How To Do The Bare Minimum Of Car Maintenance In Six Easy Steps
Check Tires (Or “tyres” as the British incorrectly spell it.)
Tires
are one of your car’s most important components. They are the only part
that actually touches the ground (unless something has gone really
quite wrong), and they affect just about every attribute of your car’s
performance. So don’t cheap out when it comes time to buy new ones, and
pay attention to the health of the ones you’ve got.
Make sure pressure is set to the car or tire’s specification, make
sure that’s staying consistent (no leaks), and give your tires a
physical inspection once in awhile to catch rot or damage sooner than
later.
You’ve probably heard about the “penny test” where you
place a penny in the valley of a tire tread to check the depth– if you
can see all of Lincoln’s head, the tires are too worn. Your mileage may
vary, but it’s even easier to tell if the sidewall is ok. Does it have
cracks or chunks missing? No? It’s okay.
Check Oil
Being the lubricating lifeblood (and in some cases, cooling system)
of your engine, you really want to make sure you don’t run out of this
stuff.
Most cars have a dipstick at the engine that you can pull
out, wipe off, stick back in, and inspect the tip of to see the current
oil level. While the engine’s off, of course. There will be two little
lines or markers on the tip of that stick– you want the dark liquid to
be between them.
How much to add if it’s low? Google what your car needs specifically,
but it often takes precisely one quart, a commonly sold single-bottle
portion, to go from the bottom marker to the top “full” marker. You’ll
want to add this in the big hole with the number “710” on it. Just
kidding– that’s a little humor for the experienced mechanics who are
hate-reading this. (Open your hood, you’ll get it.)
But pour
carefully and slowly. An engine overfull with oil is in severe danger of
destroying itself. As to what kind of oil you want; Google the owner’s
manual if it’s not stickered on the that “710" cap!
Check Lights
Okay, here’s something even your five-year-old can do. In fact, it
helps if you have another person to inspect your lights and see if they’re working since you can’t always park near a big mirror.
(Jalopnik.com)
