The check that belongs in October
Northern Colorado gives a vehicle one genuinely demanding season, and almost everything that fails in it was findable beforehand.
A pre-winter check is a specific list rather than a general service:
- Coolant tested, not topped up and assumed. The freeze point is a number and it drops every time somebody adds water.
- Hoses and clamps, by feel. Rubber stiffens in cold, and a marginal hose gives way on the first hard morning.
- Battery and charging, because cold reduces what a battery can deliver at the moment the engine is hardest to turn.
- Tires measured, with a decision made about whether a winter set is justified for how and where you drive.
- Brakes and brake fluid, including hardware condition, which is what winters attack.
- Wipers, washer fluid rated for cold, and the heater, which runs on engine coolant.
Done in October, each of those is a job. Found in January, each is a problem.
And the one that belongs in April
Shorter. Alignment after a season of broken pavement, air conditioning before everybody else discovers theirs, and an underbody look at what the winter did.
Which schedule applies the rest of the year
Cold starts and short trips shorten a service interval, which the national scheduled maintenance page explains, and both describe most winter driving here.
The half that catches people out is that intervals carry a time limit as well as a mileage one. A vehicle that sits through a winter has still used up part of its interval, because several of the items on it age whether the vehicle moves or not.
Sixteen services at one address
Oil changes, brakes, cooling system, A/C, engine, suspension, alignment, balancing and tires in all nine categories.
For a business with several vehicles, attach the schedule to a fleet account.
About this store
The Loveland store opens at 7:00 AM and is managed by Joe Servin.
See the national scheduled maintenance page for all 33 locations.