7 automobile maintenance tips.
Do these simple things to your car for better performance.
You don’t have to be a mechanic to keep your car running its best. With some basic tools, you can keep your engine happy & running smoothly.
· Keep your engine bay clean
· Clean the MAF sensor every 50,000 miles
· Maintain proper tire pressure
· Make sure your air cleaner is clean
· Keep battery terminals clean and free of corrosion
· Maintain coolant level in over flow tank
· Inspect your serpentine belt
Keep the engine bay clean
Doing this simple task will help your engine run cooler in very hot weather. Keep a rag handy for wiping spills or dust from the engine. You can keep the rag in the trunk or in the glove box. Just depends on how dirty you let it get.
Many people keep a small box in the trunk to keep extra fluids in and a few small tools. This is a great place to keep a rag or two as well.
Clean the MAF sensor
Cleaning the MAF sensor is one of the most important things you can do for the health of your automobile’s engine. It’s right up there with changing the motor oil in importance.
Do it regularly every 50,000 miles.
With a google search, you can find the location of your MAF sensor, They are usually very easy to find. Most models just need a screwdriver to remove and clean them.
Use regular MAF sensor cleaner. Don’t use anything else to clean the MAF sensor on your car or truck.
These sensors are delicate and vitally important to the health of your engine. You don’t want to damage it by using anything but MAF sensor cleaner.
Maintain proper tire pressure
This may seem like a ridiculous suggestion. Yes, all modern vehicles have tire pressure sensors on them. That said, it is very important to remember, on the older automobiles we all love and cherish. They were built in a simpler time with less, electronics. Many times they sit for extended periods of time. Because of this, they are more prone to low tire pressure because of lack of use.
You can find the proper tire pressure readings in many places. Some automobiles have it on a sticker in the door jamb, along with the standard tire size for the vehicle.
You can also find the suggested air pressure in the owners-manual of your vehicle. You can look it up online as well.
Make sure your air cleaner clean
If you have a service station service your vehicle regularly you may not have to worry much about this. However, I would still take a look at the air filter occasionally to make sure it is being properly cared for. An automobile with a dirty air cleaner cannot run at its optimum performance.
Of course, if you maintain your own vehicle then you will take a look at and clean the air cleaner every time you change the oil.
Checking the air cleaner can usually be done with tools as simple as a screwdriver and/or a pair of pliers. Here again, a quick YouTube search will probably find you a decent video about where and how to check the air cleaner on your particular car or truck.
Clean battery terminals
This is something that is over-looked by many car and truck owners. It is very important always. Corrosion can build up and cause a less than desirable connection from your battery to your starter or ignition and render your automobile useless.
Take a look at your battery when you open the hood and check the oil. Most batteries are under the hood. However, many European cars have the battery elsewhere in the car. Like under the back seat. Some more recently designed American cars have them there too.
A manual or quick google search should help find the battery if you don’t see it under the hood.
A tight connection from the battery cable to the battery terminal is your friend. If these connections become loose, by nature, will not be a good connection. Also, a loose connection is more prone to corrosion.
Keeping corrosion a bay is extremely important. Maintaining the connection can be done in many ways.
You can use a wire brush and wrenches of the proper size. There are commercially available pastes you can apply to the terminals after you clean them with a wire brush and before you re-attach the cable.
There are also sprays available to put on the terminal and battery cable connector after the cleaning is done.
There are many ways to keep the battery cable from corroding these are just a few that work. There are lengthy arguments about which one is best. Just find one that works for you and use it.
Check coolant level
This is something that is overlooked by many automobile owners. I would go so far as to say many oil change techs. don’t do this vitally important task.
There is a clear, plastic tank on your left under the hood that serves two purposes.
1. It is an expansion tank for antifreeze. If for some reason, your car/truck gets overheated and the antifreeze begins to expand because of the temperature or boiling, the tank catches the antifreeze.
If your coolant system begins to leak, the system will draw antifreeze.
2. This is also the place to add antifreeze in the event you need to do so. This tank has a mark or gradation on it to tell you the level where you should see coolant when the engine is either cold or warm.
It is important to check the coolant level every time you check the oil.
Check the serpentine belt
It used to be that vehicles had multiple belts on them depending on what they were equipped with.
Today’s autos are down to just one belt called a serpentine belt. This belt runs everything. It is extremely important to check these belts from time to time.
Check for cracking on the underside of the belt or fraying along the outside edge.
The top of the belt is smooth. The underside has a series of ribs running lengthwise. The lengthwise ribs will begin to crack with age and use.
It’s best to just replace them before they leave you stranded somewhere along the road. They are extremely easy to change, usually. Some, on the other hand, are not.
A quick google search will, usually, find a decent video of someone going through the process of changing a belt.
You can decide from that if it is a job you’d like to tackle yourself.
In Conclusion
These are all things you can do for your car with very little out-of-pocket expense. They will save you a lot of money, collectively.
Watch some video’s on the various aspects of your automobile discussed above, then decide which ones you want to try.
Working and maintaining your own car or truck can be a rewarding experience. It also creates
Originally published at https://www.jgmautopages.com on March 8, 2021.
