Under your hood lies a mystical land flowing with many varieties of liquids. It is a balanced ecosystem, with everything working together in harmony to maintain the status quo and efficient nature of the machine. This is your engine, and the liquids are the various fluids that your vehicle needs to keep it going. If you’ve never been to this land, or have felt a stranger when you have visited, consider this your travel guide to Enginelandia and its bountiful rivers.

• Oil
  1. Your oil cools your engine, lubricates moving parts, and keeps the moving parts clean.
  2. You should change it regularly based on dealer recommendation and check it monthly!
• Coolant
  1. Coolant regulates your vehicle’s temperature.
  2. It is located in a reservoir near the radiator.
  3. If the level is low (level is indicated on reservoir) take vehicle to the shop to get your coolant topped up.
• Power Steering Fluid
  1. This helps you steer the vehicle.
  2. It’s located in a reservoir at the base of your windshield.
  3. Do the same as above, if the level is low take your vehicle to the shop to get the fluid topped up.
• Brake Fluid
  1. Brake fluid helps braking mechanisms work properly.
  2. If the level is chronically low, your brakes could be wearing out.
• Windshield Washer Fluid
  1. As you probably know, this helps clean your windshield of dust, debris, bug guts, etc.
  2. If you run out, get more at your local gas station and just refill the clearly labeled tank.

One of the most important things you should be doing for your vehicle, besides of course filling up the tank and making sure everything is in good working order, is checking on your tires once a week or so. Yeah, seriously. All you need is a pair of eyes, a penny, and a tire pressure gauge. Check it out.

To check your tire pressure, you’ll need the gauge. If you don’t own one already, you can buy one inexpensively at pretty much any auto parts store. In order to check your pressure, all you need to do is take off the cap from the valve stem, fit the gauge on, and it’ll tell you what your pressure is.

How do you know what the pressure should be? There will be a sticker on the inside of your driver’s door jamb, or the information will be in your owner’s manual or on the tires themselves. It’s easy information to find, and you should remember it if you can.

You should also be checking the tread of your tires! This is what the penny is for. Stick the penny into the tread with Lincoln’s head pointing to the center of your tire. If you can see the top of his head, you know it’s time to get new tires.

Your tires should last you for at least five years, but their life can be shortened by some important, and avoidable, factors:

• Low tire pressure

• Overinflated tires

• Aggressive driving

• Improper alignment

Make sure your tires are always inflated, and have your tires checked and rotated at every oil change. Ask about your alignment at every service and have your vehicle aligned whenever you’re at the shop (if you need it, that is). Taking care of your tires is taking care of your vehicle!

Your battery is one of the most important components of your vehicle in that without it, your vehicle just wouldn’t work. If your battery’s died on you at all, especially in this cold weather, there could be a problem. Take a look at our list of why your battery might be failing you.

Your battery could just be old. If you don’t remember the last time you replaced your battery then it’s probably time to do that. Older batteries can’t hold a charge the way they should.

If the connections to your battery are loose or corroded, they won’t work the way they should with your vehicle’s charging system. Look at those connections and clean them off if they’re dirty and make sure they’re good and tight.

The charging system itself could also just be either malfunctioning or broken in some way. When you’re under your hood, look at the wiring, belts, and other components of the charging system to make sure everything’s in good order. When you jumpstart your vehicle, bring it right to the shop so we can take a look.

The last thing, and a common culprit of dead batteries, is that you could be accidentally leaving lights on or other electrical components could be draining that battery. Make sure any phone charging cables are unplugged when you get out of your vehicle and that your headlights, dome light, map lights, and even your trunk light are off. This is a silent drainer of your battery and if you pay extra attention to your lights, you might just solve your problem.

When we’re on the road, one of the constants that we almost always see is someone else who is experiencing road rage. Thankfully, there are a lot of great tactics that not only minimize the danger to you from a road raging driver, but that also help keep you calm so you don’t catch the bug. Check them out!

If you’re being tailgated, at the first opportunity you have, let them pass you safely. If they need encouragement, wave them along. Only move over for them if it is safe to do so.

When you leave for work in the morning or leave work for home, always plan for delays on your trip. You never know what kind of a morning other drivers are having, and it’s better to be early than late and angry!

Be safe on the road. Really focus on driving safely! If you are concentrating on the road and only the road, then you’re much more likely to drive responsibly. So put down the phone, don’t fiddle with the music… focus on the road!

