How does the colder weather effect your van

Understanding how the colder weather can affect your vehicle is important to keeping yourself safe on the road during winter. When the weather changes it isn’t uncommon that your van may have trouble starting. This article is set out to provide possible signs to look out for and solutions.

Vehicle Battery

If your vehicle won’t start in cold conditions, by far the most likely cause is the battery. Here are some of the indicators that your vehicle may have a battery problem.

How to tell:

Discovering whether you have a flat battery is dependent on whether the battery is completely depleted and if the cables have come lose, this is because if that is the case you may not hear any noises that would lead you to assume you have a flat battery. However, if you hear a faint whining noise when you turn on the ignition, but the starter motor doesn’t turn over – it is most likely that your battery is flat.

Other things to look out for are the ignition lights on the dashboard not turning on and the remote central locking not working. Click here to find more information on what to do if you think you have a flat battery.

What to do:

The most common way people try to fix a flat battery in a hurry is to jump start it however, for this you will need access to jump cables and another vehicle.

If you think that you need a replacement battery, you can find a quote here on the AA website.

How to protect my battery during winter:

Cold temperatures effect the chemical process that produces and stores electricity inside the battery. Therefore, the cold weather can slow the battery down and reduce its ability to hold a charge.

If you often use your vehicle for short journeys, it might be worth charging the battery on a weekly basis, more so if your vehicle is more than 3 years old and if it is wintertime.

Older batteries in general tend to be weaker with poorer performance, only enhanced by cold temperatures, resulting in the battery becoming flat much faster. If your battery is not holding charge very it well, it is most likely time to replace it.

Here are some easy tips on looking after your vehicle’s battery. 

• To prevent any unnecessary drain on the battery each time you start it up, make sure you switch off all loads before turning off your engine including the lights, wipers, heater, and radio.
• Where possible park your vehicle inside a garage, especially during very low temperatures.
• Avoid using heaters, heated seats, and heated screen longer than you must because they put a high demand on the battery.
• Check that there are no interior lights on including the boot light as well as accessories such as phone chargers.

During the winter, frost can make opening the doors of your vehicle a struggle, this winter try using silicone-based furniture polish on the rubber door seals – it helps prevent doors getting stuck when it freezes.

If the locks are frozen, try warming your key. You could also inject the lock with the appropriate anti-freeze or spray it with WD40.

Make sure to stay safe this winter on the road by taking time to make regular maintanace checks on your vehicle.