General Car Maintenance Tips for the Beginner

While you are forgiven if you head to the mechanic for most car and engine repairs, you must ensure you carry out basic maintenance and checks on your own. Car maintenance checks are much more than checking and topping off your fluids, checking your tire pressure, and make sure all your lights work. In order to enhance the shelf life of your car, you will need to carry out the following basic maintenance operations on your car.

Make Sure Your Brakes Are Efficient

Brakes and brake pads in a car are very important for you to efficiently maneuver the vehicle. You must never ignore the condition of your brakes, as brake failure can be the most dangerous car break downs that can be life shattering, second only to tire failure. In order to make sure you never have to bear the brunt of a brake failure in your life, check the fluid levels periodically and ensure that your brake pads are in top working order. Failure in the brake components must be immediately taken care of by a mechanic before it leaves you stranded on the freeway or worse. You must ideally, look to replace your brakes once you notice that your stopping power has greatly diminished or your brake pedal isn’t as stiff as it once was.

Regular Tire Inspections Are A Must

The tires on your car are the victims of rash driving, incessant speed changes, bad and bumpy roads, and constant braking. Nonetheless, they tend to wear away sooner than the eight year shelf life they’re sold with. You must keep an eye on the tire alignment, tire pressure and other tire safety parameters. When you notice even a slight problem with your tires, make sure you immediately visit a mechanic and get your car inspected. Tires are hugely responsible for safety in the car and you must never let faulty tires put you and your car in risk at all. One way you can ensure long lasting tires is by using a tread depth gauge to check for optimum thickness regularly. However, during summers and winters, proper tire inspections at a garage are necessary, though the readings on the tread depth gauge might reveal no problems.

Proper Coolant Checks Are Important

The coolant in your engine is in charge of several tasks and thus, requires constant checking. It not only keeps your radiator from overheating but also is a good antifreeze component, and keeps corrosion levels low in the internal hardware of your car. Treating your coolant with the recognition it deserves is an important general car maintenance task. You must not only check the coolant levels regularly, but also make sure that cleanliness and effectiveness is at an even keel. If there is a slight disconnect in the efficiency of your coolant, you must strive to replace it as soon as possible. Though you must look at your car manual for more details on the specific coolant replacement times recommended, we suggest replacing the coolant either after 24,000 miles or every two years. Apart from fuel inspections, you also have to check engine belts, head, brake and turn signal lights, and fuel efficiency for a comfortable shelf life.

Pre-Winter Checklist For Your Car

The moment fall is over; you will need to set up an appointment to have your car inspected for winter driving by one of our ASE Certified mechanics. It is important to ensure that the serviceable parts in your car are maintained to function superbly in the chilly temperatures too. Apart from the general car maintenance guidelines that every car owner must follow, we’ve compiled a list of winterizing techniques that include tire inspections, maintenance of electrical systems in your car to avoid start up problems in the cold mornings, windshield wiper replacements to avoid collisions and enhance road visibility, and a proper fuel delivery system. 

Make Sure to Have Regular Oil Changes

An important checklist as you begin winterizing your car is to have a proper oil change done for your vehicle. Oil behaves differently in summer and winter, and this might cause problems with the overall operation of the engine in below freezing point temperatures. It comes down to basic physics; the colder the temperature and higher viscosity of the liquid, the “thicker” that liquid becomes.  Most vehicles use a 10-weight oil, which is perfect for the summer time, but during the winter months, it makes your engine work harder in order to start on those cold mornings.  Depending on the vehicle, it’s best to have a lower weight oil put into your engine.  With a lower weight oil, it won’t become so “thick” in the overnight hours when the winter temperatures really dip into the freezing temperatures.  This is will make your car start easier in the morning.

