Winter might be a blessing for all of us in Pakistan, where summers are long but as far as our automobiles are concerned, for them, it’s a season which affects them badly if an automobile is not maintained. Especially, for the small and weak engines like the stroke engines. Cold start-ups, missing current, smoke emissions, clattering noises, and frozen locks are the common issues faced by the vehicles during winters. So, here is the gist of some of the tips to help you in maintaining and keeping a check on your vehicle during the winter season.
Prevention from Cold Start-up:
One of the biggest problems of an automobile in winter is the “Cold startup” which is even more intense in the cars which run on CNG. It takes around 15 minutes for a CNG car to start in winters. Therefore, never turn off your car’s engine on CNG at night. It’ll only cause nuisance in the morning. Therefore before switching off your car in winter at night always remember the following points:
- To avoid the start-up problems in the morning, convert your car from CNG to Petrol.
- Once you convert this, do not turn off the engine at once rather let it run for a few minutes.
- Always remember that engine requires a certain amount to heat to work properly. Therefore, don’t drive away your car without warming it up in winter. Otherwise, it’ll create trouble in a long run for the engine.
- Driving without allowing the engine to generate heat will only result in the missing current, therefore start your engine and let it warm for a couple of minutes.
Prevention from smoke emissions:
Emission of smoke during cold start-ups is actually a pretty normal phenomenon. Even for the new 1300cc engines, its normal. However, smoke emission gets problematic when it gets abundant. If you notice, you would observe that sometimes in small or weak engines during the cold-startup, plumes of smoke are visible which is not good for the engine. Hence, the following are the tips to prevent/decrease emission of smoke during the winter season:
- Conventional or semi-conventional oils solutions of 5w-40 or 10w-40 are to be used which prevent smoke emission.
- It is recommended not to use either synthetic or mineral oils.
- Do not unnecessarily accelerate your vehicle rather drive on low rpm.
- On every alternate oil change, get your engine flushed.
Now, comes the other issue which is clattering noise which is associated with the trouble in the engine. It is generally caused by weak engine mounts, timing belt/chain problems etc.
When you change the fuel station, you might have observed the difference in mileage, speed, and smoothness. Therefore, always get fuel from a reliable fuel station and use a mixture of hi-octane petrol with normal octane petrol. This will not only enhance the smoothness, pick up speed and mileage but will also prevent some of the major vibrations in the engine. If you hear a clattering noise, do not accelerate your car vigorously.
The engine of a car face many problems in winters, so it doesn’t mean that engine has a problem but rather its the cold weather which is taking a toll on your vehicle and is affecting the performance of the engine of the car.
