Car tires sticking in snow

[User 180565 is taking donation]

I heard putting cat litter on tires help cars drive easier on snow. I'm having an issue with my car where it gets stuck in small amounts of snow tires lock up someti.es and smell burnt rubber after I give it some gas. Dont know if I should just get all weather tires or if it's an issue with my breaks going bad. Anyone a mechanic out here?

[Derek‽]

You don’t put cat litter on the tires, you put it on the ice to absorb moisture and create traction.

What do you mean the tires lock up? That obviously shouldn’t happen in snow (or any time, really). The tires should spin freely if you aren’t getting traction and they won’t generate enough heat on snow and ice to cause an odor. One tire might if it’s on the pavement and the other is stuck in the snow, but you’d really have to be gunning the engine for awhile before an odor would be noticeable.

If you’re getting wheels locking up, then it may very well be the brakes. I had a stuck caliper resulting from the brake line burning up and the smell was horrendous. It completely ground the brake pad away and I ended up scalding myself on the wheel.

[wildmaven]

Feb 15, 2019 23:26:32 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

I heard putting cat litter on tires help cars drive easier on snow. I'm having an issue with my car where it gets stuck in small amounts of snow tires lock up someti.es and smell burnt rubber after I give it some gas. Dont know if I should just get all weather tires or if it's an issue with my breaks going bad. Anyone a mechanic out here?

Do you have a front wheel or rear real drive? What kind of car do you drive?

If you live in an area that snows every winter, you might want to invest in a set of winter tires. Don't buy all-season tires, as they won't give you the traction that winter tires will. But you must make sure you change them back to your regular tires as soon as the snow's gone. Driving on winter tires when there's no snow can quickly ruin their ability. 

Driving in the snow is all about subtlety. Giving it the gas quickly won't get you out of an icy situation. Anything you do quickly, either giving it the gas or braking, will cause you to lose control or not gain any traction.

I would really suggest you google how to drive in snow, as there are many, many techniques, such as only braking when you're driving straight and keeping your foot off of the gas and brake during turns. 

I lived in areas with snow for decades, so I know how challenging it can be to learn to drive in snow and ice. 

[Patrick [ASE]]

If it's possible that your brakes are freezing up while parked overnight, the trick i learned was to leave the car in gear, but not apply the handbrake, if parking on an incline, turn the wheels so the car would go into the kerb if things fail
I don't know how this would work with automatics.

[Derek‽]

Feb 16, 2019 13:41:54 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

If it's possible that your brakes are freezing up while parked overnight, the trick i learned was to leave the car in gear, but not apply the handbrake, if parking on an incline, turn the wheels so the car would go into the kerb if things fail
I don't know how this would work with automatics.

You just put it in “park”. This engages a pin in the transmission called the “parking pawl,” locking the output shaft, and thus the entire drivetrain. The wheels literally can’t rotate when this pin is engaged.

It’s operationally miles away from a manual, but in concept it’s very close. While you want the lowest gear ratio in a manual (either first or reverse, also dependent on the car’s orientation on the incline) to leverage resistance against external forces (like gravity), the parking pawl effectively brings the ratio to a strict 0.

Since most cars won’t let you turn off the engine (Edit: it occurred to me that I said the engine can’t be turned off, but what I meant was the ignition switch can’t exit accessory mode and thus the key can’t be removed) until the transmission is put into park, there’s nothing special a driver has to remember to do on inclines or during bad weather.

[🍁🇨🇦 Tai Pan 🇨🇦🍁]

Feb 16, 2019 8:39:24 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

Feb 15, 2019 23:26:32 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

I heard putting cat litter on tires help cars drive easier on snow. I'm having an issue with my car where it gets stuck in small amounts of snow tires lock up someti.es and smell burnt rubber after I give it some gas. Dont know if I should just get all weather tires or if it's an issue with my breaks going bad. Anyone a mechanic out here?

Do you have a front wheel or rear real drive? What kind of car do you drive?

If you live in an area that snows every winter, you might want to invest in a set of winter tires. Don't buy all-season tires, as they won't give you the traction that winter tires will. But you must make sure you change them back to your regular tires as soon as the snow's gone. Driving on winter tires when there's no snow can quickly ruin their ability. 

Driving in the snow is all about subtlety. Giving it the gas quickly won't get you out of an icy situation. Anything you do quickly, either giving it the gas or braking, will cause you to lose control or not gain any traction.