Carry Out Tire Inspections Before Winter Begins

Although the AAA and the ASE recommend tire inspections and replacements of components at least twice a month, you will need to completely overhaul your tires before winter. Thanks to the salt deposits on the road, the low temperatures, and the need of traversing on slippery snow and frost, tires wear down very quickly in winters. Thus, if your tire is old and more than two years old, we suggest changing it immediately. You could also attach snow tires if your city is under a lot of snow in the winter. Tread gauges are also important to check the allowable distance between the tire and the tread tool. You also want to check tire pressure and see if your vehicle is pulling to one side of the road.  If you feel anything requires any type of professional attention, get your vehicle into our shop so that we may further diagnose the problem.

Flush Your Coolant Systems and Radiators For Better Performance

Throughout the heat and humidity of the summer, you’ve relied on your coolants and radiators to dissipate heat externally and get rid of overheating prospects in your car. In winter, coolant systems and radiators are also components with a demanding workload, though now, their duties would be to ensure that the chillness outside does not intrude the hardware and that the heat remains in the car always. Thus, flushing your cooling systems and radiators and ensuring that the coolant, the antifreeze and other fluids are at the required levels are a must before winter hits. 

Your Vehicle Guide to Winter Safety

The snow and the ice are on their way, and what better way to prepare for them than to learn a bit more than you already know about winter safety. Winter safety is regarded as one of the most important topics for new vehicle owners, but it is just as important for those who have been driving for quite some time. If you want to stay extra safe this winter, and ensure your car performs well, read on and find out how for more information. 

The Winter Fluid Edition

Just because it is cold outside, and you have to don a pair of gloves, a hat and a coat, it does not mean that general car maintenance is not necessary. In fact, people tend to have more problems with their cars in the winter than in any other season, including the fall. Winter safety begins with a car that is well taken care of. Do not stop checking your oil just because the weather dropped; it can and will still need to be changed on occasion, and topped off. The cold does not stop it from being used. The same goes for fluid checks across the board. Windshield wiper fluid is used just as much in the winter, due to dirt getting mixed with snow and ending up on your windshield. Be sure to check all of your fluids just as regularly during the winter as you do during the summer or spring. 

Listen to Your Breaks

Your brakes are even more important in the winter than they are in the summer or spring. And seeing as they are considered one of, if not the most important aspect of your vehicle already, that is no small sentiment. Thus it is imperative that you “listen” to your brakes during the winter. This does not mean attempting to diagnose any issues yourself; it means accepting or recognizing issues you are having. Does it take you longer to brake than usual? Are your brakes vibrating, or making strange sounds? In the winter a lot of factors can make brakes behave strangely, but none of them should be ignored or assumed to be “normal.” If you notice anything strange about your brakes, or if your vehicle is handling different than usual, then you should bring it in to a shop immediately, or as soon as possible. This is a big part of winter safety; just as your body aches or pains to tell you things, your car will certainly have its ways of telling you things as well. And while you may not know what those things are, or be able to diagnose them, you can listen to them.

More Winter Safety Tips

Winter safety does not stop with a good car in working order; it comes down to you as a driver. Aggressive driving can be fatal in the winter, and a break down can be dangerous.

The Fall Vehicle Safety Maintenance Check List

This fall, if you have a family, a job or other prior engagements, you are going to be using your vehicle fairly often. Whether you put on ten miles a day or one hundred miles a day, the necessity for safety remains the same. Thus, maintaining your vehicle well during this season is crucial. With the possibility of high winds, heavy rains and colder weather, a lot can happen to your vehicle. The following check list is detailed to give you the scoop on what you need to do in order to maintain your vehicle this fall, all by yourself. 

Oil Changes and Oil Checks

The weather may have cooled, but your vehicle will still be running the same as it always does. This means that you still need to check your engine oil frequently, and change it when it is dark. 

Wind Shield Wiper Replacements

Winter is close by, and thus if your wind shield wipers can not get the job down now, they will not be able to get it done in the following months. If you are not satisfied with your wind shield wipers, or want to try to get better performance from them, your best bet will be to replace them. 

Tire Pressure

Slick roads are made far worse by swathes of damp leaves. The fall is beautiful, but if your tires are too low on air, you will find yourself in an ugly side of it. Check your tires frequently and fill them up as needed.

