Fall is upon us, bringing with it a change in weather patterns and a lots of fun fall activities. You can walk around pumpkin patches, go to a haunted house, and enjoy lots of pumpkin flavored goodies. Also, with the seasonal change comes different automobile related precautions to take in order to stay safe on the road. Here are some of those precautions we suggest you take to get your vehicle ready for fall!
Check Your Car’s Maintenance
Any season change is a good time to check the maintenance of your car. The season changing is just a good time marker to make sure you maintain the maintenance of your car. This just allows you to check in on things and make sure everything is set to run smoothly. When we say check the maintenance, we mean have your vehicle checked to make sure your engine oil, brake fluid, transmission fluid, windshield wiper fluid, coolant, and power steering fluid are all at high enough levels and look clean. These are the biggest things you should do, but you can also have a full maintenance check done. Typically for this, a mechanic would check that your engine is running well. However, you only have to do something like this if your car seems to not be running smoothly.
Examine Your Tires
Tires need to have work done more often than people think. You should have your tires routinely rotated and keep an eye on the air pressure. Tires can need to be replaced at any point in the year and can have issues anytime as well, but they tend to have more issues in the cooler seasons. Tire pressure tends to fall in the cold, so it is important to especially pay attention to it then. You also want to make sure your tire is not too worn down and the tread of the tire is still good. Proper tire tread will be around 6/32”. There is a trick to checking this called the penny trick that you can look into if you need further help!
Check Your Brakes
For this, you should take your car to a mechanic to have a proper brake check done. If you want to check your brakes yourself, you can by doing a few things. When driving, you will want to pay attention to the sounds of your car, so turn off all music or other noises. When braking, listen to the sound and listen for anything that may sound abnormal. At the same time, you will want to pay attention to the way the brakes feel. Lastly, check that your brake lights are fully and correctly functional!
