Basic Car Maintenance

You don't have to be a grease monkey to understand how to take care of your car. Basic maintenance is easy and is vital if you want to prevent mechanical problems and keep your car running smoothly. A regularly maintained car will be safer, more dependable, and better for the environment. It will also handle better and have a higher resale value. Let's take a look at a few things. First off, tires. You should check your tire pressure on a regular basis, at least once a month. Use a tire gauge like this. Take the cap off the tire valve and fit the tire gauge over it like so. Put more air in your tire if the pressure is low. How much air you need to put in varies from tire to tire. Most tires will have a number on the sidewall that indicates the maximum tire pressure that they'll handle. Well, that's definitely a good thing to know, the better place to look to determine how much pressure you need in your tires is your Owners Manual. Most manufacturers will indicate in the manual what tire pressure makes the car run smoothest. This is reason number one, why reading your owner's manual is a good idea. While you're checking pressure, it's also a good idea to take a close look at the tread on your tires. Look for excessive or uneven treadwear. You can use a Quarter to measure your tire tread like this. If the tread isn't thick enough to reach the top of Washington's head, it's probably time to get new tires. Driving on tires with low tread is dangerous, particularly in bad weather. Uneven treadwear can mean a lot of different things. It could indicate problems with alignment, suspension, steering or it could mean that your tires are under-inflated. The bottom line is, get your car checked out if you notice uneven treadwear. If you ignore the treadwear on your tires, you could end up with a flat. It's a good idea to spend the few minutes it takes to learn how to change your flat, if you haven't already. What you do if you get a flat and you don't know how to change it, well, you can either use your cell phone to call someone to come and help you or can buck up and do it by yourself by closely following the instructions in -- you guessed it, your Owners Manual. This would be reason number two, why reading your owner's manual is a good idea. Here is a quick, step-by-step demonstration on how to change your tire to get you familiar with the process. Once you've got the vehicle pulled over and stopped in a safe place, put your hazard lights on, and block the wheel that is diagonally opposite the flat tire. Next, take your tire iron and loosen the lug nuts. Don't remove them yet. Now place the jack in a stable position near the flat. It should be square with the side of the car and the head of the jack should be fully covered. Be sure to check your owner's manual for the exact points where it is most stable to place your jack. Using the jack raise the wheel. It only needs to be raised a few inches. Next, remove the loosened lug nuts and pull the flat tire off. Fit the spare tire firmly in place. And tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern like this, to ensure that the spare is flush with the mounting surface behind it. Finally, carefully lower the wheel and give the lug nuts one last tightening. At this point, you're ready to go, but remember all cars are different. Read your owner's manual for more specific information about how to change the tires on your car. Finally, on the subject of tires, a reminder, be sure to check the tire pressure on your spare every month or so. You don't want to get car with the deflated spare tire. Next step, the ever reliable jumper cables. Something else you definitely want to know how to use. It's really easy to forget to turn your lights off and drain your battery. Some people do it on a regular basis. What if your battery is dead and you haven't learn how to jumpstart a car? Once again our trusty owner's manual comes through for us. Reason number three to check it out. Most owner's manual will show you how to jumpstart your car. If your battery is dead, jumper cables will allow you to connect to another car's battery to start your engine. Here's a lesson on how to use them properly. After the cars have been positioned next to each other, turn their engines off and both hoods. Next, carefully attach the red cables to the positive terminals of each battery, starting with the dead battery. The positive terminals are usually marked by plus (+)sign or colored red. Next, attach the black cable to the negative terminal of the good battery. The negative terminal is usually black and marked with the minus (-) sign. The remaining black cable should be attached to the engine block of the car with the dead battery. Attach the cable as far from the battery as possible. Once the cables are attached, start the engine of the car with a good battery. Wait a minute or two, then start the engine of the car with the dead battery. Leaving both engines running, you can disconnect the cables in the reverse order in which you connected them. First, the cable attached to the engine block, then the black negative cable from the booster car. Then the red positive cable from the booster car and finally the red positive cable from the car you've just jump started. At this point, you're ready to go. But remember all cars are different. Be sure to read your owner's manual for more specific information on how to jumpstart your car. Don't even try to jumpstart your car, if you don't know what you're doing. Using jumper cables incorrectly can lead to electrical shock, battery explosion or even death. Speaking of the battery, let's take a look under the hood. There are several things under the hood that you want to check on a regular basis. We were already talking about the battery, let's start there. Batteries come in different shapes and sizes, but one concern with all of them is to make sure that there is no corrosion on the battery terminals. Corrosion is a double whammy. It creates ignition problems, and it makes it difficult to jumpstart your car. Next, fluids. Wiper fluid goes in here. You don't want to be stuck in nasty weather without it. Always fill the reservoir with wiper fluid, not water. Water will freeze in cold weather, wiper fluid won't. You'll also need to keep track of the radiator's engine coolant level. Check it about once a week. But do not remove the radiator cap if the engine is still hot. You can get scalded by hot steam or boiling coolant. Wait for the engine to cool before you check it. Check the brake fluid level once a month or so. Brake fluid levels tend to fall as your brakes get worn down. The fluid level that you should check most often is the oil. You should check it at least twice a month. Simply take out the dipstick, wipe it off, stick it back in there, and then check it again. If the level is low, add oil and always, always remember to change your oil every three months or 3000 miles, whichever comes first. The longer oil stays in your car, the dirtier it gets, and the less it lubricates your engine. If you let it get too dirty, the engine will overheat and do some serious damage. If you need to add more oil, or more any of the fluids we have mentioned, only the kind of fluid specified by the manufacturer in your Owners Manual. That's reason number four. The next basic maintenance tip, stay aware of the different gauges, and indicator lights on your dashboard. Paying attention to them, and knowing what they mean helps a lot in preventing and fixing problems. The temperature gauge here indicates well, the engine's temperature. The arrow should stay near the middle. The engine is too hot, if the arrow goes into the red. Next, you don't want to run out of gas. So pay attention to the fuel gauge. Something else you can do here is keep track of the mileage that you get out of the full tank of gas. Zero out your trip odometer when you fill up and keep track of how many miles you get out of a full tank. This number should stay consistent every time you use a full tank of gas. Inconsistent or lower than average fuel economy can indicate any one of a number of different problems. So you definitely want to get it checked out. Here are a few other warning signs that should tell you that your car needs to be checked by a mechanic. Difficult starting, stalling, shaking when idle or at high speeds, and finally, rough or uneven running. The bottom line is, be aware of your car. The more you drive it, the more of the six sense you'll get for how it drives and feels normally. If things just don't feel right with your car, don't hesitate to get it checked out. So to review, keep an eye on your tires, maintain your fluids, watch the warning signs your car gives you, and fix problems as soon as you notice them. Do all these things and you'll safely enjoy your car for a long time to come.