There are several parts on cars that are made of rubber including the tires, windshield wipers and the seals around doors and windows. These rubber items play a vital role in the summer keeping the car on the road, the windshield clear and water from running inside the car’s body. In the winter, their roles are even more essential.

Windshield Wipers

Windshield wipers only have to wipe the rain away in the summer. Here in Northern Illinois, that rain turns to snow and ice when the temperature falls. Now you’re trying to wipe away a mix of snow, rain, ice and salt. Inadequate wipers will streak and smear the windshield rather than clear it for an uninhibited view while driving.

If you haven’t changed the wipers in a while, you might want to do something about that before you find yourself twisting your neck here and there trying to see through a salt-smeared windshield.

Rubber Molding

The rubbers around your doors and windows help keep the cold air out and make your ride quieter while also keeping water out. Water that gets past the rubber molding poses a risk to your car’s metal body parts and chassis. Allowed free access over a period of time, body and chassis parts will rot and rust. Not only does this shorten the lifespan of a vehicle, it also reduces its resale value.

Rubber Tires

The quality of your tires is the difference between good traction in winter and bad. It’s also, quite possibly, the difference between safe driving in winter and the increased possibility of an accident.

Have you ever seen a car struggling to get up a hill when there is a little snow and ice on the road? You drive past the car as though there’s nothing to it. As you pass, you look over and wonder what’s wrong with the driver.

It’s quite possible the driver is giving the car too much gas and spinning the tires. But, whether that’s true or not, almost assuredly, the tires are worn. If you’ve ever driven a car with worn tires in winter, changed to new tires, maybe even good winter or all-season tires, you’ve experienced the difference quality tires can make.

While it’s an inconvenience having balding tires while trying to climb a hill, it’s far more serious when you desperately need traction to avoid an accident.