Entry #10 - Simple Maintenance On A Car

Many issues can arise when owning a car, whether having a flat tire or your engine blowing up. These problems can be avoided by maintaining your vehicle correctly. This could be taking your car to the mechanic regularly or checking it yourself. If you don't know what a noise could be or don't know what to look for, you should bring it into an auto shop so they can fix it properly if it has issues. However, simple things can be done to avoid taking it into the shop often. Only some things need to be checked frequently/monthly, but it is good practice to know what to look for when the time does come around.

Pennzoil

A simple thing most people need to learn is to check/change their oil. Every car uses oil, except for electric-only cars, to lubricate the engine and other moving parts, which can cause numerous problems if it runs low or old. The first thing to do is make sure the engine is not running. Next, you'll need to locate your oil dipstick in the engine bay, clean it off with a paper towel, and stick it back in to get an accurate reading. The dipstick should have two marks. The one closest to the end is the low, and the other is the high. Make sure that the oil is going up to the high mark, but also make note of the color. The color must be golden; if it's almost dark/black, you'll need an oil change soon. Another liquid that you'll want to check is the coolant level. Your coolant keeps the moving parts in your engine cool and prevents them from overheating. You will find your radiator and the coolant reservoir to check it. Again, ensure the engine is cool, and then take the cap off the reservoir and check the color. Suppose it is red, blue, yellow, or green. In that case, it's normal, but if it's a rust color, colorless, has particles, or is oily or sludgy, you will want your mechanic to look over your car because this usually means a more severe problem. But if it's a normal color but the markers on the side indicate it's low, you will also want to get that changed. Two other things you can check are your lights and tires. If you want to learn more about checking and maintaining your tires, you can go to this blog, which goes into more detail. With lights, you can turn them on and walk around your car, ensuring all the lights you turned on are working. If not, you will want to change them for good road visibility when it's hard to see.

AutoZone

Even though there are other things to check and maintain, these are just a few essential things that can help increase the longevity of your vehicle. After reading this, I hope you'll have learned some things you can check on your car and look into more things you can do yourself to take care of your vehicle.