Most vehicle owners dearly love their vehicles and would always want it to be in good running condition. Vehicles are even considered by some men as their best friend and will always allocate time to clean it and make sure it is always in great condition. Now, there are some vehicle owners who are too busy to even take care of their vehicles which is not right since vehicles should be well taken cared of in order for it to function well.
Before going to your work place or travelling to another city, it is best to check your unit and make sure that it is ready to run to even longer miles than you usually travel. Checking the unit is not enough; you should also regularly perform monthly car inspection or have your vehicle checked by an authorized car repair shop.
Here are some of the basic car maintenance tips that vehicles owners should know and follow:
1.) Make it a habit to check your unit regularly.
There are two kinds of check up that reg check should be done regularly – external and internal. External check up includes checking the outside perimeter of your car, checking for any abnormalities like flat tire, water leaking, oil leaking or any damage in your car. Also, make it a habit to check your car’s engine oil level and water level in the radiator. There are actually two causes of engine overheat, one is lack of engine oil due to leaking or blow by condition while the other cause is clogged radiator or water leaking in the radiator.
On the other hand, internal Check up is done by turning on the engine and observing the following gauges: fuel gauge, oil gauge, battery and temperature gauge. Make sure that they display the right info and they are functioning well.
After assuring that everything is functioning normally, check all your lights, head light, signal light, parking light and room light etc. It would be best to detect and solve any car problem early. Lastly, make sure that your wiper motor functions properly.
2.) Always check temperature.
After you are done with the external and internal check up of your unit, you should make sure that your unit reached its normal temperature before going out of your parking space. Any engine whether it be gasoline or diesel engine must first reach its normal engine temperature to avoid early wear of engine inner parts like liner, piston, piston ring etc. That is because the inner parts of the engine expand once it reaches a certain temperature making it run more smoothly.
3.) Bring your vehicle to an authorized repair shop for a preventive maintenance.
It is still best to have your vehicle checked by expert mechanics and have it checked regularly or on a monthly basis. The repair shop will keep a maintenance history card of your unit and can schedule necessary check up and maintenance like change oil. This history card can also help detect car troubles you might encounter in the future. Heavy equipments like trucks and buses ranging from 170 metric horsepower to 320 metric horsepower follow a monthly change oil schedule or every 10,000 km run schedule whichever comes first but with regards to light vehicle like cars, it usually follows a 5,000 km run schedule for change oil.
For quarterly check-up, be sure to bring your unit to a maintenance shop for under chassis check up to inspect any sign of leaking or under chassis problem. Mid-year check up includes the inspection of the transmission and differential and replacement of your fuel filter. Lastly, annual check up is done by replacing or checking all rubber hoses especially in the cooling system for any signs of wear.
The following tips are only some of the basic tips that vehicle owners should know in order to properly take care of their unit and keep it always in good running condition.