TULSA, Okla. — As people wake up Friday morning and get out on the roads, you may experience some cold weather impacts on your car.
The owner of Christian Brother Automotive, Russ Knight, told 2 News cars like it the way most people do, 72 and sunny, so these extreme cold conditions will cause things like battery and tire lights to come on.
First before you can get in the car, you might go out to see a layer of frost on your windshield. If you don’t want to stand in the cold scrapping it off and say your in a hurry, Knight says the best hack is to use rubbing alcohol. It's something most people will have in their homes. What you need to do is either put it in a spray bottle or attach a spray bottle head to the rubbing alcohol bottle and spray your windshield.
“It’ll melt a light glaze because it changes the freeze point and you're off to the races." he said "It’s also good for a frozen lock. If for some reason your key won't fit in the door and you can’t unlock the door a little bit of rubbing alcohol will melt that.”
Now that you’ve defrosted the windshield, when you turn the car on you could possibly have a low tire pressure light come on. Knight says when temperatures change like we’ve had, some air might seep out of the tire and if the pressure is not set to the exact number the car likes it at then it will signal the light.
The cold weather can also have some impacts on batteries and cause that light to signal.
If you're concerned about the lights coming on, he says the best thing you do is get the car checked out.
Now you're out on the road, it’s important you are prepared in case you have an accident or your car breaks down. Knights says people should keep blankets and water in the car and make sure your phone is charged.
That’s because you could be waiting for roadside assistance for a few hours as tow agencies are backed up with calls.
AAA also reported they received 429 calls in Northeast Oklahoma for roadside assistance. The most common reasons include flat tires, battery failure and vehicle failure or sliding off the road.
Through the first day of this winter weather snap, we also saw a lot of crashes across the state. As of 12pm Thursday, OHP responded to 247 non-injury crashes, 54 injury crashes, 2 hit and run crashes and 2 fatal crashes.
Considering the icy hazardous road conditions, vehicle repair shops like Christian Brothers Automotive expect to be busy.
“Most commonly what’s going to happen is people are driving too fast. They’ve taken a corner, they’ve slid and they bump into a curb. So it messes up the front end and then we have to deal with parts replacement of things that are bent or broken and then an alignment,” he said.
Knight says they are just about fully staffed and ready to handle the influx of customers.
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