A car maintenance checklist you can handle yourself

Doing what you can to keep your car in good working order can help you prevent expensive repairs and retain your car’s value when you decide that you’d like to sell or trade it in. While there’s a service schedule that you need to stick to and let the professionals deal with, and even problems that you shouldn’t inspect or replace yourself, there are a few things that you can do on the regular on your own.

To help you out, here’s our list of maintenance checks that you can do yourself.

A 7-point checklist which you can complete at home

Test the lights

We’re talking about your headlights, taillights, hazards, and signal lights. Broken or burnt-out bulbs are a serious safety hazard, so refer to your owner’s manual to learn about the bulbs on your car’s exterior and how to change them.

The cabin air filter

These filters are intended to keep your car air free of pollen, dust, and other pollutants, which means that they can get clogged and not work as well over time. These are easy enough to change out, especially if you use your car’s owner manual to point you in the right direction.

Take a look at your tyre pressure

In South Africa this is easy to do, because all it takes is looking inside the front door for the values and then asking the petrol attendant at your local garage to check and adjust your pressure accordingly. All from the comfort of the driver’s seat.

There’s more for your tyres

Inspect your tyres for signs of wear ’n tear, specifically for cracks, bulges, nails, and thinning tyre tread.

Look at the oil and water levels

Again, while you’re at the garage you can ask the petrol attendant to check your engine oil and water levels. They can help you top up and keep things where they’re meant to be.

Inspect your windshield wipers

Don’t let wipers that aren’t wiping effectively stick around. Damaged or worn-out wiper blades can greatly reduce your visibility during bad weather and put you and your passengers at risk. What you want to do is look out for the 3 Ss, which includes streaking, skipping, and squeaking.

Test the battery

It’s a good precaution to test your car battery periodically by taking your car to your local battery centre, who most likely will offer free battery testing. Sure, this isn’t something you can do on your own unless you have something like a multimeter (which lets you know if your battery is in a healthy range), but it’s easy to do so it counts for us as something you can handle yourself.

A word to the wise

Hopefully, between your services and these simple checks, you’ll be able to reduce your risk of a breakdown on the side of the road or a sky-high repair bill.

That said, if anything is out of the ordinary, don’t ignore it. While we’ve given you important tips that will help you keep your car running smoother and reduce your risk on the road, there are some things that are better left to the professionals.