Summer is here, is your vehicle ready?

Summer is here, is your vehicle ready?

Here’s a few tips to help save you money and also what to expect as the heat hits your vehicle.

What’s the first thing we do when the weather starts to warm up? We roll down the windows to soak up the beautiful warm summer air. But what do our wondering ears do we hear? A bunch of noises that we haven’t heard with the windows up.

Not to worry some of those noises are natural and we just are not used to hearing them for 9 cold winter months with the windows up.
What we do want to check before the dog days of summer start taking its toll on our vehicles is.

Tires; look for deep cracks from dry rot in the edges of the tires where the tread meets the sidewall, if you’re going to have a blow-out it will most likely happen in the summer when tires are subject to extreme heat. Also, while inspecting your tires make sure all the air pressures are adjusted accordingly; tires will gain in pressure with higher temperature.

Anti-freeze, coolant, check your coolant level and change your coolant every two years.

Belts and hoses, check your belts and hoses for cracks and swollen rubber, if a V belt has any cracks, or a serpentine belt has cracks closer than every inch apart on the side that runs on the pulleys it’s time to replace them. If any hoses are hard or very soft, or cracked or swollen anywhere it’s time for all new hoses, again it’s a good idea to replace hoses when you service the cooling system every two years, they are cheap and the coolant is out anyway, that’s the time to do it and if it’s an easy job the thermostat just as a preventive measure.

Check your automatic transmission fluid, the summer months are the hardest on a transmission, if the fluid is dark and/or it stinks, it’s time to change the fluid and filter, regular maintenance on an automatic transmission will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Newer vehicles have a cab filter that helps with allergies, they are located in the cowl section of your vehicle just below where the windshield wipers rest, they are inexpensive and easy to replace, now is the time to replace that.

There are other fluids that get forgotten about in vehicles that need attention along with the others, not as often but they need changing also. The power steering fluid, the brake fluid and the differentials if equipped.