Cold Weather Driving

Cold weather is finally here. Learn how to keep your car in tip-top shape during these winter months with these tips from AOL autos:

Check Your Battery
The battery is the part of the car that generally has the most issues when the mercury starts to drop. In fact, your car's battery loses about half of its starting power at 0 degrees.

If your car is going to sit for an entire 24-hour period during times of cold weather, it's a good idea to start the engine up and let it run for 15-20 minutes to ensure that the battery stays charged. This way, you won't find yourself stranded with a dead battery when you need to get somewhere.

Pep Boys also said if your battery is five or more years old, it should be replaced before it dies.

Check Your Tire Pressure
For every 10-degree drop in the outside temperature, your tires lose about a pound of air pressure. You should check your tires often during the winter and add air as needed. Filling them is quick and easy, and can be done at many gas stations.

Under-inflated tires can be a serious safety hazard, especially when the roads are slick, as they impair your car's braking and handling abilities. Tires with low inflation levels (psi) can also be a detriment to your fuel economy.

Check Your Fluids

Fluids can thicken when it's cold outside, making it much more difficult for your car to get the fluids it needs to run properly.

Take a few minutes to make sure that your fluids -- oil, antifreeze, power steering, brake and transmission -- are in good shape and at the proper levels. It's also important to let your car warm up for at least ten minutes before driving anywhere, so that these fluids can flow the way they're intended.

Ensure you have adequate windshield wiper fluid. You'll be using a lot of it, especially in states that put salt on the roads.

Protect Your Windshield Wipers

Windshield wipers can freeze and crack in extreme cold. Considering how much you'll use them to clear salt, snow and all the other gunk that comes with the winter months, it's important to keep them in tip-top shape.

You should pull the wipers off the windshield when the car isn't running in order to prevent damage. Get in the habit of replacing your wipers in the fall, while the weather is still warm. Swapping them out in the cold can be a nightmare on your fingers.

Read the full article from AOL Autos here: http://aol.it/1HDA8Qk

Is Texting and Driving Addicting?

A new study by AT&T shows that texting and driving can actually release the happiness-enhancing chemical, dopamine in people's brains. This means that texting and driving could actually be addicting. Learn more with this article from Kicking Tires:

The study, conducted by the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in cooperation with the "Texting & Driving … It Can Wait" campaign, found that more and more people are demonstrating compulsive behavior — dubbed "cell-phone addiction" — with three-quarters of people admitting to at least glancing at their phones while behind the wheel. That's despite 90 percent of people reporting that they know better.

"We compulsively check our phones because every time we get an update through text, email or social media, we experience an elevation of dopamine, which is a neurochemical in the brain that makes us feel happy," Dr. David Greenfield, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and founder of the Internet and Technology Addiction, said in a statement. "If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we're driving, a simple text can turn deadly."

There is good news, however. According to the research, phone addicts can successfully rehab themselves. "Those who are most likely to text and drive are also the most likely to take steps to stop," AT&T said in a statement. "And 82 percent of people who take action to stop texting and driving feel good about themselves."

To help people stop this dangerous behavior, AT&T is promoting its free DriveMode iPhone app, which activates automatically at 15 mph, silences text-message alerts and automatically responds to incoming messages letting the sender know the user is driving; it also notifies parents if the app has been shut off.

Click the link to read the full article: http://bit.ly/1tN7dUg

Best and Worst Drivers in the US

Have you ever wondered where the best and worse drivers are in the US? Find out with this infographic!

View a larger version of the infographic here: http://bit.ly/1pRqswb

Keeping Germs at Bay in Your Car this Cold and Flu Season

This cold and flu season, make sure you're keeping germs at bay in your car with these tips from Kicking Tires:

The flu is nothing to sneeze at. It sends more young children to the hospital than any other vaccine-preventable illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The best way to prevent it and its complications is to get the flu vaccine for yourself and your family. It's recommended for children as young as 6 months old. Of course, the vaccine's effectiveness varies widely from season to season, so parents need to be vigilant when it comes to containing germs.

While many of us are trained to wipe down frequently touched surfaces in our homes (door knobs, light switches) whenever someone has the flu or a nasty cold, how often do those practices carry over to the family car, especially if you carpool? Here are our tips for keeping your car from becoming a petri dish:

What to Keep in the Car

• Box of tissues: While it's questionable as to whether your kids will actually use them, keeping tissues handy will hopefully encourage your children to use them when they sneeze. While you're at it, keep a small trash bag in the backseat to gather the used tissues.
• Hand sanitizer: Keep this on hand for easy cleanups when kiddos didn't have enough time to grab a tissue before sneezing (eww). They also help adults clean up their hands after pumping gas.
• Baby wipes: These are great for wiping down not only the kids, but also frequently touched surfaces like the steering wheel, radio buttons, door handles and window switches. Think twice before using bleach wipes in your car because the harsh chemicals could damage the interior.

Carpooling

Carting your sick children in the car is one thing, but what happens when your kids are part of a carpool. Well, if everyone isn't careful, it's easy for the kids to pass the same cold around and around. Here are some simple tips to help keep all the kids in your carpool a little healthier this winter:

• If another parent in the carpool is dropping off your child at your house, make sure to keep a bottle of hand sanitizer inside your house's front door to keep the germs at bay.
• Or even better, train your kids to go straight to the bathroom or kitchen sink when they get home to wash their hands with soap.
• Also, make sure to wipe down your child's backpack straps (if they use one) to help thwart with spread of germs.
• While you may be ready to declare germ warfare on the bacteria the carpooling kids are bringing with them, realize that not all parents will want you to hose down their kids with sanitizer. Instead focus on wiping down the car's frequently touched surfaces after depositing the carpoolers at their homes and finally getting to your own.

Child-Safety Seats

There's one last front to consider in the car: car seats. Cleaning a car seat requires a couple of steps:

• First, read the car seat's manual before doing anything. Any missteps when cleaning it could make the car seat unsafe.
• To clean the car seat's plastic shell, most manufacturers recommend using a damp cloth and mild soap.
• The harness straps should be wiped down with a damp cloth, too. Some manufacturers allow the use of a mild soap to clean it, but check before cleaning. Don't wash the harness straps in the washing machine because it can affect its fiber strength and wash away fire retardants.
• Although you may want to burn the car seat's dirty cover -- who knew they could get so gross? — again read the owner's manual before washing. Some manufacturers allow the covers to be machine-washed (and likely air-dried), while others prefer hand-washing and air-drying.

Click the link to read the full article from Kicking Tires: http://bit.ly/1u25MlR