Sven’s top tips on sleigh maintenance

At Christmas time it’s important to keep your wheels in motion so you can celebrate with friends and family near and far. Santa’s mechanic shares his top tips to keep your sleigh – and your car – in good nick over the festive season.

1. Oil change

For starters, make sure you check and change your oil. Nothing helps my sleigh last through the festive season and beyond more than a regular oil and filter change. On the flip side, nothing can put a sleigh out-of-action faster than forgetting to refresh your oil.

2. Keep it cool

You should be flushing the cooling system and changing the coolant at least once a year – so mark it in your calendar before you hit the road this Christmas. I use a 50/50 mix of coolant and distilled water to keep my sleigh in top condition! This helps keep corrosion at bay and stops any nasty gunk from building up inside the cooling system.

3. Sleigh sustenance

Your sleigh will have a recommended type and viscosity of transmission fluid or gear oil that it likes to guzzle. Make sure you change these according to your sleigh’s service intervals.

4. Keep it clean

Once you’ve given the outside of your sleigh a good spruce to keep it shining as brightly as a Christmas bauble, don’t forget to hose any sand, dirt or grime off the underside as well!

5. Wax on, wax off

Channel your inner Karate Kid and keep your sleigh looking its shiniest with a regular coating of quality wax – I’d recommend waxing your sleigh at least twice a year to protect it.

6. Smooth operator

I keep my sleigh running as smoothly as possible by making sure driveline components like the u-joints and drive axles are getting all the attention they need through regular lubrication.

7. On the run

I’d be in the bad books with Santa if I lost a sleigh runner mid-flight! To avoid this, I keep up with my service intervals and inspect, clean and repack my sleigh’s runner bearings with grease. If you do the same, it’s a much cheaper option than having to replace a spindle and hub.

8. Hit the brakes

To keep your calipers, hoses and sensors running top-notch on your sleigh, replace your brake fluid and bleed system once a year. This will help prevent moisture build up that causes corrosion and leads to sleigh brake failure.

Lucky for Sven he’s on top of his sleigh maintenance. Even luckier – he’s got AAMI’s roadside assistance, which now covers sleighs (and cars, of course).