I would really suggest you google how to drive in snow, as there are many, many techniques, such as only braking when you're driving straight and keeping your foot off of the gas and brake during turns. 

I lived in areas with snow for decades, so I know how challenging it can be to learn to drive in snow and ice. 

I have always run on all season tires and I never get stuck

[Scott]

Feb 16, 2019 13:41:54 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

If it's possible that your brakes are freezing up while parked overnight, the trick i learned was to leave the car in gear, but not apply the handbrake, if parking on an incline, turn the wheels so the car would go into the kerb if things fail
I don't know how this would work with automatics.

Guess I'm daft this morning, as I'm missing the point of how leaving the car in gear or not affects the brakes freezing up?   Granted if User 180565 is taking donation is using the parking brake there could be an issue, but was that stated somewhere?

[Patrick [ASE]]

Feb 27, 2019 10:13:21 GMT -8 Scott said:

Feb 16, 2019 13:41:54 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

If it's possible that your brakes are freezing up while parked overnight, the trick i learned was to leave the car in gear, but not apply the handbrake, if parking on an incline, turn the wheels so the car would go into the kerb if things fail
I don't know how this would work with automatics.

Guess I'm daft this morning, as I'm missing the point of how leaving the car in gear or not affects the brakes freezing up?   Granted if User 180565 is taking donation is using the parking brake there could be an issue, but was that stated somewhere?

In the UK or on manual cars, you can either use the parking brake or leave it in gear (or both) to stop it rolling away, so leaving it in gear (not using the parking brake) makes it less likely for brakes to freeze up

[wildmaven]

Feb 27, 2019 10:29:00 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

Feb 27, 2019 10:13:21 GMT -8 Scott said:

Guess I'm daft this morning, as I'm missing the point of how leaving the car in gear or not affects the brakes freezing up?   Granted if User 180565 is taking donation is using the parking brake there could be an issue, but was that stated somewhere?

In the UK or on manual cars, you can either use the parking brake or leave it in gear (or both) to stop it rolling away, so leaving it in gear (not using the parking brake) makes it less likely for brakes to freeze up

But easier to steal. 

[Patrick [ASE]]

Feb 27, 2019 13:20:13 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

Feb 27, 2019 10:29:00 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

In the UK or on manual cars, you can either use the parking brake or leave it in gear (or both) to stop it rolling away, so leaving it in gear (not using the parking brake) makes it less likely for brakes to freeze up

But easier to steal. 

I don't see how, if you put the car in first gear, it would be hard to tow, and with the relatively recent addition of steering locks (didn't have them when i started driving) turning the wheels into the kerb as i also suggested above would make it just about impossible to tow
besides, just crawl under the car and cut the brake cable, having it in gear makes it harder to bypass.
But because automatics use a pin in park, that's fine, just don't apply the parking brake.

[Scott]

Feb 27, 2019 14:25:10 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

Feb 27, 2019 13:20:13 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

But easier to steal. 

I don't see how, if you put the car in first gear, it would be hard to tow, and with the relatively recent addition of steering locks (didn't have them when i started driving) turning the wheels into the kerb as i also suggested above would make it just about impossible to tow
besides, just crawl under the car and cut the brake cable, having it in gear makes it harder to bypass.
But because automatics use a pin in park, that's fine, just don't apply the parking brake.

Easier than you think:

[User 180565 is taking donation]

Feb 27, 2019 16:30:40 GMT -8 Scott said:

Feb 27, 2019 14:25:10 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

I don't see how, if you put the car in first gear, it would be hard to tow, and with the relatively recent addition of steering locks (didn't have them when i started driving) turning the wheels into the kerb as i also suggested above would make it just about impossible to tow
besides, just crawl under the car and cut the brake cable, having it in gear makes it harder to bypass.
But because automatics use a pin in park, that's fine, just don't apply the parking brake.

Easier than you think:

That driver better make damn sure that lifts all the way on

[James [a_leon]]

Feb 15, 2019 23:26:32 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

I heard putting cat litter on tires help cars drive easier on snow. I'm having an issue with my car where it gets stuck in small amounts of snow tires lock up someti.es and smell burnt rubber after I give it some gas. Dont know if I should just get all weather tires or if it's an issue with my breaks going bad. Anyone a mechanic out here?

Why are you living in an area that gets snow and not running appropriate tires?

Pretty easy to test if it's brakes: can you push your car when it's in neutral?