Knowing your vehicle is important because driving is important. You and your car are going to be spending quite a lot of time together, so knowing the inside and outside of your car will do wonders for you if you ever find yourself broken down on the side of the road. Without the knowledge of basic mechanical issues regarding your vehicle, you put yourself at risk of being ripped off, stuck without help, and ignorant of what it really takes to fix your car. Although you aren’t looking to put together a carburetor on the side of the highway, knowing where certain parts of the car are located and what they should look like is a good place to start. Basic skills like changing a tire, checking the fluid and knowing where the fluid levels should be at, knowing how to check the codes on the dashboard if applicable; all are great, necessary skills.
After first purchasing your car, read the instruction and operators manual. This may seem redundant if you’ve already been driving awhile, but the manual actually contains valuable knowledge on the vehicle regarding parts, where certain items are located and if they are repairable without the use of a professional, as well as basic troubleshooting techniques. Once you have overlooked the manual, check out all the buttons and options your car has. Locate all the switches, fuses, lights, trunk release, front hood release and gas release if applicable. Make sure your emergency break works – it’s rare that you would use this in an automatic vehicle but accidents do happen and it’s important to be prepared when they do.
Make sure you have a spare tire, jack and tire iron in case you get a flat tire on the road. Changing a tire is easy once you know what you are doing. The beauty of the internet is you can learn to change a tire quickly by doing an internet search. After reading the operators manual on your vehicle, you will know where all the fluids are located and where the levels should be at; check them so you can remember where they were. Once you become familiar with your car and parts start to wear out, you can replace a lot of them yourself. For example, you can create a list of sources for custom plastic injected molded parts so that when the time comes for you to begin replacing parts, you have a few go-to sources for materials and parts.
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