Ask A Technician: How to Check Your Vehicles Fluids
Maintaining proper fluid levels is essential.
Maintaining proper fluid levels is an essential and easy maintenance task. It’s simple, takes only a few minutes and can add many miles to the life of your vehicle. Your owner’s manual tells you when fluids should be checked, but this is simply the minimum.
Mark your calendar or just check the fluids frequently, preferably at every fuel fill-up. Having an adequate amount of brake fluid is crucial to having enough stopping power in your braking system to stop your car. Other than your oil level, that has a dipstick, most fluid reservoirs
today are translucent and can be checked at a glance.
The reciprocating engine of today generates a great amount of heat. Without proper lubrication and cooling critical parts can literally melt down in just a few minutes. The cost of repair can run into thousands of dollars.
Cooling system failure is the number one cause of mechanical breakdowns on the highway, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. You have to check the level, along with the strength and condition of the coolant or antifreeze regularly.Never check your coolant or antifreeze while the engine is hot. Your radiator must be cold or you risk burn injury.
Something you never want to run out of is windshield washer fluid. It’s a misty day and road grime is covering your windshield; you turn on your washers and you only get streaks across your windshield. This is not only inconvenient but very dangerous.
At 60 miles per hour you are traveling at 88 feet per second. In the 3 seconds it took for you to find out you have no washer fluid you have almost traveled the length of a football field.
You would never close your eyes and drive that far but you just did because you hadn’t checked your fluids. Maintaining proper fluid levels is crucial to the safe operation of your vehicle.
Take the 3-5 minutes at the gas station, while filling up, to check these fluids. In doing so your vehicles life and yours could be extended. For service visit us today or download our app to your iPhone or Android device and make your next appointment over your smartphone.
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