start.
Tire Pressure Drops About 1 PSI per 10°F
That's why the light comes on during the first cold snap even though nothing is leaking. Check pressures when the tires are cold and set them to the number on the door jamb sticker, not the number moulded into the tire sidewall — that one is a maximum, not a recommendation.
Don't Ignore a Light Because It Went Off
An intermittent fault stores a code even after the lamp clears. Reading it while you remember the symptom is a lot cheaper than diagnosing it in January from scratch.
Road Salt Is the Real Rust Problem
Brake lines, fuel lines and subframes fail here from the outside in. Wash the underbody during winter thaws when you can, and have the lines looked at any time the car is on a lift for something else — it costs nothing to look.
When a Noise Deserves a Same-Day Call
Grinding when braking, a burning smell, steam or sweet syrup smell from the hood, a temperature gauge climbing, or a clunk in the steering. Those aren't 'next oil change' problems. Everything else can usually wait for an appointment — and we'll tell you which one you have if you call.