The winter car care checklist most people skip

Winter damage is cumulative and almost entirely invisible while it is happening. By the time you can see it, it is corrosion rather than contamination. This is the list we work through with customers in late autumn.

Before the first freeze

1. Decontaminate and seal the paint. Protection applied in October is worth more than protection applied in March, because it is there for the salt rather than after it.
2. Coat or seal the wheels. Winter brake dust plus grit plus salt is the harshest combination your wheels will ever see.
3. Clean and dress the door and boot seals with a rubber-safe product. Frozen seals tear when you pull the door open.
4. Seal the glass. Rain sheets off above about 40 mph and ice releases far more easily from a coated windscreen.
5. Clear the drain channels under the bonnet and around the sunroof. Blocked drains in winter are how water ends up in a footwell.
6. Replace worn wiper blades before they are dragging grit across cold glass.
7. Check and top up a winter-rated screen wash, not a summer mix that will freeze in the reservoir.
8. Deep clean the carpets and mats now, so the ones absorbing salt and slush all winter start dry and clean.
9. Fit rubber mats over the carpet. Salt in carpet backing is what causes both the smell and the corrosion under it.

During winter

Wash more often, not less. Every instinct says the opposite because the car will be dirty again in a day, but the point of a winter wash is removing salt from the arches and underbody, not making the paint look good.

The trap

Do not wash a salted car with a dirty mitt in freezing conditions. Grit plus cold plus contact is precisely how you install a winter's worth of swirl marks in one afternoon. If it is below freezing, a touchless rinse of the arches beats a proper wash done badly.