5 Car Maintenance Tips to Keep You on the Go

If discovering the wheel was the one achievement that made us humans, the smartest of all the living species, the idea of putting four wheels together certainly did make us the fastest. Yes, we are talking about cars and boy, aren’t they work of beauty!
With a car in your garage, you can go anywhere you want to, at any time you want to. Stereo blaring, your rooftop or car windows rolled down, the wind in your hair, and there you are, living life to the fullest. However, that paint job on your car won’t remain glossy forever if you don’t wash and wax it regularly or that engine may not come to life in the morning, as you turn on the ignition, because cars, like us humans, need to be looked after and pampered.
Just as we eat, go out for jogs, maintain personal hygiene, go for regular medical check-ups and take naps, to stay healthy, cars too need to be regularly taken care of, so that they continue to remain on the roads and out of the repair shop. To help, here are a few essential tips to help keep your beloved four-wheeler in peak condition.
Listen to Your Car
Agreed, not everyone can be an expert car mechanic. In reality, you may know very little about cars; however, anyone can catch something that happens out of the ordinary. A bent, swollen or flat tyre. A scratch by your door. A crack in your windshield. Anything.
Being on a lookout would enable you to identify any faults in time before they escalate into a trip down to the workshop. For example, if you continue driving with a bad tyre, it can severely damage your car’s suspension and rims. Therefore, you must keep a regular tab on the threads to make sure they aren’t threadbare, or the rim isn’t bent. Also, a worn-out wiper would cause significant scratches on the windscreen, if left undetected for long. Overall, you need to make it a point to listen to your car and spot any anomaly at the very first occurrence.
Take a Peek Under the Hood
All the crucial parts of your vehicle lie under the bonnet, be it the engine, battery, wires, hoses, fluids or belts. Therefore, it’s a no-brainer that you need to check under the hood more often than not. For example, experts recommend that you change the oil between 12,000 and 15,000 km. Most modern-day cars feature an oil-life monitor gauge to help you identify, when is the next scheduled oil change. Moreover, these fluids have dipsticks; therefore, it becomes easy to check their levels and quality periodically. You must also keep a close on eye on the belts for any wear or fraying on the edges while looking out for any oil leaks or loose wire connections.
Make Sure that the Wheels are Fine
If the engine is the heart of any car, its wheels can easily be the limbs, and you wouldn’t want the limbs to be frail or in bad shape. First, you need to make sure that your four-wheeler’s tyres have the optimal air pressure and are not under-inflated or over-inflated. While under-inflated tyres put you at high risk of rim damage or a blowout, over-inflated ones pose the threat of bursting. Moreover, under-inflated tyres can decrease your car’s mileage. Hence, you would have to get the tyre pressure checked at least every two weeks. You can also refer to the manual and check the optimal PSI rating for your tyres yourself, with a gauge.
Also, you should periodically check for any worn-out treads, optimal tyre rotational levels, tyre alignment and brakes’ condition. If anything feels out of place, be sure to get your car to a mechanic.  
Keep Your Car Clean
You must take some time over weekends to clean, polish and rust-coat your car to protect it from the elements. Be it bird droppings, dead moths or dirt, these elements can accumulate on your car layer by layer and ruin its visual appeal. The paint of your car would eventually get dull with time; therefore, you may give it a newer look by applying polish and elbow-grease, once a week. Moreover, you can use a soft cloth or sponge with a non-abrasive cleanser, made especially for cars to wipe off the dirt trapped on to the body and clean the glass surfaces of the car including the windows and the windscreen.
Go for Scheduled Maintenance Appointments
Given our hectic schedules, it may become tedious to check on your car. However, you must take care not to miss your scheduled car service appointments. Your vehicle’s user manual would contain information about the scheduled maintenance services. Usually, these maintenance services involve checking or replacing minor body parts such as wires, spark plugs, and timing belts along with any replacement of significant parts as and when required. Also, regular servicing would ensure that your car runs efficiently and safely, and maintains a unique value, should you want to resell it.
Like any other piece of equipment in your home, your car too starts demanding a little attention once it gets older. Therefore, you need to diligently work towards keeping your car in peak condition and maintaining its asset value. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t an expert on four-wheeler anatomy, but you need to be aware of some essential car maintenance tips that can help you keep your car running as new. Another factor that helps protect your car’s value as an asset and reduces your burden of maintaining them is vehicle insurance. With a comprehensive vehicle insurance policy under your belt, you can not only protect your car against accidental damages but also protect yourself and your family from any harm and incurred medical expenses. Remember, better the condition of your vehicle; nicer would be the feel of taking those long drives down the freeway.