Spring has come to Johnsburg – celebrate and give your car, truck or SUV a safety check

Officially, at least, Spring has come to Johnsburg. How did your car, truck or SUV survive the winter? In the cold, you may have been inclined to rush out to the car, truck or SUV, start the engine and go, hoping the heat will catch up soon. You may not have tarried about outside looking over the car.

Only a gluten for punishment would stand out in the cold and stare at their car, truck or SUV, right? Get in and go – it’s cold out there. But, now that Spring has come to Johnsburg, you may not feel the compulsion to escape the outdoors and into the confines of your car, truck or SUV. While you’re out there, maybe you should look your vehicle over.

Winter is rough on a car, truck or SUV. A visual inspection can help you discover anything that requires your attention. What could possibly go wrong? Let’s take a look at what a visual inspection of your car should include:

• Is your car, truck or SUV ‘marking its territory?’ In other words, is anything leaking? Take a look under your vehicle. You may even want to move the vehicle so you can look where it sat overnight. However, this doesn’t help if there were spots under there before you parked. You want to make sure that any spots actually came from your car, truck or SUV. Look at the color of the spots. Brown spots are generally oil. Reddish spots can come from transmission fluid. Green spots are generally from coolant/anti-freeze.
• Check the lights (you may need help with this part). Do the headlights work, low beam and high? Do the brake lights and running lights, on the back of your car, truck or SUV work? How about backup lights, emergency lights, and turn signals? Also, make sure the lens covers of the lights aren’t cracked or broken.
• Check the body. Is there any damage? Are all the parts firmly affixed, such as the side mirrors? Often, the front lower air spoiler is broken from pulling up too far on curb stops. Also check to make sure that the windshield wipers are properly attached, though the condition of the wipers is often best determined while driving and using the wipers with rain or snow falling.
• How are the rubbers on the corners? By ‘rubbers,’ we’re referring to the tires. Do they have adequate tread (hold a penny into the tread with Lincoln’s head toward the tire – if you can see the top of his head, your tires are too low on tread). Check the air pressure. Oh, and check the spare tire in the trunk – not just that it’s there but that it also has tread and air. Look at the sides of the tires for bulges and cracks, too.

Before you climb in the car, truck or SUV in your Johnsburg driveway, you may also want to lift the hood.

• Under the hood, the first thing to do is pull out the dipstick and make sure you have enough oil (do this before you’ve run the car or else you’ll need to wipe the dipstick, put it back in and pull it out again to check the oil level). Is the oil clean – when did you have your last oil change?
• Do you have enough windshield washer solvent and coolant? How about brake fluid (carefully remove the cap from the master cylinder to check this level). You can also check the power steering fluid.
• Climbing inside the car, after you’ve closed the hood, check the horn (but not too early – your neighbors may be sleeping). Do the instrument panel lights and gauges work? Are any emergency lights illuminated in the dash? 
• Does the engine make any noises that are not customary? Does the steering wheel feel unusually loose or pull to one side when driving? Do the defrosters work (you may still find frost on your windshield for a while, even though it is Spring)?

If you notice anything out of the ordinary – anything broken on your Johnsburg car, truck or SUV – you may want to bring it into a trusted auto repair shop.