How Cooler Weather Affects Your Car or Truck and Keeping Your Fluids and Tires Healthy on the Road

Details: Date: 2026-09-26

Bumper to Bumper Radio, the car guys on KTAR, 92.3 FM in Phoenix, AZ, broadcast every Saturday from 11:00 am to noon. On this show, Matt Allen of Virginia Auto Service talks about cooler weather and how that may affect tire pressure, contracting fluids, and other components of your vehicle. Also on this show:

Do the math before trading your car just for better fuel mileage!
Cars and Coffee gatherings as the weather cools, including High Street in Scottsdale.
Setting your tire pressure from the door sticker and increasing about two pounds over as temperatures drop.
How transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and seals contract in cooler weather and can cause "morning sickness" or delayed shifts for your vehicle.
The litmus test for cracked bushings: if you would not fix it under warranty for free, do not sell it today.
Oil prices roughly doubling since March and what that means for cheap oil-change coupons.
1993 Dodge Intrepid: Both cooling fans quit after the fan assembly was replaced earlier this year but the fans bench-test fine. Where do we start the diagnosis?
2001 Dodge Ram: Door sticker calls for 80 psi in the rear, but that rides harsh. Is 65 psi a problem if the tires are wearing in the center?
2023 Lexus: If the tires were filled with nitrogen, do I have to keep using nitrogen when I top them off?
I've had an issue with my brake pedal since this vehicle was new. Is there an adjustment, or is it just this particular car?
2019 Buick Encore: My tires still have great tread but are about four years old with hairline cracks. Do they need to be replaced?