GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hey folks,

With the colder climates slowly rolling in, and snow in the near future, what's your routine for winterizing your Vibe? Anything special planned this winter?

For instance, I know some of you have installed seat heaters (tempting...), driving lights (Shout out to KITT222!), etc.

For myself, snow tires are a must in our Canadian winters. I also plan on getting her undercoated this year to keep the rust monster at bay, as my province puts a lot of salt on the roads. I was thinking of getting some splash guards as well, but the price point for OEM kind of deterred me, and I kind of like the look of my car without them. Driving lights and seat heaters are another temptation.. The other thing I do is put some Fluid Film on the few rust spots and rock chips my car has developed over the years, to try and prevent them from getting any worse. I intend to have the rust spots fixed next summer.


Getting the wheels swapped out for the winters, BF Goodrich Winter Slalom KSi snow tires, on (blech) steelies.

Pretty soon, I'll start putting my block heater to use, too. It's getting cold outside, and those cold starts aren't an engine's favorite sport.
Might also make a decal with a drifting car, and some lettering that says "Let it snow..." for the hatch glass. Time will tell.

nothing! lol. im down on the southern tip of tx only 20 mins from the beach. no snow here.

Lucky you, wanna trade places until spring?

For all its faults, winter can be fun too though. Snowboarding, the occasional e-brake drift.. I look forward to the snowfall!

Mariachi wrote:nothing!

Same. It snows maybe 3 times a year at the max. I just roll up the windows and crank up the heat!

Yay shout out! Preserve your headlights for the darker times, and use LEDs as DRLs. My DRLs are currently misbehaving, so I'll be doing a rewire this weekend (possibly sooner). I have winter tires, and a small kit I assembled for the winter. This year I'll be keeping a blanket in my Vibe as well, and I already have the block heater. But I'm not sure if I should remount my shovel or not...



E-brake drifts are mandatory per snowstorm. I absolutely love driving in the snow, but don't like much else about it. With my new lights...



I'm hoping to get extra vision in the snow. Possibly cover up my factory fog lights, and use these instead, to keep the glass in its current state (they use plastic for everything but the windows and fog lamp lenses, and the fog lamps are one of the lowest, most exposed things on the car. Very smart ). The new lights need wiring, too. I don't care much about their lenses, as they're sealed-beam lamps, and I could make a stone grid to cover them.


All you south/west/southwest folks are pansies. I hope to join you within a year, as I'm a pansy too. I can't take the cold. No matter how much I try, I can't be properly warm in the winter. I'd take heat>cold any day.

snow tires (of course). not sure if i want to use my 15" steelie setup from last year or get the 205-55-16's i bought last month mounted on my celica gts wheels or oem alloys

pull out the block heater plug

oil spray

and im thinking about making some grill blocks this year to keep the heat in while i park for a short time

Kitt,, about the wiring for your lights, here's a little mspaint diagram that might help. Feel free to change anything you want but this rough draft should at least point you in the right direction.


Forgot to identify it but that blank black square is a relay.

Change over to winter wipers and winter tires. But not yet... it's not quite time for that... maybe next week.

MrHatchWagon wrote:Lucky you, wanna trade places until spring?

my wife definitely wouldn't mind. she wants to move to our house in NE Oregon. its friggin cold up there. lol

I just get new windshield wipers and new tires if I need them (I gotta get a new set very soon, actually) and make sure the ice scrapers and such are with the car. Hopefully we don't get any surprise snowstorms like last year's Halloween Snowstorm!

Argh! My passenger-side LED light is burned out, somehow. That's great. Oh well, the wiring mess is cleaned up, and rather brilliant, too.

Get the ice scraper out more often and shiver a whole lot. I hate you, winter. I hate you.

Covered parking FTW!!!

star_deceiver wrote:Covered parking FTW!!!

YEP ... same here but GARAGED instead of covered parking. The wife is currently not working so her G8GT & my Vibe GT have seen very little driving lately. In fact I am still on the tank that I filled up when I returned from the GenVibe Erie meet . Juniors Viber GT gets driven the most. If it looks like she'll be a homebody through the winter, then I'll put my "low mileage (3500 miles) steelies with winter rubber, onto my son's Vibe GT and keep the G8GT and my Vibe GT in the garage. We'll see

All I do is swap our 18" alloys out for 16" steelies, OEM wheel covers and lug nuts and get our ice scrapers out from under the cargo floor and put them on the floor behind the front seats. The first and second winters with our Vibes, I swapped the wheels out during the first week or two of December right before the first snowfall, then last winter, I ended up swapping them on Thanksgiving weekend because the weather was nice and I had the time. We ended up getting hardly any snow last year and I am convinced it was because I put our steelies on earlier than usual, so I'm not sure when I'll be swapping the wheels this year. Guess I'll see what the weather is looking like around Thanksgiving and decide from there...

Both our Vibes are garaged year 'round and our garage is heated (kept at about 50 degrees during the winter, unless we're out there working) so the Vibes have it really good during the winter months and are consequently still looking great after three Chicagoland winters (this will be the forth).

I too have come to enjoy driving in the snow more than I used to. It's especially fun to turn the Traction Control and Vehicle Stability Control off and go for a drive around town !