You may be a brand new car owner. Fortunately, you know how to drive. You know how to park it. What’s left? You must learn how to care for your car as well. Regular driving puts wear and tear on the car and just like your personal health, your car needs regular care and maintenance.

Some of the things that should be done to extend the life of your car include oil changes, check the battery, and check the tires. This article would also include some information on how you can maintain your car in the cold months of the winter.

Changing Your Oil Regularly

Consistently changing your car’s oil can give your car a better chance of staying in shape. There are a lot of particles that could contaminate your car’s oil – dust, bugs, and even metal debris coming from your engine. Your oil would then become gummy and sticky, making your engine’s performance suffer.

Motor oil should be changed approximately every three to five thousand miles. Most drivers would need to change oil every three months. Your owner’s manual will give you the specifications for your vehicle.

Checking Your Battery’s Life

You’re in big trouble if you don’t give your batteries the right amount of care. Depending on the amount you drive, the quality of the battery, and the quality of maintenance your car gets on a regular basis, a battery should last you from three to five years.

Many new car owners make the naive mistake of storing the car in the garage all winter long to conserve on the battery. The exact opposite would happen. The car’s battery constantly charges itself as the car is being used, because why would you have a car if not to drive it? The longer it sits, the faster the battery will drain.

Rotating Tires To Avoid Flats

You wouldn’t normally care for your tires until they go flat. Didn’t you know that if your tires lack maintenance, your chances of getting a flat tire or even worse, your tires blowing out could dramatically increase? A blown tire could cause even greater damage, as it could cause your car to spin uncontrollably and get wrecked.

If you drive a front-wheel drive car, pay attention to the front tires, as they would wear out faster. You can minimize wear and tear by rotating the tires. Even if you drive a four wheel drive car, rotation is an important part of regular maintenance. The speed in which your tires deteriorate would be heavily dependent on the weight carried by your vehicle. Rotating tires is simply the act of exchanging your front and rear tires, switching their places on your car. You can rotate your tires every six to ten thousand miles for best results. Also, well-maintained tires mean you can have a safer and better drive all throughout.

A Quick Guide To Winter Maintenance

At the first sign of a winter chill, when you rush to the car and turn on the heater, it’s also time to prep the vehicle for the stormy weather to come. Your local repair shop can help you through this, but be proactive by asking about your brakes, tires, antifreeze and wipers.

It is an obvious warning sign when someone driving sees build-ups of snow and ice on normally clear roads. However, in the months just before and after the mid-winter blast, light rain showers can coat the roads with black ice that is difficult to see and extremely slick. Prime your tires and brakes for these crucial months, and do so while still early.

Make sure your engine has antifreeze when prepping it for the winter. Don’t let the term fool you – this is a coolant. But as the term implies, it prevents your car from freezing, and conversely protects it from overheating. In the same way that the pipes in your home can freeze and burst during the winter, parts of your engine can freeze and burst unless your car has antifreeze. Change the blades of your windshield wiper if necessary, as this could help you have a much easier and smoother drive during the winter months. If you don’t think that they’re important, try driving in a snowstorm without them. We’ll give you a million bucks if you could actually see clearly. And this could lead to accidents if your vision is impaired by the weather. You need to take good care of your new car, especially during the winter.

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