Antifreeze

You may think the colder weather negates the need for temperature regulation in your vehicle, but that can not be any further from the truth; cold or not, antifreeze is still a necessity. Check your levels whenever you check your oil, and top off as needed.

Check the Tread on Your Tires

Having enough air in your tires will not give you all the traction you need; if your tires are bald, they will slip easily on the fall leaves, causing any number of problems. Prevent this by checking your tread before the fall season to ensure that your tires have sufficient tread. If they do not, consider purchasing a new set of tires—ones that will be of as much use in the fall as the winter. 

Brakes

You want to pay attention to your brakes at all times, but especially in the fall. During this season, your brakes will be used nearly twice as much as in the summer or spring seasons. This is due to the slippery conditions that the road will be in as the leaves fall from the trees. If you find that your brakes are making sounds that you do not recognize, or they are vibrating your vehicle, or they are simply taking more pressure or time than usual to kick in, it is imperative that you bring your vehicle in to get looked at. The winter season will not be any kinder to it, and thus the problem should be addressed before the next season, as the roads will only continue to get worse. 

Estimating the Costs for Getting Your Brakes Fixed

The brakes on your car are perhaps the most important aspect of the vehicle. Brakes help you to stop, slow down and, in all senses, avoid collisions of any kind. If your brakes are starting to go—making strange sounds, taking too long to catch—then you may very well be considering getting your brakes fixed. But how do you go about this, and are brakes expensive to have fixed? Well, this all depends on a few things.

How Are Your Brake Lights?

Do your brake lights work? It is important to know this before you get your brakes fixed, because if they aren’t, you will definitely need to get them fixed. But why are brake lights so important? Consider a world without them. People would be stopping their vehicles, or slowing down, and no one else on the road would have any notion of it until they ram in to the back of the other vehicle! Brakes lights are all about caution, and awareness. A brake light lets everyone in the vicinity know that the person in the vehicle is going to be (a) stopping suddenly or (b) slowing down to either stop, or change lanes. This is important in preventing collisions, and so you should check your brake lights before going to get your brakes fixed. This will ensure that you get all of your brake related problems fixed at the same time, saving you any future worry. 

Knowing That Your Brake Pads Are Wearing Down

It is not safe to try and diagnose your brake problems by yourself. This is because brake issues are all very similar; a squeaky stop, or a groan or whining sound, can mean a number of things. Brake technicians are trained to diagnose these problems. Without training, it is very easy to mistakenly choose the wrong issue, resulting in expensive repairs in the wrong area of your vehicle. One thing that certainly means your brake pads are worn down, though, and is of no danger diagnosing on your own, is if it takes your vehicle longer than usual to come to a complete stop. This is because there is not enough of the pad left to properly grip the wheel, resulting in more pressure being necessary in order to bring your vehicle to a complete and utter stop.  Thus, if you notice this issue, bring your car in and ask to have your brake pads inspected, which should be free of charge, and if needed, fixed. 

Calculating the costs of your Brake repair

Depending upon the make and model of your car, brake repair costs will vary drastically. There is no way to really and truly guess the cost of your break repair, however you can bring your vehicle in for a brake check. This is a test, completely free of charge at most mechanic shops, where your vehicle is tested for various brake issues. Once the test is complete, the mechanic will be able to tell you what the brake issue is, and give you an estimate of how much it will cost to have the problem fixed.

Air Bags: Going Beyond Safety

Air bags have come a long way. In older vehicles, air bags were located in the dashboard of a car or truck, where they would then deploy upon impact. The problem is, many times air bags would either fail to deploy, or do so as a result of minor collisions with little damage to the vehicle. However, newer vehicles have a range of air bags, and each serves a specific safety function that can, and maybe someday will, save your life. 

