	Sign In Sign-Up

Car Care

Understanding Your Car

How you can avoid potential problems by simple inspection

Your auto repairer may have untold amounts of expensive equipment, and experience. He may be able to service and tune your car to a high standard. But that won't make any difference if the engine cooks itself because you failed to notice that the radiator ran out of coolant, or seizes because it ran out of engine oil. It is possible, with a little diligence and effort on your part, to avoid a costly, annoying and potentially dangerous breakdown. So put on some old work-clothes and I'll take you through the process of inspecting your own car.

First find the owners manual
Every car starts out with an owners manual, which the manufacturer has spent countless hours writing. It will give you almost all the information you will need about you car. It covers everything from what the switches do, to how to start and drive your car, to what kinds of lubricants to use in different climatic conditions. Some will also have combined or separate maintenance books, and lists of dealer servicing agents in most states.

Open the bonnet. Can you locate the engine? Good. Actually that's quite an achievement these days, engines can be mounted longways, crossways, lying on their side, in the front, middle or back of a vehicle. The engine can be completely visible or concealed by any number of covers and components.

Checking the oil. You should find the dipstick alongside the engine casing sticking up somewhere prominent. It could be colour coded or just plain steel (if you can't find it, check the owner's manual). Pull it out, (take particular notice of which hole it comes out from) wipe it and stick it all the way in and pull it out again. The oil will register on the bottom of the dipstick and should be between the full and add marks? If none is registering on the dipstick, re-dip the dipstick making sure it goes all the way in (it may have hung-up when you checked it the first time). If you need to add engine oil, do it carefully and slowly, mopping up any spillage. Always give it time to run down into the sump, and then recheck the level. IF YOU ADDED MORE THAN A LITRE OF OIL, TAKE THE CAR TO THE MECHANIC TO FIND OUT WHY YOUR CAR IS LOSING OIL. Checking the cooling system. Top
Coolant level Find the overflow/surge tank and remove the cap and look inside. Do you see green liquid, or red liquid (Toyota), or blue (Ford), if not top-up with correct coolant (do not mix coolants), again if you add more than a litre, take the car to a mechanic to find out why. And if the coolant is discoloured, rusty looking, or scalely, you'll need to have the cooling system flushed out and refilled with fresh (recommended by the car maker) coolant and water (demineralised).
Examine the hoses When looking around the radiator look at the spouts and hoses running from the radiator and to and from the heater, as well as any small hoses (by-pass) running from water pump or manifolds or over flow bottles. If the hoses look split around the clamp edges or swollen, they'll need to be relaced. Also look and feel for oil affected hoses, they will need replacing also. If these damaged hoses are left to fail in service, you may find that they let go at the furthest point from home and the closest spare parts house carries parts for every car/model except yours.
Ignition distributor on older cars. If your car is a few years old you may find that it still has a distributor, it will be the round black thing with thick wires coming out that lead to the spark plugs. Look to see that all the rubber boots are in place over the spark plug ends and distributor cap connections.
Late model car ignitions If your car is fairly new, then you probably won't see a distributor, your car may not even have a conventional distributor, it may just have coils mounted directly on top of each spark plug or maybe it shares a coil between two spark plugs. Maybe your car is a diesel, which doesn't have a distributor or spark ignition. Top
Now check the belt/s. Find the belt/s that run the alternator, air conditioning compressor, and other accessories. Check the belt for deflection/looseness, cracks and oil damage. Find a spot where it is suspended between two pulleys and push down with your finger, if it moves more than 6 mm, it needs tightening.
Battery check. Find the battery, check that the hold down clamp is holding the battery firmly. If the battery is a refillable type, take-off the caps and check all cells to ensure there is enough electrolyte to cover the cells/plates, fill to the split ring, or if a transparent casing, to the maximum level mark. If the terminals have a powdery growth around them, pour dissolved baking soda/ water solution over them, until it stops foaming, apply light coating of petroleum jelly to clamps to further protect them.
Start the motor. After starting the engine look back under the bonnet to see if the fan is turning (electric fans may not start-up when cold). The engine should quickly settle to an even smooth idle, with no jerking or roughness in operation. Can you see any leaks or hear any abnormal sounds, if not close the bonnet and turn off the engine.
Look under the car. There may be as many as 11 different types of fluids for your car, all of them should be in the car not on the driveway. Now that you are looking under the car, also look for rust/holes in the exhaust system pipes and mufflers. If your engine is mounted sideways in the car, then your car is probably a front wheel drive, if so then look at the back of the front wheels for grease spray, the joints on the ends of the drive axles (C.V. joints) may have torn/missing boots. C.V. joints are relatively expensive to replace/overhaul, and the boots protect them from dirt and water entry which could quickly ruin them. Top
Are all the lights working. After turning on all the lights, walk around the vehicle to ensure they are all working. Don't forget to include the turn signals. How about the tyres.

That's all there is to it. Problems section Bonnet Oil, none on dipstick If still no oil registers, look on the floor to see if you have a major leak. When no oil is registering on the dipstick you should only add oil at one litre at a time, until it registers, waiting a few minutes between each litre added, to give it time to run down. Oil, overfilling If you overfill the engine oil level you can accelerate oil burning as well as damaging major engine components, do not start the car without consulting a mechanic, or roadservice patrolman Oil, leaks If major oil leaks are spotted, they need urgent repair, as well as being a reason for road safety certificate rejection, they can also potentially cause a fire if blown onto the exhaust while travelling along. Coolant loss Hard starting Rough engine idle Broken belts Discharged battery Do-It-Yourself Car Maintenance Inspection