If you are prone to road rage, try having soothing background music or even quiet talk radio playing in the car. This can actually make a difference in your calmness level!

Don’t rely on your horn. If you have a tendency to honk at everyone, consider… not doing that. It not only makes other drivers angry, but can make you angry as well.

Finally, if you’re doing fine but you encounter someone else who is very clearly road raging, let them get past you and don’t give them any trouble. They can go be angry elsewhere – don’t let them jeopardize your safety!

Do you have a problem with blind spots in your vehicle? Do you often find yourself being surprised by vehicles seemingly coming out of nowhere? Then you might need to do some adjusting and improving of your mirrors to make sure that those blind spots are totally eliminated.

One thing you can do is buy some aftermarket stick-on convex mirrors that are small enough to fit in the outer corners of your wing mirrors. Make sure your mirrors are clean and then stick the new ones on – make sure they are in the outer corners! Ensure they have adhered all the way and you’re all set.

The other thing you can do that involves less sticking-on of things is adjust your mirrors in a very specific way:

• Adjust your rearview mirror to give you a view directly to the rear. Make it so that it best covers your rear window view. Don’t tilt it to get side views – just straight back through your window.

• Lean your head until it almost touches your driver’s side window. Adjust your left side mirror so you can just barely see the side of your car – no more.

• Lean your head to the passenger side as far as you can comfortably while still sitting up and adjust the right mirror so you can barely see the right side of your car.

• You shouldn’t be able to see the side of your car when your head is all the way upright!

Test that one out and see how you like it!

If you are like me and have trouble driving at night, then you don’t need to fear because I am here! With tips! It’s never easy to get in your vehicle and get driving when it’s dark out, especially in the weather we’ve been having, but hopefully, my tips will work for you and help make driving in the dark a little easier!

I had a conversation with a friend recently and she asked me if I used “glare reducing” glasses at night. This usually means tinted glasses that say they cut down on the brightness of the lights coming your way. I said no, because even though the glasses might help with headlight brightness, the pigment in them blocks light from reaching your eyes, and when it’s dark out you’ll need all the light you can get so that you can see the road well.

That being said, when another vehicle approaches you with those bright lights, an easy tip is to divert your eyes to the white line on the side of the road as they pass. You’ll be able to stay in your lane while avoiding getting the spots in your eyes from bright lights, which can obstruct your vision.

The last tip is to just stay in if you feel that driving at night would be unsafe. Try to find someone who can give you a ride if you need one, but if you don’t need to go anywhere then just don’t. Start reading a new book, and be glad you’re safe at home.

With the onset of winter and freezing, unnaturally cold weather that makes us wonder why we live in places where the air hurts our faces, we also encounter things from time to time that include frozen windshields in the morning and sticky icy doors on our cars. It’s easy to take care of this, but sometimes you might be tempted to scrape with something out of the ordinary, and that could cost you your car’s paint job and cause scratches on your windshield, or worse. Keep reading to find out the best ways to de-ice in a flash without causing a scratch!

First of all, invest in a good plastic scraper. These are inexpensive and can live unobtrusively in your car forever. Use this on your windshield in conjunction with your defroster and you’ll be great to go.

Second, you can make a solution for defrosting your windshield out of one part rubbing alcohol, two parts water, and a spray bottle. Mix this up, and if you go outside in the morning and see that your windshield is frosted over, spray a little of this on. Run your wipers after a minute and see the frost literally melt away!

Third, if your doors and locks are frozen, pour a little cold water on them. Hot will just freeze again and ruin your life even more, but cold water will help to unfreeze your lock and let you into your car easily.

Winter doesn’t have to be a life ruiner! You got this.

When was your last oil change? Think on that for a second, and then think on this information that we have for you on the subject of the Oil Change!

People often say that there is a specific time- or mileage-based interval that you need to strictly adhere to between oil changes. Usually, that’s 6 months or 3,000 miles. However, based on some variables, that interval is totally off:

• The age of your car

• The type of oil you use

• How many miles are on your car

• What conditions you usually drive in

• How hard you drive your car

So based on these, your oil changes might not need to be as frequent, or they might need to be more frequent. Only your dealer can really tell you, since they know exactly what your vehicle might need at every stage of its life.

You should also be checking your oil at least once a month to make sure your engine is healthy and that nothing catastrophic has happened that you didn’t know about. Other than that, make sure you get regular oil changes and remember to check your oil regularly! Stay in contact with your dealer and listen to their advice! You got this!!