As a motorist you should be performing weekly checks on your automobile. Such checks will help you to find (and fix) problems early as well as making sure your car runs as efficiently and safely as possible. One of the most important checks to perform is monitoring the amount of oil in your engine. Oil pressure gauges cannot always be relied up to give an accurate rating so you should take it upon yourself to manually look after the oil level.

This is simple to do. Wait until the engine is cool. Warm is okay but definitely not hot. Never go opening lids or unscrewing things when the engine is hot. The liquids inside can be boiling and it’s possible for scalding fluid or gas to escape and burn or even blind you. Never do maintenance when the car is hot. Unscrew the cap in the dipstick and pull it out. To get an accurate reading clean the stick first and the put it back in and screw the cap on again. You want the rod to penetrate as deeply as possible into the oil sump. Withdraw the rod and you should be able to see a line of oil between the etched maximum and minimum lines. If necessary top up the level, but be careful not to over fill it.

The chances are if you find you’re having to refill you engine’s oil reserves more than every couple of weeks you have an oil leak. Seek professional advice if you’re not confident at automotive repairs. Also, if you’re told the car needs an oil change make sure you don’t go for a cheap oil change as these are often inferior oils and do not contain the same additives needed to keep the engine clean, inhibit rust and corrosion  and the help the oil flow freely in cold weather.

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