Top Ways To Keep Your Car In The Best Shape

You know when you get a new car how you clean it as soon as the slightest spec of dirt gets on it, but as time goes by the frequency of cleaning gets considerably less? Well, it can be a similar situation with routine maintenance. We start off with the right intentions of staying on top of all the jobs we can do ourselves when we get a new car, but over time the novelty starts to wear off. The difference between not cleaning your car as often and not keeping up with routine car maintenance is a big one though, as not maintaining your vehicle properly can affect vehicle safety. So, here are some car care tips about things like a regular oil change to help keep your car in the best possible shape.

Keep checking your oil

Even if you have a really modern car that tells you all about your oil, keeping the right amount of the right oil in your engine is so important it's worth checking manually too. You can't check your oil too often, and a little inconvenience is a small price to pay compared to the potentially catastrophic consequences of too little oil in the system. Make sure you have your oil changed as regularly as you should as well, so make sure you know how often that is for your car and your type of driving.

Cooling system

On some full services (which you always keep up with, don't you?) your cooling system will get a complete flush and have fresh coolant put in. But you can prevent corrosion and the build-up of unwanted deposits by doing it yourself on a more regular basis if you wish. It's not a big job, but if it's not something you fancy tackling yourself you can always get your dealer to do it for you.

Keep it clean

Although we separated cleaning your car from maintaining it in our introduction, cleaning your car regularly can also actually help keep you on the road. This is especially the case during winter because the salt and grime on the road can build up everywhere, and it can then go on to damage or corrode everything from your brakes and your exhaust to your paint and your windshield wipers.

Don't forget the wax

When you've cleaned your car it can pay dividends to wax it too. As well as making your pride and joy look even better, it also protects your paintwork from pollution and corrosion, which in turn will save you money by protecting your investment.

Get the grease on

Your engine oil protects a lot of vital moving parts, but there are plenty outside your engine that need to be kept lubricated too. If salt and grime has built up or things have dried out, it only needs a couple of parts going rusty to cause a problem that could keep you off the road for some time. Applying a little grease where it's needed is a relatively small job that can have a big effect on the wellbeing of your vehicle.

Brakes

Everyone knows how vital brakes are to keeping you safe on the road, so keeping a check on them is vital. As well as getting the discs and pads replaced when you feel they're not working properly, or if they're making a nasty noise, the level and condition of your brake fluid also needs keeping an eye on. Fluid that's old or diluted will lead to the corrosion of calipers and hoses, which then results in brake failure. And we don't have to explain how serious that is, do we?

Tires

Checking tire condition and pressures and keeping them properly inflated will keep your car handling and stopping correctly, but it will also save you money on fuel and excessive and uneven wear of your tires. It's amazing how many people neglect tires, especially when it's such a simple area of vehicle maintenance to stay on top of.

For more information on car maintenance and to book in for any work that doing you are not comfortable with doing yourself, don't hesitate to get in touch with us here at Caledon Chrysler.