{"id":965,"date":"2014-03-17T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T18:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/?p=965"},"modified":"2023-04-06T01:00:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:00:30","slug":"basic-car-maintenance-what-you-need-to-know-for-your-first-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/basic-car-maintenance-what-you-need-to-know-for-your-first-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic car maintenance: what you need to know for your first car"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So, you\u2019ve passed your driving test and you\u2019ve bought a car. There are some things that you\u2019ll need to keep an eye on and some tell-tale signs that all\u2019s not right.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check your owner\u2019s manual<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There will be some specific advice about how you should look after your car. Don\u2019t have one? You can buy or download almost all owner manuals now. Search online as there are free and paid sites. Free sites such as Just Give Me The Damn Manual<\/a>\u00a0will have American versions of the cars, but many details are the same. Or you can try JPNZ<\/a> in New Zealand and the manuals, which are translations of the original Japanese manuals, are around $50. Or try your local vehicle distributor\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil warning light has come on<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"condition\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If this light comes on, stop immediately unless it\u2019s unsafe to do so. You are at real risk of the engine seizing, which will be expensive to fix. Don\u2019t try to drive home \u2013 stop as soon as you can, preferably within a couple of hundred metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The light coming on means that you are out of (or almost out of) oil, the oil pump has died, or you\u2019ve got a blocked oil filter or strainer in the sump, so your engine won\u2019t be getting lubrication and it\u2019ll be running with metal on metal. Ouch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get in the habit of checking your oil every 4-8 weeks. There\u2019s an oil dipstick that\u2019s usually fairly easy to locate in the engine bay because it\u2019ll most likely have a yellow cap and\/or have a picture of an oil can on it. Pull the dipstick out, wipe it with a cloth, put it back in, then pull it out again. Check that the level is between the minimum and maximum allowed. Put the dipstick back in (don\u2019t wipe it this time otherwise you\u2019re just wiping perfectly good oil off it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t overfill your car with oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t run out of fuel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"fuel-warning-light\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s true that you\u2019ll get better fuel economy when your car is lighter (i.e. the fuel tank is emptier), if you run out of fuel your fuel pump will pull all the sludgy petrol from the bottom of the tank through the system and then you\u2019ll need to replace your fuel filter early. Try to fill up before you get underneath 1\/8 of a tank. Once your fuel light comes on it’s time to start looking for a petrol station. The other reason to keep your fuel topped up is that if there’s an emergency, e..g you have to drive somewhere immediately and an urgent reason, you don’t want to have to waste precious time filling your tank up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coolant warning light has come on<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Coolant is the other thing your engine needs along with oil. Learn how to check your coolant levels. If this comes on, you need to stop. Don\u2019t open the radiator as the coolant inside will be under pressure and scalding liquid will spray over you. Only use tap water as a last resort because it leaves mineral deposits that aren\u2019t good for the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a light with a circle with an exclamation mark or P that\u2019s on all the time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"handbrake-warning-light\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is the handbrake light. You are forgetting to take your handbrake off, you aren\u2019t disengaging it completely, or there\u2019s something wrong with it. Travelling with your handbrake on will eventually set fire to the brake shoes. You\u2019ll smell it long before that, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyre pressures<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your tyres are naturally deflating all the time. You will need to go to a service station and put air in them periodically. You should check your tyres every 4-8 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your tyres are under-inflated you\u2019ll be using more fuel than you need to. Don\u2019t over-inflate your tyres because this reduces the amount of tyre in contact with the road and gives you less grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your tyres are over-inflated they will wear in the middle; if they\u2019re under-inflated they\u2019ll wear on the shoulders; if they\u2019re misaligned or you\u2019ve got too much camber they\u2019ll wear on one shoulder much quicker than another. Some cars have tyre pressure monitoring and will display a warning on the dashboard if one or more tyres are the incorrect pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyre rotation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To keep your tyre wear even you can rotate your tyres every 10,000km. This means swapping your wheels either side-to-side, front-to-back or diagonally. If you have uni-directional tyres, don\u2019t swap side-to-side otherwise your tyres will end up rotating in the wrong direction for the tread pattern and they won\u2019t disperse water effectively in the wet. You can swap the front left to the rear left and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windscreen washer fluid has run out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Keeping it topped up is particularly important in winter as your car windscreen will get dirty more frequently. If you run out of water in your washer bottle you could be stuck with a windscreen that you can\u2019t see out of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headlight bulb has blown<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"xenon_h4\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t touch the glass when you replace them because the oil from your fingers will heat up on the bulb\u2019s surface and cause it to crack. Use rubber gloves, or a paper towel or clean cloth to grip the bulb if you need to touch the glass area. It’s OK to touch the metal area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One indicator is flashing quicker than the other<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This means one of your indicator bulbs has blown. Check the owner\u2019s manual and you can get a replacement from any auto parts store. Usually they\u2019re fairly easy to replace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve stopped your car and now it won\u2019t start again<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I have to write this because it happened to me. I learned to drive in a manual car and only ever drove manual cars. I had to leave my car at the garage overnight and they gave me an automatic Toyota Supra with one problem: it kept overheating. On a trip out to Awhitu to see my girlfriend one stormy night, the digital dashboard told me it was getting dangerously hot. I pulled over on the side of the road, put my bonnet up and hazard warning lights on and waited about 15 minutes. I only had another 5km to go, and this was a rural road, so only a couple of cars had come past and neither had stopped. I figured 15 minutes was enough time to let it cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I closed the bonnet and went to turn the key. Nothing. The engine didn\u2019t even turn over. I thought perhaps it was still too hot and there was some kind of thermal cut-off. I opened the bonnet again and used a torch to check the engine (not that I really knew what I was looking for). Eventually, after around 5-10 minutes, I saw that I had left the car in gear. I moved it to P and it started fine. A simple thing like that can trip you up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a knocking from one of the front wheels<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Get a mechanic to check your CV joints and bushes. They could be on the way out, especially if it only happens when you turn. If it happens when you brake you could have cracked a brake rotor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a squealing sound when you start your engine and pull away, but it stops after a few metres<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is your fan belt slipping. It\u2019s cheap to replace, and you should because if it breaks your engine loses a lot of its cooling capability at low speeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get your car serviced<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your car won\u2019t run forever on the same fluids. Plus, a mechanic will be able to pick up items that need to be carried out for preventative maintenance. Usually, your car will be serviced somewhere between every 5000-15000km (depending on how new it is), or every 6-12 months if you don\u2019t do that many kilometres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you do now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Set some diary reminders to check your windscreen washer fluid, oil level, tyre tread depth and tyre pressures. The more kilometres you drive, the more frequently you will need to do it, but usually every 4-8 weeks is fine. There are iPhone and Android apps for reminding you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, you\u2019ve passed your driving test and you\u2019ve bought a car. There are some things that you\u2019ll need to keep an eye on and some tell-tale signs that all\u2019s not right. Check your owner\u2019s manual There will be some specific…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-car","tag-car-maintenance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31652,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/31652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}