Rent reduced for riders, early budget items approved by Regina Council
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Regina's city council covered a lot of ground in a three-hour meeting on Wednesday. With all members in attendance, coun...
By Brett Lubkiwski
The warmer weather wasn’t going to last through all of January.
A cold snap is to make its way through the province this weekend, with temperatures reaching lows of around -30 C.
That cold weather means if you’re parking your car outside, you may be risking your vehicle not starting or breaking down completely.
Jason Mancinelli, the owner of Driver Automotive Group in Regina, talked about some of the things you can do to try to protect your car when the cold weather rolls through.
“First and foremost, (look at) the state of the battery. If you had battery problems during the last cold spell and it disappeared when it warmed up a little bit, as soon as the temperature drops, the battery shows its weakness again,” Mancinelli said Friday.
Mancinelli noted that with all of the advanced technology in newer vehicles, the battery failing can also result in it shorting out an expensive module on the vehicle that would need to be replaced as well.
Plugging in your vehicle is another way to protect your vehicle in the cold to make sure it will actually start when you need it.
“A lot of manufacturers will put a thermostat cord end on so they don’t start to take heat before it’s cold enough to need it … in the range of about -12 to -14 degrees Celsius. That’s when the auto manufacturers think it’s extra important and that’s when they actually turn the block heaters on, so I think that same advice would apply across the board,” Mancinelli said.
Mancinelli said when the temperatures get really cold, mechanics tend to see an uptick in vehicles that are in need of service and for more than just batteries.
“Cold is a stress on everything — people, cars,” said Mancinelli. “(When) that cold weather comes, there’s power steering failures. The fluids thicken so if there was something to start to leak, usually that’s what brings it about.”
The importance of winter tires is also something Mancinelli feels strongly about.
While he believes more people in the province are starting to invest in winter tires, he believes it only takes one person without them for a problem to happen.
“If you have 100 cars on the road and 99 of them have winter tires and the one at the front of the lineup doesn’t, that means you could have a 100-car pileup,” said Mancinelli.
He believes with the more unpredictable and fluctuating weather in Saskatchewan, including rain in the province in January, he believes a discussion about mandating winter tires should happen in the province.
Car failures can happen just about anywhere on the road so being prepared for an emergency is something Mancinelli thinks every driver in Saskatchewan should do.
“A safety kit is of utmost importance, especially when travelling,” he said. “(It should include) a cellphone, snacks, warm clothes, some type of generator of heat, a shovel in case you have to dig yourself out (and) extra blankets. This is Saskatchewan.”