Maintenance can be the key to keeping your car running great for years. When most people think of car maintenance, they think of oil changes and brake jobs—but what about some of the smaller or easy-to-overlook vehicle maintenance jobs? You should be keeping up with those too!
Windshield Wipers
You have probably driven your car on a rainy day and noticed that your wiper blades squeaked or did not wipe away the rain as they should. Most likely, this was due to worn wiper blades that no longer made proper contact with the windshield. Every six months to a year, you should replace your wiper blades in order to retain maximum visibility.
Tire Pressure
If you’ve ever unexpectedly had to buy a new set of tires, then you know what a large expense it can be. Regularly checking tire pressure and keeping tires properly inflated can help extend the life of your tires. When tire pressure is too low or too high, tires won’t wear evenly and, subsequently, they won’t last as long. In addition, you can save on gas by driving on properly inflated tires.
Lights
Every time you drive, you rely on a multitude of lights, including the headlights, taillights, and blinkers. That totals eight lights. Therefore, it’s extremely important to check each of these lights periodically to make sure they’re all still working. Aside from safety, a nonfunctioning light is one of the quickest ways to get pulled over.
Gauges
Speeding tickets are the most common traffic violation for drivers. The easiest way to avoid a speeding ticket is to occasionally check your speedometer to make sure you’re not going over the speed limit. This is just one of many reasons why it’s important to keep your dashboard gauges in working order at all times.
Don’t skimp on any area of your car maintenance. For the money and effort expended, these simple, vehicle maintenance tasks will more than pay off in the long run.