Fall Car Care isn’t just about your engine and mechanical maintenance, but every aspect of your car. We’re sharing some of our Must-Do’s for fall car cleaning that will not only leave you feeling happier driving, but we’re sneaking in some items that will protect the longevity of your car too. Fall is the best time to give your car a good cleaning as the weather is not too hot, not too cold, and you can appreciate the outdoors at the same time.

Give your car’s exterior some love:

• Wash all the exterior grime off with mild car shampoo
• Towel dry versus air dry to avoid rivulet streaks
• Coat with a protectant. A careful cleaning, followed by a coating of wax or sealant (synthetic wax product), will help protect the paint job against the ravages of winter and help keep salt and road gunk from doing too much damage to your paint job.
• Clean your windshield with a lint free cloth and glass cleaner, then treat it to a coat of Rain X, this will help with frost, rain, and bug debris.
• Get stubborn bugs out of your grille (and off of your bumper) with the help of dryer sheets. Wet dryer sheet, and scrub bumper and grill and watch the bugs disappear. Make sure to wax area when you’re finished and avoid using on your car’s body.
• Windshield Wipers get dirty, wipe them down with wet lint free cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol.  prevent a smeared windshield. While you’re there, inspect blades for and cracking or curved blades. If they look bad, replace them before winter hits.

Interior Deep Cleaning:

• Clean Your Vents – after using your air all summer, vents can become dusty. You can use a foam brush or paint brush to dust your vents and then use a vacuum cleaner to suck up the loose debris.
• Remove and replace your cabin air filter to get rid of stinky smells.
• Vacuum – move all seats forward and pull out floor mats to get into every nook and cranny.
• Remove kids car seats to vacuum behind them. Crumbs and crayons always end up in the hard to reach areas. Consider investing in some car organization cubes for trash or to house kids toys and books within their reach.
• Now is a good time to put in some heavy-duty winter mats to catch all the salt and slush winter brings and protect your car’s carpet.
• Check your gas and brake pedal pads are secure and in good condition, a slipping or worn pad can be a driving hazard especially if your foot slips when braking.
• Clean Vinyl and Leather – Use a Magic Eraser to scrub sticky grime off of vinyl and leather or if the dirt has embedded itself into the textures of your seat, use a new toothbrush with some mild dish soap.
• Remove Pet Hair – have you ever tried to vacuum pet hair? It seems to defy suction and will not come up. We have a solution, use a spray bottle of water and a squeegee. The hair rolls off and your seats will look like new. You can also invest in pet seat covers if Fido makes a regular appearance. They make seat covers for kids too.