How to Maintain your Car

                                                   How to Maintain You car

    Some people pay others to maintain their cars and others like myself enjoy keeping our cars properly maintained. This activity was important to me because it was a transcendence from adolescence to adulthood in my families culture and my father would call it becoming a Hombre. That word revolves around the idea that if you are a man you don't depend on anyone to do things for you, you get things done yourself. No matter what it is if anything needs to be done you do it yourself and if you don't know how, you learn. Keeping my car well maintained is important to me because I consider the idea behind it important, specially when it helped shape the man i'm today. 

    Having a car is sort of like having a baby, it is really expensive and needs a lot of attention to stay in good condition. Keeping your car in good condition is important if you enjoy having a car and despise walking or taking public transportation. Checkups are essential and some very important checkups involve oil checks, radiator cooling system check, brakes check, and wheels air pressure checks.

Step 1: Usually your car tells you when you need an oil change, but I recommend you check yourself every 3 months because by the time you car oil change light is on you car is already running low on oil or running dirty oil through the whole engine. If you ever want to check your oil you will need to pop the hood open find the dipstick which is usually labeled with a bright red or yellow color. After you have done that you can remove the dipstick and wipe it down with an old rag to reinsert into the same whole you took it from. Then you will remove it to check the level and color of the oil, it it is too low, you will need to add the necessary amount until the dipstick marks full and within this process you may need to turn your car on right after adding oil and off when you need to check again. This is only so the oil will flow evenly through the engine. In another scenario where the oil on the dipstick looks dark, you will need to change the oil and in this process the your car will have to be turned off or at least 1 hour after being turned on. To change the oil you will need a jack,some towers, your tools, an oil pan and i also recommend a new oil filter. Lift up the car and make sure the car is stable and secure to go under, than locate the rod under the car and remove it, but first make sure you put the oil pan right under  it. Let the oil pour out completely and than locate the oil filter and remove it, than place the new in, this process should be easy. After this you put the rod back and you add the necessary amount of oil and you should be done after that. 

                                         

Step 2:  Maintain your car by checking the radiator cooling system, usually your car overheats if there isn't something right with the system so this problem shouldn't be difficult to detect. If it overheats you should buy antifreeze and a funnel that prevents the oil from pouring out. You can buy 50 percent water 50 percent antifreeze or some cars take water, but it is not recommended. 

 Step 3: Another things to check are the brakes. The brakes, this check up can be really easy. You will just need to check the brake pads on each wheel if they look worn out they probably need replacement. Replacement requires a longer process which involves removing the wheels to get to the brakes pads that need to be replaced. For this you will need a jack, some towers and your tools. You will also need some secondary help to help you pump the brakes to get the hydraulic fluid out of the master cylinder and into the hydraulic lines next to each wheel. You may run out of hydraulic fluid in the process but you can just buy some more. Keep pumping the brakes until you can feel some pressure on the pedals. You can leave them soft or hard to press on depending on what you feel comfortable with.  

Step 4: The final checkup would be the tires air pressure now you may think this is not important but if anything it's the most important because it can be dangerous if not done properly. Usually your car will tell you if they any wheel is not even with the others. It can be dangerous because if the wheels are not even the car may not have proper traction causing it to slip in a curve or tilt one way more than the other. Having proper air pressure in your wheels can save you gas, money and even your life in the long run since it may tilt one way putting extra weight and wearing out some wheels more than the others. It may also cause your car to become misaligned in the long run which is expensive to fix. If they are low on air you may just go to the nearest tire shop and they will do it for you, but if you want to do it yourself like i would rather, you can locate the amount of air pressure on the side of the drivers door and pump in the right amount yourself.