Winter car parking

There are few garages, and the main «winter quarters» for cars are paid open parking lots or areas near houses. An experienced car enthusiast has long resigned himself to the lack of a garage and, with the onset of the next cold weather, skillfully prepares the car for wintering. Often you see a block neatly wrapped in a tarpaulin or a film near the house, its outlines similar to a car. This young inexperienced car enthusiast sheltered his new car from a blizzard, rain and winter cold. And in the spring, unwrapping the package, the owner will scream in surprise: his car will look as if he had had smallpox during the winter. It must be remembered: the sun often shines in winter, the temperature sometimes rises above zero, and then a real steam room is formed under the tarpaulin or even worse under the film, which is much more harmful for the body than ordinary snow cover. Generally speaking, properly preparing a car for winter parking is a whole science. You need to know, for example, how certain components, assemblies and materials behave in winter, and prepare each of them accordingly.

It is advisable to park the car in an open parking lot on a warm, fine day. On such a day it is pleasant to tinker with the car, and the quality of work will not be affected by rain and cold. Before you park the car, you need to thoroughly wash it, ventilate the interior, remove the rubber mats and make sure that the heat-insulating pads are dry, otherwise dry them. It is not superfluous to vacuum the entire interior, especially for VAZ-2107, -2103 and -2106 cars with pile synthetic carpets. For this purpose, you need to rent an electrical outlet and a powerful vacuum cleaner somewhere, since mini-vacuum cleaners are effective only for express cleaning.


«bath» should be arranged for the engine. Not everyone regularly monitors his condition, so let him spend at least the winter in cleanliness and order. If we wash the car and the engine, then for real, using a car shampoo and a special cleaner for the engine, respectively. Car shampoo, in addition to washing, also leaves a thin protective film on the surface of the body, and the cleaner gives the engine its almost original appearance. If you are not too lazy and after washing the dry body cover «Auto Preservative», you're doing him a big favor.

Wipe rubber hoses and bundles of electrical wires with dry wiping ends, and the battery and its terminals with ends moistened with a 10% solution of ammonia. After wiping, lubricate the terminals with technical vaseline VTV-1. It is also necessary to wash the wheels of the car. Let the wheels winter clean. Moreover, when they dry, it is a good idea to cover them with a special black paint for rubber. The paint will fill the microcracks formed during: operation, and thus will be of great benefit to these rubber products.

Having finished with washing, it is necessary to deal with cooling and power systems. We must remember whether it happened on the way to add water to the cooling system filled with Tosol-A-46 liquid? This happens even with a new car. Suddenly you notice that the coolant is gradually disappearing and the advice sounds very useful: «share of water». In such cases, you need a compact device for measuring the density of Tosol, which is commercially available.


Wherever the car spent the winter - in garage or in a parking lot, it is useful to unload the wheels and suspensions. For this, four stands are used (bought or homemade) and install them under the bottom and in places recommended by the vehicle operating instructions. It is advisable to reduce the tire pressure to 50 kPa.

It is highly recommended to coat the engine cylinder mirrors with a layer of oil. To do this, turn out the candles and pour 30-50 g of oil into their holes (to each cylinder) for the engine. In order for the oil to spread over the entire surface of the cylinder mirror, the crankshaft is rotated a few turns using the starting handle or a special key for the engines of VAZ-2105 and -2107 cars, after which the candles are installed in place.

If the battery is not constantly recharged, it may self-discharge, the rate of self-discharge depending on the density of the electrolyte, the ambient temperature and the general condition of the battery. That is why, when preparing the battery for winter holidays, it must be fully charged and the electrolyte density should be up to 1.28-1.29 g/cm³. Many inexperienced motorists neglect this and by the opening of the season they will have a problem: where and how to repair the battery.