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Summary: When winterizing a car, remove leaves and pine needles from ventilation system. Check under the hood when getting a car ready for winter by as demonstrated in this free car maintenance video from a professional auto mechanic.
Greg Burchell is a retired auto mechanic. He was an auto mechanic for more than 40 yearsread more
"The cowl area of a car, this is neglected part of the car. In here, when your hood is closed, it's not visible. If you have a lot of trees in the neighborhood, you want to keep this area clean. This is where part of the ventilation system inside your car and a lot of people, they live near trees, they'll fill up with leaves, pine needles, and you end up getting a funny smell inside your car. So this is something to keep clean. You should check this whenever you have the hood open. It would only take you a matter of minutes to clean under here and to make sure it's free of debris. While we're here, we're going to inspect our belts. I have a little mirror on a stick that makes it a little easier to go under the hood and just get a quick peek at what our belts look like. I can also check the water pump to see if it's leaking. From what I can tell, it looks pretty good, it's just the one dry belt on this car."
eHow Article: Winterizing a Car: Checking Under the Hood