Getting your car ready for winter in Quebec: the 8-point checklist

1. Tires, and the date that's not December 1

The legal period runs from December 1 to March 15, but the useful date is earlier: below about 7 °C an all-season tire hardens and loses grip, snow or no snow. Mid October is when that starts here.

Check the depth on last year's set before you commit to it. Under roughly 4.8 mm a winter tire isn't doing the job any more, whatever the law says. There's more on the dates and the law in our winter tire article.

2. The battery, before it strands you

Cold cuts the current a battery can deliver roughly in half while thick oil makes the starter ask for more. A battery that was fine all summer fails on the first genuinely cold morning.

A load test takes five minutes and is the only honest answer. Past the fourth winter, do it every fall. The battery article goes through what the cold actually does.

3. Wipers and washer fluid

Summer blades tear on ice and leave a smeared band right at eye level. Winter blades have a covered frame that doesn't pack with snow.

Washer fluid must be rated to at least minus 40. Summer fluid freezes in the lines and in the reservoir, and a frozen reservoir can split. If the jets stop working in December, this is usually why.

4. Fluids, and the coolant in particular

Coolant isn't just antifreeze, it's also what carries heat to your cabin heater. Weak or old coolant means a heater that never quite warms up and, at the extreme, a freeze in the block.

Oil matters too: on a cold start the oil has to reach the top of the engine quickly, which is what the first number in 0W-20 or 5W-30 describes. The grade on the cap is a specification, not a suggestion.

5. Brakes, because stopping is the whole point

Winter asks more of brakes and gives them less grip to work with. Pads near the end of their life in October will be gone by February, and salt seizes calipers and slides that were merely stiff.

A caliper that has seized on one side makes the car pull under braking, which on ice is worse than it sounds.

6. Lights, in the season with the least daylight

December afternoons are dark by four and the road is covered in salt spray that dulls a headlight lens in weeks. Check that every bulb works, including both brake lights and the reverse lights you never see yourself.

Yellowed lenses cut usable light badly. Polishing them is cheap next to what it gives back.

7. Heating and demisting

A windshield you can't see through is a safety problem, not a comfort one. If the demist takes several minutes, suspect a cabin filter that's blocked or a heater core that isn't getting hot.

Use the air conditioning to demist even in winter. It dries the air before the heater warms it, and that clears the glass far faster than heat alone.

8. Underbody, before the salt arrives

Salt finds bare metal, and what it finds in November it eats all winter. A look underneath before the season catches brake and fuel lines starting to scale, and exhaust sections that won't last until spring.

This is also the moment to notice a stone chip in the paint or an exposed seam, which is a five-minute fix now and a panel later.

Frequently asked questions