How to make your car ready for summer

If you’re planning a road trip this summer, it won’t hurt to make sure your car is reliable and would take you there and back.

But, how do you make sure the car stays reliable for the long run? Hassan Al-Khairalla, CAA automotive assistant operations manager, gave CTV Morning Live some tips.

Aside from the regular oil change, Al-Khairalla recommends getting the battery inspected to make sure it’s in a good shape.

“Especially after the winter, when you experience those frigid temperatures, if you’re not driving your car a lot, you can actually permanently discharge your battery,” he said.

Taking a look at the hoses to make sure there are no leaks, the belts to make sure there are no weird sounds, and checking the brake and wind shield fluids to make sure you’re hitting the road safely is always recommended, he says.

“In winter, sometimes we just worry about getting to our destination, we don’t want to open the hood all that stuff. So, it’s good to take the time right now,” he said.

He highly recommends to be proactive, noting the importance of catching potential issues before they become actual problems.

“Check out your owner’s manual. You can get a copy online if you don’t have a physical copy. And just look at your regular maintenance schedule,” he said.

Al-Khairalla says you don’t have to be car savvy to do all of the steps mentioned above.

“You wanna sort of look and listen. Again, a lot of what can happen usually happens at the eyesight level. Even if you don’t know anything about cars, you just wanna look for anything that sounds wrong or looks wrong,” he added.

When it comes to the tires, he says the air pressure is responsible for 95 per cent of your car’s weight.

“Underinflated tires wear out your tires more quickly, reduces your breaking ability, and because your engine has to work harder to keep those tires rotating, basically, you’re wasting more gas. And a lot of times people ask, ‘How do I know how I should know how much air I should put on my tires?’” Al-Khairalla said.

He notes that every vehicle has a sticker showing the recommended psi for the front and rear tires in the area of the front driver’s door.

Al-Khairalla says for some cars, it’s the same psi for all tires, while for others it differs between the front and the rear ones, noting that the front should have less than the back.

He notes that CAA offers a mobile service, where people can get their tires swapped and oil change and inspection done from the convenience of their own homes.

More information is available at caaneo.on.ca.