Checking the Fluids in Your Car There are many people in the Seattle area who strive to take good care of their vehicles: they purchase car insurance in Seattle to protect their vehicle’s value, they keep the tires inflated to appropriate levels, and the get the vehicle serviced regularly according to manufacture guidelines. But for many people, perhaps including yourself, one critical area of car maintenance often goes unregulated until a need arises and presents itself clearly.
The Lifeblood of Your Vehicle This crucial area of vehicle maintenance that too often goes unnoticed is checking and replacing the fluids of the car. Many have said that gasoline or fuel is the life-blood for a car, but the truth is that there are many more fluids that go into a well-functioning and safe vehicle than simply gas. Other fluids, such as the engine oil, power steering fluid, brake fluid, engine coolant, and transmission fluid are all vital components to a properly maintained vehicle. However, for those who do not consider themselves “car people” knowing how and when to check these fluid levels, and refill or replace them if necessary, can seem like a giant hurdle. Luckily for these people, including possibly yourself, the truth is that checking and refilling fluid levels in your car is one of the easiest maintenance tasks you can do as a car owner, behind maybe putting air in the tires. But before you dive under the hood to do any type of work, including checking fluid levels, you should be sure to let the car’s engine cool sufficiently by letting the car sit for at least an hour after the last use.
Engine Oil After the engine has cooled to the point where it is safe for you to be working on it, you can start checking the fluids of the vehicle by inspecting the most important fluid of the car—the engine oil. The engine oil plays a critical role in the function and safety of the vehicle and ensuring that the engine oil levels are where they need to be is a critical step in car maintenance. Check a car’s engine oil levels by first locating the oil dipstick by consulting the vehicle’s owner’s manual and removing the stick, wiping it clean of the oil residue that is currently on it, and replacing the dipstick (this enables an accurate reading of the oil level as the oil could have sloshed around while the car was in motion and therefor give an inaccurate reading on the dipstick). Immediately remove the
dipstick again to check the true oil level; the residue oil should be above the crosshatches on the dipstick to be at sufficient levels. This same basic procedure of removing the dipstick from the fluid reservoir, cleaning it, replacing it, and removing it again to check the level of the fluid can be duplicated for other fluids in the vehicle. Specifically, the transmission fluid and power steering fluid will often be equipped with a dipstick form of fluid check. Other fluids, such as brake fluid and engine coolant, can be checked simply by looking at their clearcover reservoirs or by unscrewing their reservoir cap and checking fluid levels. When checking for coolant levels in the radiator, be sure that the engine is completely cooled and has not been running in the past two to three hours to avoid an explosive release of coolant from the radiator. Photo Credit: am1969 , geri-jean