Basic Car Maintenance Every Car Owner Should Know
Every car owner should know basic facts about their vehicle. They could find themselves with a problem that needs to be fixed immediately and not know what to do. Most things can’t be done by yourself, but it’s important to understand what they are so you can get it fixed accordingly. As a general rule, you should go for regular maintenance check-ups to properly monitor your car. Read on below to find out the basic components of any car, what issues you may face and how to handle them.
Flat Tire and Pressure
One of the most common issues that could happen to your car is a flat tire. It’s when one of your tires loses air if it gets punctured by something sharp on the road. It’s very dangerous to drive with a flat tire, and you can’t control the car properly. So, you should slowly stop the car and park it somewhere safe. Then, open your trunk, and you’ll find a spare tire waiting for you. You will need to replace your damaged tire and use your spare until you can head to the nearest auto shop or gas station. You will have all the tools necessary for changing the tire, including the jack that will lift the car for you to change it easily. Also, you will need to learn how to check the tire pressure. You can do this with a gauge and firmly stick it at the end of your tire’s valve stem. This is very important because it can minimize flat tires tremendously and let you know when to check up on your tires.
Check Engine Problems
Quite often you might see the “check engine” light while you’re driving. When it’s constantly on, it just means you should have your car checked and run some maintenance steps to see what’s wrong. But if the light keeps flickering, then you should stop the car immediately. Most cars have an onboard diagnostics device that scans the car when there’s a problem. This is why you need to learn how to use an OBD scanner to know what exactly is wrong with your engine. These devices scan and send out different codes, each code means something, and you should check what your code is and search online what it means or consult back to your manual that comes with the scanner. Thanks to the advances in technology, most scanners can be linked with your smartphone via an app. This can tell you exactly what’s damaged through notifications.
Battery Failure
This is another common problem that you might face with your car battery. It could fail out of nowhere the next day and you will need to jump-start it so your car can run normally again. Battery failures are usually because of lights that were left overnight by mistake or the battery is just getting old. Each car has cables to help you jump-start your dead battery again. You can use it with a portable jump-starter, or you’ll need to ask someone else to park next to you so you can connect the cables between both your cars. This extra jolt of electricity will get the battery running again, but make sure you don’t mix the cable heads incorrectly. The cable has a red-head which is positive and a black-head which is negative. So, you will know where to connect each cable head to ensure your safety.
Oil Change
Every vehicle needs oil to lubricate the engine and make every internal part of your car work smoothly. It helps cool things off by absorbing some of the heat too. But eventually, the oil runs out because it breaks down from usage and evaporates or wears down. This is why you need to conduct periodic oil changes to ensure your car runs smoothly. You need to check your oil with your car’s dipstick for checking if your oil is low or high. The dipstick has markings on it to determine that. There must be a balance and it shouldn’t be too low or too high on oil. You can change and fill up the tank on your own if you have everything you need, but it’s recommended that you head to the nearest auto shop or gas station.
Purchasing a car and driving it is one thing but maintaining your car and learning about what’s under the hood is a whole different story. You need to be prepared for any setback that might happen on the road. It wouldn’t hurt to know how your vehicle works exactly and how to keep it maintained properly; a well-informed driver is a safe driver!
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