You must be feeling proud, independent and empowered about the fact that you finally have your own car to drive. You no longer have to depend on a parent, sibling, or guardian to give you pick and drops to college nor have you to rely on public transport. However, with all that excitement and empowerment, it is important for you to know that you will also be required to keep your car’s maintenance in check.
Maintaining your car regularly is important for various reasons such as keeping your car’s engine healthy, ensuring road safety, sustaining a car’s life and increased fuel economy. However, this does not mean that you need to take your car to a mechanic or a technician every other day. There are certain basic maintenance protocols that you can monitor on your own. If you have all your basic checks right, you may take your car to the mechanics for an in-depth inspection after a certain threshold of miles. Below is a quick guide to keeping your car’s maintenance under check.
Read Your Car Manual
Whether you are new to driving cars, or you have changed your previous car, it is recommended that you read your car’s manual thoroughly. This is important because all cars are designed differently, are assembled using different parts, different types of batteries, engines, brake shoes and hundreds of other parts. As a result, their maintenance protocols vary from one another. The maintenance of a diesel engine will always be different from that of a gasoline engine. Reading your car’s manual will give you a quick overview of what maintenance protocols you need to follow, what is the miles threshold after which you should be changing your filters, etc.
Battery Efficiency and Fluid
One of the most common car issues that motorists face regularly due to lack of negligence is car breaking down due to heating or weak battery. What happens when you do not monitor your car’s battery fluid levels especially if you are living in a very hot and humid environment. Your car battery feeds on the fluid in the battery and if you are constantly running your car without sustaining adequate levels of battery fluid, expect your car to break down any moment. Moreover, constantly ignoring your battery health also reduces its life and affects your engine’s health in the long run.
Overall Car Tuning
It is important that your car is always in tune so that all the basic parts such as the brakes, oil levels, clutch, etc. are working in perfect condition. Ignoring car tuning can even be a safety hazard. You would not want your car brakes to fail while you are speeding on a highway. Car tuning requires different methods depending upon the type of engine your car uses. You can check out http://www.torquecars.com/tuning/tune-a-car.php to figure out how to tune your car. Pay attention to all the oil filters etc. that need to be replaced and the fluid levels that need to maintain.
Wheel Alignment
One of the most frustrating things while driving, especially for new drivers is to keep their cars straight and keep them from drifting away on the sides. Getting your wheel alignments done regularly and keep your car’s shocks in check will ensure that the wheels have a good road grip and the car does not drift away.