Keep Your Car Ready – 4 Great Ways To Stay Prepared
In the new world that we live in, travel for many is being reduced. It can therefore be challenging to keep any vehicle you own in reasonable shape. No problem if you’re commuting by car, but it can be an issue if you’re at home. Cars (and all vehicles) thrive from being used. Sitting still can be bad in a number of ways. Luckily, here are 4 things that you can do to keep your car ready for when you really need it.
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Go on an essential trip
Using the car for the weekly shop is a great way to keep everything in reasonable order. Do your best to make sure the shop isn’t too close. This is so that everything can warm up nicely and become lubricated as necessary. The movement will also stop joints from seizing up (although it should be taking much longer than a week for that to happen). In addition, it will ensure that the battery can still start the car reliably. While you drive, hopefully you will operate the brakes at some stage, and this will stop them rusting over unduly.
Keep it charged
For this, it’s easier if you have a garage, or can at least reliably park close to your house. If you know you aren’t going to use the car for a while, keeping the battery on a slow charge really helps. It makes sure that the capacity is full, so if you do need to go somewhere in a hurry, this no longer becomes an issue. A topped up battery means a more reliable car, and that can only be a good thing. Also, if you know you will garage the car for a while, consider not leaving the handbrake on. There have been cases of the pads fusing to the brake discs/drums and this can be expensive to fix. Consider wheel clamps, and parking in gear.
Fuel tank
There is a bit of a debate about what to do with your fuel tank. Do you empty it, so that there is no fuel to go bad? Or do you keep it full, so that there is no room for air to enter and make the fuel go bad? Personally, I prefer to keep the fuel tank as full as I can. Having said that, I know that I can use the car for essential journeys each week, so I get through the fuel quickly. It also means that if there are any emergencies, filling up the car is no longer something I need to worry about. Those that have the car garaged, may want to make up their own mind about this.
Roll it
If you know the car is going to be left in one position for a long time, then try rolling it backwards and forwards a few inches every couple of weeks. This avoids flat spots on the tyres, which could add a lot of unwanted vibration to a journey. If the car is light, you can get away with not doing this as often. Plus it means that joints will again get a bit of exercise and are less likely to seize up.
Conclusion
So those are my 4 quick tips to keep your car ready for action. Which ones have served you the best, and which ones have been total rubbish? Use our services, give us a call, chat to us and let us know how we can help you today. Thanks for reading!