With winter finally over, it’s time to give your vehicle much-needed attention. After all, winter tends to take a heavy toll on cars, so a little maintenance should save you some money from emergency repairs down the road. Luckily, Ford dealers around Sellesburg, IN have compiled an easy-to-follow checklist to ensure that your car is in top driving condition as you welcome the warm spring weather.
Spring clean your car
As soon as the temperature rises a little, the first thing that you should do is thoroughly and deeply clean your car. As a Ford dealership in Southern Indiana points out, you need to properly remove all the slush, grime, sleet, dirt, and ice from your car to prevent it from damaging your exterior paint. Aside from these unwanted debris, accumulated road salt can also be a problem as it can cause corrosion. For this reason, you need to wash your car thoroughly from top to bottom, giving special attention to the undercarriage and wheel wells.
Of course, spring cleaning also applies to your vehicle’s interior. Winter tends to bring out the laziness in people. Before you know it, you have accumulated jackets, coats, gloves, and scarves inside your car. There’s also the occasional trash that you have forgotten to take out because you are too cold to think of anything else. It is especially important to clean, wash, and dry your floor mats and carpets properly since they could possibly be wet with snow, too.
Get your tires checked
With spring comes the occasional rain shower. You need to ensure that your tires are more than ready to take on this new challenge. If you still have winter tires on, this is the best time to replace them with all-season ones. A Ford dealership near Jeffersonville, IN says that driving with winter tires even though the roads are no longer icy is dangerous as its tire treads tend to wear out faster in warmer climates. After replacing the tires, check if the tire pressure is correct since over or under inflation can cause uneven wear and will reduce your gas mileage.
If you are already using all-season tires, you still need to check if the air pressure in each tire is correct. Afterwards, consider getting your tires rotated and aligned to effectively extend their lifespan.
Have your brakes, wipers, engine oil, fluids, filters, and battery inspected
Your vehicle works doubly hard in cold temperature, which is why a Ford dealership near Charlestown, IN recommends that you take your car to a trusted auto shop and have everything inspected. It might be time to replace your wiper blades, filters, and brake pads. You should also consider having a new battery installed and oil changed. Afterwards, inspect if all the fluids are still in their optimum level. Chances are, you will also need to refresh or top it all off to keep your car in tiptop condition.
These steps are extremely necessary if you don’t want your vehicle to stall in the middle of the road on a beautiful spring day. For more helpful tips for a better ride this spring, check out Jim O’neal Ford.
