How not to kill the car off-season: 7 vulnerabilities

Body

One of the most popular special stages in the past was the anti-corrosion treatment of car bodies. It is understandable – the factory corrosion protection was weak (the bodies rust even in summer). And the cars changed more often.

The bodies most resistant to corrosion are Volvo, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and also Skoda of recent years. And the most unstable are the UAZ, as well as the UzDaewoo and some of the “Chinese” of recent years of production. All other cars are in the middle of the “ranking”.

All types of car body anti-corrosion treatments can be divided into two groups, conditionally called Canadian and European. In the first case, the hidden cavities of the car are filled with penetrating compounds – this is quite fast and relatively inexpensive.

In the second, the bottom of the car and wheel arches are additionally covered with bituminous compounds. Such processing takes 10 hours to a day and costs the customer an order of magnitude more expensive.

In the latter case, protection lasts 5-7 years. The main brands of anti-corrosion preparations are Noxudol (also known as Mercasol), Dinitrol, Waxoil, Tectyl (it is practically no longer used in our country), Prim (domestic, very good).

Polishes, waxes and other materials are used to protect the paintwork, which at least briefly protect the body against the harmful effects of external factors.

Glasses and windshield wipers

Glasses, especially windshields, are affected mainly by oncoming “meteor flows” – these are grains of sand, ice, pebbles, etc. And it is impossible to protect yourself from them.

Problems are added by the owner of the car himself, who, for example, begins to remove frozen ice in every possible way. A soft plastic scraper, alcohol-containing preparations, a warm heating pad and, of course, a standard “stove” can free the glass from ice.

Immediately after starting the engine, only the air stream should be directed at the ice glass. Otherwise, the glass may break due to a sharp temperature drop.

Windshield wipers also suffer when they try to scrape ice off the glass or (without washing machine feed) dried-on dirt.

Chassis

Particular attention to rubber protective caps on drives and hinges. Dirt with reagents entering through a ruptured anther will quickly disable the assembly.

Although sometimes it is possible to limit ourselves to a thorough cleaning of the inside of the assembly, updating the lubricant and installing a new anther.

engine

To prolong its life, it must be warmed in the cold (at least not for long). The bottom of the piston heats up fairly quickly, but the groove area remains cold. After all, it comes into contact with the cylinder wall, which is initially slightly warmer than the coolant.

There are large temperature differences, and with them – exorbitant stresses in the metal. It is worth loading a cold engine a little, for example, to get out of a snowdrift – and you can get expensive repairs.

That’s why it makes sense to mess around for a minute or two on the spot. In addition, at this time you need to clear the snow or drive the purpose of the trip into the navigator. And then you can slowly get going, forgetting the sharp accelerations for a while.

So the engine warms up faster than in the parking lot.

mechanical box

It also has oil that thickens in the cold. Warming up the mechanics is easy: start the engine and wait. In a manual transmission, most of the parts rotate, distributing the oil even when the car is parked (if the clutch pedal is not depressed, of course).

Much the same thing happens in a robot gearbox.

Cold work is not as dangerous for mechanics as it is for an automatic machine. It takes 5 to 10 minutes (depending on the temperature on board) to park with the engine running before the oil has warmed up and the gears can be engaged without too much effort.

Machine

The thickened working fluid cannot create the necessary pressure to compress the clutch packs, causing them to slip and wear more quickly. For the same reason, the torque converter can suffer.

So it is advisable to warm up the machine before the trip. But the problem is that the classic machine does not heat up while parked with the engine running. You must select mode D or R, holding the car with the brake (or resting the wheels against the curb).

But the main heating of the automatic transmission occurs when the car is moving. Therefore, it is better to overcome the first kilometers without accelerating suddenly.

Expert commentary

Warm up the gimbal

To protect the cardan from breakage, the car should be warmed up before the trip in the cold season. And it is desirable to drive the first kilometers at medium speed, so that all bearings and crosses are lubricated naturally. And it was evenly distributed along the grooves. The resource of the cardan shaft with such actions increases by several years.

Grinding or grinding of metal coming from the crotch, its whistling or humming when starting the movement, as well as strong vibrations during acceleration above 60 km / h are signs that the gimbal needs to be inspected and serviced. Cardan shaft lubrication (this operation is often referred to as injection) should be carried out every 15,000 km.

• How short trips ruin a car – 7 consequences of winter use.
• “Drive” can be read in In contact with.

Photo: AGN “Moscow” and “Behind the wheel”