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Car Upkeep and Maintenance

Car upkeep and maintenance is vital for not only the value of your vehicle, but also for your safety.

This might seem an extreme example, but remember hanging about in the airport lounge waiting for your flight to somewhere hot and looking down on the aircraft you’re about to entrust your safety and that of your families?

You might have noticed that the pilot walks around the aircraft to see that all’s well. He checks the tyres are inflated, the engines are not obstructed and that all the bits and pieces are in the right places. It takes him a few minutes and he does this every time he takes-off. Bear in mind he’s checking a highly engineered, multi-million pound piece of kit that is washed, pampered and poured over by teams of mechanics.

Now also remember that statistically you are safer 37,000 metres up in the air flying, than you are on the U.K. roads. Bizarrely, you might get sweaty palms on final approach, hoping that the pilot’s having a good day, but you’ll quite happily dash down the motorway’s outside lane retuning your stereo and clipping your fingernails with not a worry in the world.

Okay, hopefully you get the point and it’s not being suggested that everytime you get into your car you go through a complex 30-minute pre-flight check routine. But how many drivers bother to take an even cursory look at their car? They happily jump in, bang the door shut, turn the key, select first gear and push the accelerator down with gay abandon.

But, try a new approach. As you approach the car, do a few little checks, which should take seconds. Cast your eyes across the tyres – do they look the right pressure? After a bit you can get quite experienced in seeing if they might need a bit of air. Under-inflated tyres not only cause higher fuel consumption, but are detrimental to the car’s handling. Also, you might have run over a glass bottle in the kerb when parking your car and not noticed. Yet you will notice if the tyre blows when you’re out on the dual-carriage doing sixty. And just make sure no clown has used the wipers, front, or back, to prepare their latest sculpture.

Once inside, start the engine and just listen for a few seconds; sounds okay, then prod the brakes just to make sure they feel like they are going to work. Basically, don’t assume that your car works perfectly all the time.

And occasionally at night, just get out with the engine running before you leave it on the roadside, or garage, and make sure all your lights are working. It’s amazing how many people don’t know they have a back light not working. And just touch the brakes, and look for two brake light reflections; likewise just engage reverse and make sure that lamp is working as well.

If you wash your car at regular times, use the opportunity to check your car’s oil level, water in the cooling system and water in the windscreen wash system.

Your car is obliged by law to get a good going over, the MOT, and this will test its road worthiness, but this is not a service. It purely tests that your car can legally be driven.

Ideally cars are serviced at manufacturers recommended intervals. In practice, this doesn’t happen, especially when cars get older, so give your car a treat now and then, and take it down to the local garage for a bit of tender loving care. Just a simple thing like cleaning out the air filters can dramatically improve performance.

Paying attention to a little car upkeep and maintenance will help keep the value of your car, keep you on the right side of the law and keep you safe. It’s that simple really.

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