4 Car Maintenance Tips You Need to Know
69 million car breakdowns happen per year, most of which are avoidable.
If you want to avoid car trouble, you need to take the right measures to do so. Simple but routine car maintenance can go a long way to saving you hundreds or thousands on repairs. The problem for most drivers is that they just don’t know what to do.
In this post, we’re going to give you four car maintenance tips that’ll have your car running well for years to come. The more you care for your car, the more it will care for you, so keep reading and learn the best maintenance practices right now.
1. Change Your Oil
Regularly checking your oil – once per month should do – and doing a full oil change as directed in your car’s owner’s manual will ensure your engine stays in good working order. It’s easy to check your oil yourself, but it’s best to have a professional do the full change.
No matter if you’re driving a Corolla or a Corvette C5, you need clean oil in your engine. A $30 oil change is a lot more affordable than repairing or replacing your engine will be.
2. Replace Brake Pads
As you use your brakes, you’ll start to wear the brake pads down. When they get to the end of their lifespan, you’ll start to hear a slight squealing every time you hit the brakes. Driving on worn-down brake pads can be extremely dangerous, so you need to get them replaced.
It’s also good practice to check your brake fluid when you’re doing your oil. When it appears dark in color, you’ll need to get your brakes checked. A new set of brake pads might cost a few hundred dollars, but it’s an important part of vehicle maintenance.
3. Clean the Battery
Buy yourself a wire brush from a hardware store to inspect and clean your battery will save you from being stranded on the highway. Batteries can often experience corrosion, which appears as a blue or white foam on the battery terminals.
Corrosion doesn’t have to be harmful if you clean it off with a brush, but if it’s left there it can cause cracking, which means you’ll need a new battery. A good battery is about $100, but the cost and inconvenience of a tow make battery cleaning worth it.
4. Check Your Fluids
There are several fluids that run through your car to help it function. You need to check these on a regular basis to make sure the levels are okay and to ensure there aren’t any leaks.
The main fluids that you need to check for include oil, coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid, and transmission fluid.
Keep Car Maintenance a Priority
If you follow these car maintenance tips, your vehicle will remain in tip-top shape and you won’t have as many visits to the repair shop. A reliable car brings peace of mind and saves you a huge amount of money in repairs and parts, so keep maintenance a top priority.
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