Winterize Your Lawn Mower

Winterizing your lawn mower before storing it for the winter is important to do. This maintenance will prevent you from encountering rust and fuel issues come spring. Spending an hour or two now will save you frustration, time and money that you might have to spend later if your mower develops problems and fails to start again. If you do not feel comfortable removing the mower's spark plug, replacing oil and oil filter, then you might want to bring your mower to a trusted local company that deals with lawn mower sales and repairs for the service. However, if you know how to do general maintenance on your mower already, then you should be more than equipped to take on this project.

You will need:
Fresh oil
Oil pan
Oil filter
Wrench for removing oil drain plug
Air filter
Gasoline
Gas stabilizer
Spark plug wrench
Spark plug
Tablespoon

Instructions:
1. Purchase a fuel stabilizer at your local home improvement or garden center. Follow the directions on the package to mix the stabilizer with your fuel in the gas can. Use the blend of fuel and stabilizer the last two or three times you fill the lawn mower. This will ensure that any gas that remains in the mower over the winter does not become gummy.
2. The day you plan on doing the final winterizing of your mower, run the mower for a few minutes to make sure that stabilized gas is drawn into the cylinder.
3. Change the mower's oil. To do this, loosen the oil drain plug while the engine and oil is still warm. Collect the old oil in a pan and remove the oil filter if your mower has one. To dispose of the used oil, you can bring it to a local recycling center or service station.
4. Replace the oil drain plug and insert a new oil filter if your mower has one. Add fresh oil to the proper fill level in your mower.
5. When the engine has cooled enough that you can work with it, it is time to remove the spark plug. To do so, put the spark plug wrench over the spark plug and remove it.
6. Pour a tablespoon of motor oil into the cylinder trough the spark plug hole. This will prevent rust from forming over the winter. Pull to cord a few times to distribute that oil through the cylinder
7. Replace the spark plug, but do not attach the wire until you are ready to start the mower again.
8. Change the air filter
9. Brush all grass and other debris from the mower. Scrape away anything that has become encrusted on the inside o the mower and on the blades.
10. Sharpen the mower blade if you feel comfortable doing it yourself. You can also have the blade sharpened at a location that offers lawn mower service.