I have a 1991 max with 209,873 miles on and this is my 1st winter with my own car, anything I should do to help it serve the snow?

 

Tires...

 

and fresh antifeeze, also a strong battery helps

 

how old is the timing belt?

Blankets and jumper cables in the trunk plus everything mentioned above

 

check the blinker fluid

 

I have kept a manual winch in the trunk in the winter ever since I started driving.

 

make sure your heater and air conditioner work correctly.....check wiper blades..chck hoses for cracks...oil change??????

 

about 4 months old!

 

1st of all my car hit 210,000 today! I need new tires but dont have the cash yet. I am going to do an old change, I just put a new T stat in because i never had one. I did not even know cars had blinker fluid so I am sure I need to check that and I am going to change the oil in the next few days! Thanx guys

 

good god man, I hope you are kidding about the blinker fluid comment! To add to the list is check your brakes, e brake, every replaceable fluid under the hood needs to be checked (power steering, brakes, winshield washer, coolant, tranny fluid, oil), car aligned right? Silicone the holes in your rear wheel wells, then brush grease all over the front and rear wheel well (make sure you do this when the wheel wells are DRY), any visible nuts and bolts as well (this will keep the rust at bay), stick a 2x4 block under your gas pedal and grandma it!!!

 

Hey vans, is your car STILL broken? Dam, when r u going to get that awesome SE of urs back on the road? jeez!

 

yup.... still broken... i took out the tranny in it (broken) and i am currnetly removing a VE auto tranny (just for the winter) when summer hits im going all out and geting a stick...but so far the bad tranny is out and i am in the process of taking the VE tranny out of a junk car. so clue if the junk yard tranny works but i have a pretty good feeling it will (69k on it tranny fluid looks brand spankin new) so saturday is my goal of having everything done (also replacing axles and rear main seal)

 

you could try to put one 5w30 oil in it, its not as think at 10w30 and they say it will make your car start quicker and easier, also recomended for winters, i live in michigan we get them all the time lol
azn dan

 

agreed on 5w30.

just play it by ear. no use worrying about something until it happens; its an old car and its possible that many things can go wrong, but every car is different.
in other words....save some extra cash just in case, or establish a credit card account. if you havent noticed any problems with your car by now, its likely that you wont until its "too late", etc.

 

learn to drive "correctly" in the snow.

it's more driver error than the machine itself that's at fault.

 

exactly; you can drive on bald tires if you have to... i may have to cause i dont have the money and i deliver pizza!

 

just go to a used tire place. You can get a full set of tires for $40-$100.

~Alex

 

I hope you put synthetic oil in your car(5w30). The difference in cold starts is huge compared to mineral oil....

 

hell yeah another 3rd gen pizza driver! reppin' the PH!!

 

If I can drive a 240SX through a northern Indiana winter, I'm sure you can drive a Maxima through a phila winter. Atleast Phila keeps the roads plowed. Rural Indiana is a much different story...

Keep lock de-icer in your POCKET. No sense in buying it if you leave it in the car. It does you no good there when your locks freeze over.

 

huge enh?
why not run 0w-30 instead then?
or 0w-20? that stuff looks like water.

if i use dino oil wil my engine blow up in the winter? will it seize up?

how "huge" are we talking about? and no i'm not referring to the marketing BS...any first hand experience?

 

I woudn't worry in Philly, just don't be an idiot. Up here, just north of no-where VT, chains/cables are a must no matter how well you drive in snow, I attached an old leatherman pouch we de-icer somewhat beneath the drivers side door, it gets nasty but has yet to fall out.

 

there is something called "the oil bible". Google it and download it. It's very interesting and backed up by solid research. From personal experience I've noticed that my wife's beretta cranked soooo much easier at 20 below after I put mobile 1 in it. I've always driven my max with Mobile 1 so can't really compare. Anyways, you can never hurt your engine by putting a far superior lubricant in it that will cost you $25 if you do it.

 

how the engine starts is more related to your starter and battery...all the oil is in the pan. what does cranking a cold car have anything to do with oil that's sitting in the oil pan?

 

friction.
some oil may cling to your engine parts , it's also a matter of how fast said oil in pan gets up to the valvetrain. Lucas had a real cool eggbeater demo to illustrate how it happens.

 

yup...i've seen that thing in the store.

but the egg beater demo...all i have to do is use very thick oil and the second i spin the crank the thick oil will instantly climb on to the egg beater...right?

if you're running a thin weight oil (ie 5w-30) how much do think it'll actually "cling" to the engine parts.

 

I wasn't going into the whole weights thing.
but since you mentioned it.
thicker oil has a much harder time climbing the beaters.
the clinging ability is related to film strength IIRC not weight.

 

Hmm...The jeep I just got has 20W50 in it. I ran lucas in my old beater and will with this just as soon as it need an oil change.

 

Imagine having thick "mud" in your oil pan and trying to start your car. I am talking about the way (speed) the engine turns over. Trust me, for a car geek those "10 s or less" are reeeaaalyyy painful. After I switched to synth. the motor crancked 10x easier at the same temp(-20 to -30). If it never gets so cold where you live it wouldn't matter I guess.

P.S.
Amsoil has an oil that is good for.........100 000+ miles with only filter changes and external filtering system(ref. "the oil bible). That is crazy...

 

For an engine with +200k on it, 5w maybe a bit too thin for a worn engine is what I learned while researching oils recently, even though it aids in cold starts.

 

Those tires are great...