Car owners are reminded to prepare their vehicles for cooler morning temperatures

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) – The approaching winter – or at least slightly cooler temperatures – will require changes to your daily routine to deal with the cold. Warming up your car properly could be on the new to-do list.

“You won’t get some of your parts up to operating temperature until you drive them on the road,” said Kevin Puryear, commercial manager at Cook Tire and Service Center in Lufkin.

According to a Consumer Report, it’s not always necessary to warm up before driving, especially with newer models, but it wouldn’t hurt. Puryear said he recommends car owners still take the extra step.

“It takes a little more waking up, like we do on a cool morning; We don’t want to move too much or get up at all. Your car needs to warm up and get to operating temperature before it burns down,” Puryear said.

For some car owners, this may mean adjusting to the cold temperatures, which in turn causes them to start their car and then go back inside to wait. However, this means your car is left unattended while it warms up, making it an easy target for thieves.

“It’s an opportunity; You jump in your vehicle and drive off,” said Sgt. Brett Ayers of the Nacogdoches Police Department.

He said they don’t drive around looking for unattended, running cars, and that’s why there aren’t many car thefts or break-ins. However, if something were to happen, the car owner could potentially face a citation.

“It is against the law to leave your vehicle unattended, cranked and unlocked,” Ayers said.

One piece of advice he gives is to defrost the windows.

“So you don’t drive down the street with your head hung down just so you can look down the street and get your safe,” Ayers said.

According to Puryear, there are other things to watch out for in cold temperatures. Fluids on this list include improving the car’s coolant efficiency and switching to winterized windshield wiper fluid. He said it’s also important to check the wiper blades and the belts and hoses. But one thing that should really be considered is the battery. Cold temperatures can cause your battery to die or stop working at full capacity.

“If you had a battery that was 100 percent efficient and it went below freezing, you would have reduced the efficiency of that battery to 80 percent.”

To avoid problems, he recommends getting everything checked before it gets too cold.

Ayers says people who have the car starter on their key fob are exempt from this law because the car is started and remains locked. It is also important to note that you should not warm up your car in a garage with the door closed.

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