Summers are no doubt a fun and vacation-filled time of the year, however, as enjoyable as it can be, the scorching heat can a toll on everything, including your car.
The intense heat can have a severe impact on the performance and longevity of your vehicle, hence, you must protect and maintain it regularly to ensure its smooth functioning. Also, considering that this time of the year you might go on road trips, to the beaches regularly or on long drives and more, it’s imperative that your car is well-maintained to avoid any mishaps.
Through this article, we will shed some light on why should you take care of your car and how to do so during the hot summer months
How the Scorching Heat Can Damage Your Car During Summer?
To understand how to protect and maintain your car, it’s essential you know how parts of your car can be impacted tremendously. Let’s take a look below.
Overheating of the Engine:
It’s quite common for your car engine to overheat during the summer due to the external temperatures and the heat generated by the engine.
Increased temperatures generally can cause the water inside the radiator to evaporate, dropping the coolant level and causing the engine to overheat.
Fluctuations in the Tire Pressure:
Due to the soaring temperatures, you might also notice a rise in the air pressure of your tires. This can cause either the tire to overinflate, which could result in a blowout or it could underinflate and cause wear, and decrease the fuel efficiency.
Besides, it can increase friction and enable you to lose control of the steering wheel, causing a major accident.
Evaporation of Fluid:
High temperatures generally can cause transmission fluid, oil and coolant to evaporate faster, thereby, impacting the functioning of your car.
Issues with the Battery:
The elevated temperatures during the summer months can lead to the evaporation of fluids inside the battery, resulting in a weakened charge and a shorter lifespan of your battery.
Straining of the Air Conditioner:
Due to the scorching heat outside, your car’s air conditioning has to work harder, causing constant straining. Therefore, it is essential to maintain and check on your cooling system regularly if you want to avoid traveling in the car with a broken AC during the summer months.
Car Maintenance Tips for the Summer Months
Here are some essential tips for your car care during the summer months.
Inspect the Battery of Your Car
The soaring temperatures during summer have a major impact on your car’s battery life. The battery fluid can quickly evaporate, which leads to potential internal damage.
If you start noticing signs such as a bloated battery, your car taking a lot of time to get started or your lights flickering, then this could be a battery issue. Hence, cleaning and maintaining your battery during the summer months is essential.
Besides taking it to a professional if needed, you can maintain and care for your battery at home. You can use a spoonful of baking soda and distilled water and apply the solution to the battery’s terminals. Use a wire battery terminal brush to clean it.
After cleaning it to your satisfaction, use a rag or lint-free cloth to wipe it clean. Moreover, to check your battery’s voltage, use a multimeter. A good battery’s voltage should range anywhere from 12.6 to 14.4.
Examine Your Tires
Tire maintenance during the summer is very much needed for safety purposes. With the increase in temperature, the air pressure in your tires can also increase, resulting in it bursting or exploding. To avoid overinflation, regular maintenance is paramount.
Check for any bulge, wear or crack in your tires and get it inspected at least once or twice a month by a professional mechanic. Replace tires if you see that they are worn out and if it is a cause of concern for your safety and those around you. You can also use a tire pressure gauge to regularly check the pressure of your tire to ensure efficiency and safety.
Monitor Your Cooling System
Another crucial step in your car care process is monitoring your cooling system. Your cooling system plays a major role in avoiding overheating of your car, hence, proper care of the cooling system is indispensable.
Check your coolant levels as often as possible and ensure that it is at the said level. Don’t forget to also check if the coolant is clean, if it’s not, consider flushing it out and changing it for a better impact. If the level of your coolant is very low, it could be due to leaks. Hence, inspect hoses and belts for cracks or signs of wear. Also, check your radiator, it is the heart of your cooling system, hence, any dirt or debris that can obstruct the airflow, needs to be removed. Make sure to replace all parts that are damaged.
Check Your Air Conditioner
No one wants to sit in a car that doesn’t have a properly functioning air conditioner during the summer. The scorching heat and a broken AC in your car can ruin a fun summer road trip or just about even a regular day.
Hence, it’s essential that you check your air conditioner as often. Problems that you could encounter with your AC during the summer months are clogged filters, low refrigerant levels or malfunctioning compressors.
If you notice that the air coming out is not as cool as it should be or if there’s some noise, then you should immediately get it professionally checked out and serviced.
Maintain the Fluid Levels and Quality
Whether it’s your engine oil, coolant or transmission fluids, any fluid in your car helps in reducing friction and heat build-up.
Therefore, it’s critical that you check for low fluid levels or dirty fluid. Flush out or change them if they look dark and dirty, and increase levels if they are not as needed.
Most importantly, add fluids that are recommended for your car, this will ensure efficiency. Also, when performing a fluid or an oil change, ensure that you use an oil drain pan or an oil drain tank to avoid any spillage or mess.
To keep you car in a god condition, you may need to go to the car repair shop to maintain you car in a good condition, or you can do some of the basic automotive maintenance by yourself with some basic automotive equipment. One of the most common car maintenance equipment is oil drain pan.
There are several different types of oil drain pans, which is practical and efficient, essential for oil change process. It is an useful equipment when you do oil change and you can enjoy smooth operation and enhanced convenience in your tasks with the versatile oil drain pan. The low-profile design eliminates the need to lift your vehicle to drain the oil, making it perfect for collecting used oil and fluids.
