How To Prepare Your Car For Summer

Checking your car and ensuring the essential maintenance is done for any summer trips is very important – not only is it reassuring when embarking on load trips, but it ensures that sudden costly maintenance bills and roadside breakdowns are avoided.

Like most people, you are likely to end up doing more driving in the summer than you would in the winter – this gives you even more of a reason to double check those vital points and prepare the car for the summer months.

Essential fluids can disappear faster in hotter weather, alongside the more regular and more intensive driving – here are some of the most important things to check to prepare your car for summer.

Easily overlooked, but important to remember is to check your coolant level – an appropriate coolant level ensures that your engine is protected against overheating, which is more likely to occur in busy summer holiday traffic jams, as well as during heatwaves. If you’re unsure how to do this, the information should be in your car’s manual, along with the correct coolant to use.

The same goes for your engine oil, a safe level is essential to avoid overheating – remember to check your oil level when the car is cool, such as in the morning before a journey. Top up with the correct viscosity when necessary, but if the oil looks extremely dark and viscous, it’s probably time to book an oil change.

Remember to check your tyre pressure and tread depth, as hot temperatures can cause fluctuation in the air pressure. Like engine oil, check this before trips while the rubber is cool, rather than during, when the tyres are warmed up and the air has expanded.

Other fluids to monitor, particularly before long drives, would be your brake fluid, power steering fluid, and most important of all, your fuel level.

Another thing to remember is a quick walk around the car to ensure all bulbs are functioning, and replace any that have blown. It can be handy to keep the correct spares in your glovebox before long trips.

If your car is often unbearably hot when you return, and you are unable to park under shade, consider investing in a sun shade for your windscreen. An even easier alternative is to put a light coloured towel over your dashboard and steering wheel to keep them cool.

Pack your car with non-perishable snacks and bottles of water – it may seem unnecessary, but when you are stuck in nose to tail traffic in the heat, you may be grateful for a bottle of water in your glove box.

If you drive an EV, it is worth remembering that heavy luggage may reduce your expected range, and it is handy to plan a route with plenty of charging stops along the way.

Be prepared for the worst with a breakdown kit – although you may have a subscription to roadside assistance, keeping a first aid kit, warning triangle and even a small fire extinguisher in your car, along with the spare wheel and jack can come in handy when you least expect it, even if that is while stopping to help another motorist.

While a trip to the car wash will help temporarily clean up your windscreen, checking your wipers and topping up your screen wash in the summer is essential to battling the dust, bugs and pollen that stick to your windscreen during the warmer months.

If you’ve noticed that your wipers and cleaning very well, lift the wiper arm carefully and check the rubber strip for cracks, splits or rough brittle edges, as well as dirt, sap or other debris that may be causing smears.

Dampen a sponge or cloth in soapy water and firmly wipe along the length of the rubber blade to clean off debris. Run a test with screen wash after cleaning your wipers, and if there are still smears, squeaks and skipping, it’s time to replace them.

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