Side Air Bags and Head Level Air Bags

The newest types of air bags are side air bags. These are built in to the structure of the door, just behind the passenger seat. In the case of a side collision, these air bags will deploy on the side of the impact. Whereas in earlier vehicles, getting sideswiped left you unprotected by an air bag, usually resulting in the front air bad deploying and causing further harm, the new air bags are made to cushion the impact of a side impact. These are great safety features that can potentially save your life should you ever be hit by a driver who is blowing through a red light. Head level air bags are also newer. Older air bags deployed at an upward arc, almost upper cutting the passenger or driver. New air bags deploy at head level, keeping the neck from being subject to whiplash, or other forms of damage commonly associated with frontal impacts. With enough pressure to knock you back, these air bags can also keep you from hitting your face on the dashboard—an issue that older air bags sometimes would actually cause. 

The Dangers of Air Bags

Air bags, as discussed above, have come a long way. However newer airbags can potentially cause a hazard to younger children, more so than older air bags. As good as your brake pads are, and as quick as your reflexes are, they cannot make up for the fact that children are more frail, and much smaller, than adults. This is why it is important to ensure that your children ride in the back seat until the proper age. Head level air bags especially can be a danger to children in an impact because they are usually completely too high to help. Some newer model vehicles have backseat air bags, but not all do, so it is dire that you practice seatbelt safety with your children when they go for a ride in your vehicle. 

Air Bag Replacements

If you have been in a collision, part of your car repair bill can and will include air bag replacement. Once deployed, an air bag is essentially useless. This is because they are full of air, and use this to pressurize their trajectory when an impact occurs. Once used, air bags in most cars are unable to be refilled. They must be fully replaced, which involves work done on the inside of your vehicle. But it is important that you do get them replaced. In the case of a future impact, whether your fault or not, an air bag may very well save your life. 

Common Brake Problems Faced Today

There are few things more terrifying as a driver than to press down on the brake pedal and have absolutely nothing happen. Fortunately this doesn’t happen very often, but a little knowledge can stop a lot of panic attacks down the road.  Having well maintained brakes and brake pads is a part of car ownership that will keep a driver and all passengers in a car safe. Practicing safe driving techniques can also contribute to reducing the wear and tear on your brakes. When a driver listens to every sound and pays attention to the feeling of the brakes and how they react, a driver will be able to avoid many problems. 

Brake Pad Troubles

When the brake pads have worn through you will know it because it will cause a noticeable scraping and grinding sound, because there is metal rubbing against metal. Clearly the maintenance of this vehicle has been put off far too long.  A failure to fix this immediately is going to leave to more costly repairs than just the brakes.  Having bad brake pads and brake shoes is just a part of general car maintenance. 

Brake Lights on the Dashboard Come On

If the brake lights on the dashboard light up, they are trying to tell a vehicle operator something important.  You should cease driving immediately because brake failure could be eminent. Have the brake system checked out completely because this is often an indication that there is a leaking of brake fluid occurring.  If you have any leaks in the system they should be repaired immediately so that the vehicle will be safe.  The brake light could mean that the emergency brake is still on.  Fixing this is much easier as all you will have to do is release the emergency brake. 

When the Brakes Are Shaking

Sometimes a driver will experience that feeling that the brake pedal is shaking or vibrating. This is a sign that the brake rotors of a vehicle are probably not evenly worn. When brake rotors don’t make consistent contact evenly with the brake pads then the result is a shaking in the brakes.  The problem should be addressed, by either resurfacing the rotors or by replacing them all together. Once the repairs are done the brake shaking will cease. 

Brake Pedal Pushes in Too Far

When a brake pedal is pressed a driver should feel a little resistance to the foot. If the resistance is not as great as it should be, the brake pedal will have to be depressed to a level that is not normal. This is caused most often by worn brake pads or brake shoes or that there is air in the lines. Get your brakes checked as soon as possible to fix any long term problems. However in the short term pumping the brakes or depressing them several times quickly will help the brake system compensate for this problem. 

Common brake problems happen all the time in vehicles of all kinds. Pay attention to the performance of your vehicle and address any uncommon sounds that occur when you press the brakes, or any feeling that is different in the way they react.