Cold temps increase need for AAA

HAMDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Everyone needs to be bundled up with ear muffs and gloves but your car needs just as much attention. Thousands are giving out because of the weather. Between the two sections of triple AAA in the state, they're reporting about 5,000 calls for the day.

"A lot of jump starts today, probably half of our calls are jump starts," said John Rufrano of Wheeler's Auto Service. "We've seen some icing in coolant tanks, cracking overflow bottles, even some radiators."

Each bone chilling day, cars freeze, and drivers get stuck but, business at Hamden's Wheeler's Auto Service is heating up.

"As soon as we got this cold weather, it started to pick right back up," said Rufrano.

They also take all the phone calls from AAA. They say there's a spike in calls in the morning and the afternoon.

"We do ask people to have patience, but we will be out there to help you," said Fran Mayko a spokesperson for AAA Southern New England.

Fran Mayko says calls doubled today. They're estimated to take about 3,000 of them.

One Big problem is easy to avoid...

"People in the morning start their car, warm it up, they want to run in the house and they slam the door locking the car so we had a lot of that this morning," said Mayko.

And batteries are dying. To keep yours alive and kicking...

"If you can keep it indoors in a garage that's probably the best thing you can do, but the colder weather, I mean, if you have an older battery that's 3, 4 years old, chances are you are going to need a jump start or a replacement," said Rufrano.