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This past winter I learned a couple of lessons about my car the hard way.

First of all, leaving summer windshield washer fluid in the receptacle over the winter months … not a good idea. Summer windshield washer fluid is a more diluted mixture of water and cleaners, as much as 10:1, while the winter fluid is more typically a 1:1 ratio, and often contains other ingredients such as anti-freeze. So if you leave the summer fluid in during the cold winter months it could freeze, expand, and ruin your washer reservoir.

Now I’m not saying that’s why I ended up with a big crack at the bottom of  mine this winter but I’m not ruling it out. I know this year I wasn’t too careful about making sure I was using the winter or all season mixture. It is so important to make sure you always have enough windshield washer fluid, especially during the slushy months of winter and spring. The dirty spray can blind you when it covers your windshield. So having a receptacle to hold the fluid is vital to your safety.

I had a bit of a problem getting the reservoir fixed, however, because they were on backorder and unavailable to me when I needed to replace it. Thank goodness I have a resourceful mechanic who was able to fix it for me. So far it is still holding up well. I have learned my lesson. Just in case, I will never use summer fluid again, regardless of the time of year. It’s winter or all season fluid for me from now on.

Lesson number two. Just because your fuel gauge isn’t completely on empty and your low fuel sign isn’t flashing does not mean that you have enough gas.  I found this out the hard way just last week. I was heading south on Jarvis and my car stopped.  The scary part is that, when you run out of gas, you lose your power steering and power brakes.  I had no idea I was out of gas and was terrified that my brakes and steering weren’t working at all.  I let the car coast as far over as I could and called for a tow. My hands were shaking so much I couldn’t even send a text to my daughter to tell her I wouldn’t be bringing her lunch.

Since the price of gas has risen so dramatically recently I have been trying to make it on one tank of gas a week. That is why I didn’t want to fill it up the day before. And I got caught. But now I know. My mechanic told me to make sure that I always drive with at least a quarter of a tank of gas. You do not want to be driving consistently with little gas, not just because you could get caught as I did, but because this practice can put extra wear and tear on your fuel pump. It is an expensive part to replace.  Trust me.  I know.  Because I had to replace mine.

So there you go.  Two lessons I learned this winter about my car.  Hopefully this will help you avoid making the same mistakes I did.