Keep Your Car Healthy and Happy with These6 Maintenance Tips
It should come as no secret that people across the United States love their cars. There will be at least 260 million cars on American roads in 2018. We do whatever we can to keep them running well. There are a lot of things you can do to prevent problems from derailing your driving time. From rotating your tires to changing your oil, you can make sure your car runs smoothly.
- Make sure your brakes are clean. You should make sure your brakes are free of dust. The dust that gets on brakes has some nasty stuff in it that can be bad for your breaks. Road grime mixes with moisture and then it coats your breaks only to get baked on by the heat. Static electricity keeps it clinging to the brakes. The good news is that all you need to do is use some cold water on a sponge to clean it off. Repeat this cleaning on a regular basis and your brakes with thank you for it.
- Pay attention to your tires. Rotating your tires may not be the most fun thing but it is important to the health of your tires. If you skip rotating your tires, some will wear out faster than the others. For the individual tires, the tread will wear unevenly. This will mean that the weight of the car will be distributed unevenly. The font tires, which are crucial to steering your car will wear down quicker and if you skip rotating your tires the situation can get dangerous. You need to schedule time for rotating your tires every five to eight thousand miles.
- Pay attention to your tire pressure. In addition to rotating your tires, you need to check the tire pressure at least once a week. It is easy and free to do so you have no excuse to not do this. Many cars have sensors on the tires but it is still worth it to check them manually. It absolutely cannot hurt. If your tire pressure is not at the right level, it will have a negative impact on your fuel efficiency. That is just another reason to take the time every week to check your tire pressure.
- What is your tread depth. Some people who engage in racing like to have bald tires but after the task of rotating your tires and checking the pressure, making sure your tires are not bald is the most important thing to do to make sure your tires are healthy. If the tread is too low, you will need to head over the auto repair service center to have your tires replaced. You may think you cannot afford four new tires but that is a much cheaper option than a bad accident caused by bald tires. Do some research online to find a good deal on tires.
- Watch the belts in your engine. There is a series of rubber drive belts at the front of your engine. Rubber does not do all that well in the hot conditions that are found in most engines. You should have all of your rubber belts inspected every 25,000 miles or so by the automotive repair service center to make sure they are able to operate at the peak and that you can operate the car safely. Most likely, these will have to be replaced every 50,000 miles.
- Check your oil. Does everyone know how to do this? It is pretty easy and is an important part of engine maintenance. This takes no more than a minute. Your entire engine can seize up if you do not have enough oil. You do not want it to be too high or two. If you do not know, you have to wait until the engine has cooled down. Find your dipstick. Get it out and clean it. Take it and push it back and see how far you can go with it into the dip tube. Wait a few seconds. Pull the dipstick back out and look at it. The level should be between the low and the high marks.
Take care of your car and it will run smoothly for you.