Preventative Maintenance Tips For Your Car

Despite the leap in technological advancement and the developments we’ve seen in the manufacturing process, very few cars are 100% reliable. And even the reliable ones still require routine maintenance to keep them performing at their best.

There are several steps that you can take to make sure that your car keeps working for longer – read on and we’ll tell you more.

Read Your Manual

You would be amazed (or not) at just how many people don’t bother to read the manual for the car they’ve just bought. Instead, they spend months trying to figure it out themselves or get frustrated that things don’t work as they think they should.

Casually flicking through your car’s manual and taking in the salient points will actually give you far more enjoyment out of your vehicle as you learn shortcuts and handy features to assist in everyday operation. Your manual will also tell you how to perform basic maintenance like checking your engine oil and will provide a detailed breakdown of all the warning lights you might encounter.

Check Your Tyres

Tyres can be expensive so they shouldn’t be fitted and forgotten about. A weekly inspection can do wonders in keeping them free from debris and puncture inducing objects such as nails.

Tyre pressures should also be checked and topped up on a fortnightly basis. This will increase the longevity of each tyre, as will rotating them from front to back every few thousand miles.

Check for Leaks

Your car’s computer often won’t be able to tell you if you’ve sprung a minor leak. This could be anything from an engine oil to coolant leak, neither of which you want to leave unrectified.

You should take a cursory glance underneath your car every other week to check for fluid deposits. You can also keep an eye on your driveway’s paving for any tell-tale signs.

Check Your Engine Oil

If there is one thing that is going to see your car out of commission it’s going to be running low on oil and the engine seizing up. More common than you think, low oil problems can manifest themselves in a number of ways so check your oil level before the warning light comes on.

Your oil should be black or golden brown depending on whether the car runs on diesel or petrol. Any mayonnaise like substance is a marker for water contamination that needs to be looked into.

Read Your Fault Codes

With the use of your smartphone and an app from your app store, you too can check and diagnose fault codes and warning lights like they do at the garage.

Checking regularly can alert you to problems that you wouldn’t otherwise know are there.

Unless you’re mechanically minded, anything more in depth should be handled by a car garage. If you’re in Dubai then you’re in luck as there are several garages specialising in car repair in Dubai and the UAE. They’ll be able to carry out routine servicing as well as fix any problems they can identify.

Vehicle ownership need not be stressful if you take the basic steps to make sure that your car is performing at its best.