What every woman needs to know about car maintenance

There was a time when the little woman would never have thought about taking care of her own vehicle. That was left to the men, who were often referred to as grease monkeys if they enjoyed working on cars themselves. Today, every woman needs to know about car maintenance. 

There isn’t always a man who can be relied on to help with minor car issues and even if there is a man, we are women and we can do a lot of things for ourselves. Women and car maintenance are words that can go together.

Tires

Tires are filled with air. It is not a magical process; it is quite easy to do and to check. There is something called a tire pressure gauge. If your tire seems soft, check your driver’s manual and find out what the optimal pressure is for your car.

There is a valve stem on your tire that has a screw cap, unscrew the stem cap and fit the tire pressure gauge firmly onto the stem pressing down. You should get a reading of the amount of pressure in your tire. If you have less pressure than your manual suggests you need to add air. You can do this at a gas station in a machine that they offer or you can buy your own compressor, which is quite small and portable and plug it into your car charger. You tell it how much pressure you want and it will stop when it reaches that pressure. Replace the stem cap and check the other tires, it is that simple.

Check the oil

The oil in most cars needs to be changed every 3 to 5 thousand miles. This is not something any needs to do on their own, you can go to a service station and have it done quite inexpensively. What you do need to know how to do is to check and see if you need to add oil to your car especially if you have an older vehicle. If you check oil, engine light goes on you need to know what to do.

Check the battery cables and terminals

A car battery has two cables. One is red and one is black. They attach to two terminals on the battery. The red is the positive and the black is negative. This is handy to know if you ever need to charge your battery. Corrosion can accumulate around the terminal and also on the cable bolt. This can make your car lose the charge and refuse to start. With a wrench, you can remove the bolt and clean the inside of the bolt and also the terminal. This needs to be cleaned, a small wire brush can accomplish the job.

When your car won’t start, this is one of the first things to check. Also, check to make sure that the cables appear to be in good condition. These can be replaced quite inexpensively.

Add water to the radiator

Warning, never open a radiator when it is hot. It can blow up in your face and you will end up being scalded. If your car is overheating, pull off the road and let it cool off. If you think that you are low on water, you can add some but not directly into the radiator, instead, open the overflow cap and add the water into the overflow.

These are just small things that every woman needs to know to feel safe on the road. Women and car maintenance shouldn't be mutually exclusive. Having a AAA membership is a good idea and it goes without saying that you always carry a cell phone in the car. Keep a gallon jug of water in your trunk as well as a can of Fix a Flat and it helps if you know where your spare tire is. This can make it safer to be a woman on the road.