Is your car, truck, trailer, or RV ready for the upcoming fall and winter seasons? Chances are that you enjoy doing this yourself and are in the process of checking out your vehicles for needed maintenance and repairs. Even though you may already be an experienced do-it-your-self type of person, you may still be interested in a few tips and reminders.
What’s on Your Car Maintenance Checklist?
In addition to checking your coolant and brake fluid levels, it’s also essential to ensure that your windshield wipers are fully operational. When the Car Care Council conducted a recent survey on vehicle maintenance, they discovered the following issues with the vehicles:
- Inadequate coolant levels: 16%
- Low and/or contaminated brake fluid: 8%
- Broken or malfunctioning windshield wipers: 16%
Have you checked your vehicle for the above issues? These are just a few of the maintenance and repair items that should be on your check-list. Once it begins to rain or snow, you want to be sure that you have the right type of winter wiper blades, particularly those that can handle snow.
A Few Tips on Checking Your Oiil
Have you checked your engine oil lately? Experts concur that it needs to be checked every 3,000 miles or about every three months, whichever comes sooner. If you drive long distances on a regular basis, then you may want to check those oil levels more often.
If the engine is cold when you’re changing the oil, you can start it up and allow it to run for about five minutes. This will warm up the oil. When the engine is hot, however, you’ll want to wait a minimum of 30 minutes. In this way, you’ll prevent yourself from getting burned.
Safely Storing Diesel Fuel
Do you have a vehicle that runs on diesel? Chances are that you keep a good supply on-hand. When storing your diesel fuel, the environment’s temperature makes a difference in the fuel’s life span. It’s important to remember that diesel fuel’s life span decreases to six to 12 months when it’s stored at ambient temperatures that exceed 86 degrees Fahrenheit. In order to ensure that it lasts longer, you’ll want to keep your fuel stored at lower temperatures.
Vehicle Safety Features
When drivers back into other cars, it can result in injuries as well as death. Recent data shows that every year, an estimated 18,000 people are injured due to this type of accident. Furthermore, another 292 people die as a result of injuries sustained when other drivers back up into them.
Do you have a wireless rear view camera or backup camera for your vehicle? Backup cameras have been demonstrated to reduce the chances of being backed over or crashed into by a minimum of 46%. A survey was conducted with drivers that had wireless backup cameras for their car, truck, or trailer. The results showed that 80% of these drivers concurred that backup cameras improved their safety.
Revising Your Vehicle Maintenance Checklist
While you may have quite a few items on your checklist, it’s a good idea to go through it again. If there’s anything you missed, then you’ll be able to take care of those items so that your vehicle is in optimal condition for fall and winter weather.