Do you think you know everything about cars? Are you certain that you’re keeping the best care of your vehicle? A recent poll revealed that even petrol heads forget about some essential car maintenance checks. You should be checking your car for issues every time you drive it, but hardly anyone bothers. If you think it’s because these checks take a lot of time, you’re mistaken. Most of them can be completed within minutes. So, let’s have a look to see which important maintenance checks most people forget about.
Tyres
We bet you don’t bother to check your tyres every time you head out onto the road. But you should because if there’s a problem with one of your tyres it could cause you to have a serious accident. You’ll have less control of the vehicle, and you could easily crash. The fact is it’s easy to miss a problem with one of your tyres. You can kick them firmly to check pressure. But what about the treads? If one of your treads have been damaged, you might not see it or recognize the issue. But even the smallest line could affect the handling that you have on the road. That’s why if your tyres are damaged, even slightly, you should get them replaced. If you have a look on a site like tyres.theaa.com, you’ll find a great selection of tyres.
Petrol
What? Surely people always remember to check how much petrol they have in the car? Well not according to statistics. Last year one in six breakdowns were caused by people running out of fuel on the road. Now we’re sure some people wanted to get off the highway before they purchased fuel. After all, everyone knows fuel is more expensive on the main roads. But at the same time, at least some of these drivers must have set off with low fuel. The amazing thing about this is when your tank reads empty you’ve still got thirty miles worth of fuel left! For some cars, it’s more so we’re not entirely sure how this is possible. But statistics don’t lie. You can read about that on a site such as telegraph.co.uk.
Who Left The Lights On?
You know you’ve done it. Wake up in the morning and you find that the lights on your car were left on overnight. These days it’s quite difficult to manage this, due to the helpful, happy tone that rings. But we suppose if you’re distracted enough you might not notice it. Now lights left on overnight isn’t always a massive problem. But you may still want to check your battery before you set off anywhere. Particularly if you’re taking a short trip. You might find once you try and start your car again when you reach your destination, it’s dead. That’s why if you have left the lights on it’s a good idea to drive your car for a good forty minutes without stopping. This will push the battery back up to where it should be.
Have you fallen victim to any of these forgotten checks? Well if you have, not to worry. We all do it. The important thing is you learn from your mistakes rather than finding yourself stuck at the side of the road.