Beginners Guide to Looking After Your Car - Part 1

We've had a lot of talk on the chat forum about people taking driving lessons, buying their first car.. and then hitting their first repair bill head-on. What we hope to do is to show you how a few simple regular checks can help you to spot things going wrong and put them right before they become too serious. With insurance premiums for young drivers often running into four figures the last thing you need is a huge repair bill when a simple check or two could have avoided the problem. Some of these these checks might even save your life and those of your passengers, and that alone has to be worth a couple of minutes of your time.

Before we start it's worth making sure you have the handbook for your car, as this will contain all sorts of useful information ranging from tyre pressures and oil types to the positions of fuses and instructions about why that button seems to do something different every time you push it. If you haven't got such a book, it's worth asking you main dealer or trawling eBay.

We also need to state that you should try to avoid doing these checks when the engine is hot or running, because there are plenty of places under the bonnet to burn yourself or get hair or clothes trapped. You should remember that most of the fluids that go into a car are quite nasty and you need to avoid getting them on your skin or pouring them away down drains - the first can make you ill, the second is usually illegal.

Finally, if you're not sure of something then get a professional to do it. Cars can be dangerous if badly maintained, and it's just not worth the risk. It's always worth sticking to your car's regular service schedule too, and just carrying out these checks inbetween.

Under the bonnet

The main reason for checking under here is to look at the levels and condition of fluids that the car needs to work properly. This is incredibly easy and just involves working out which of the bottles is which. Your handbook can provide this information, but if you don't have one it's not too hard to work it out. Some of these fluids can be topped up yourself, but some might suggest that there's a problem that needs to be looked at by a mechanic - we'll deal with those as they come up.

The bonnet release lever is usually found under the dashboard and next to your right leg. Once you've found it, give it a pull and the bonnet should pop open a little. If you have certain types of Ford your bonnet release will be hidden under the radiator badge and requires a key to open instead. Either way you'll then need to reach into the gap between the bonnet and the radiator grille and feel for a small lever that'll let you open the bonnet all the way. This is a safety measure to stop it flying open when you're moving if the catch fails. This should be in the handbook too. You'll now need to get the bonnet to stay open, which is usually done by lifting up a long metal stand that's tucked away on one edge of the engine bay, and hooking it into a special hole in the bonnet. MAKE SURE IT'S SECURE, you don't want it dropping on your head!

Oil

This keeps everything running smoothly, traps dirt and deposits created as the engine runs, and also helps to keep things cool. If the oil light on your dashboard comes on and stays on, you need to check your oil level before you do anything else or your engine could suffer, but even if it doesn't you should have a look every month or so. When you carry out the following checks, either wear latex or rubber gloves or be very careful as long term exposure to oil can cause skin and health problems.

Your engine will use a certain type of oil represented by a number, usually something like 10/40W. This will be in your manual, and you don't really need to worry about what that means - just that you pick the right one from the shelf. You'll also be given the choice between mineral oil, semi-synthetic and fully synthetic, and that should be in the manual too. Most engines will use semi-synthetic oil, but more powerful and sporty ones will use the more expensive fully synthetic type. If you're still not sure, give your main dealer a ring and ask to speak to the service department, and given the make and model of your car they should be able to help. Buying oil from petrol stations and general shops will be very expensive, so make friends with your local parts place and you'll save a lot of money. Even the main dealers can sometimes do you a good price.

Checking the oil is simple. You'll need to park the car on flat ground and let it stand for a few minutes. It's best not to check the oil when the engine is hot, so you'll probably want to do it a while after you get home. Somewhere on your engine (usually down at the front) you'll see the top of the dipstick, which is generally a brightly coloured loop of plastic. You'll need to gently pull this out of its tube, and wipe the far end clean with a clean piece of cloth, kitchen roll, etc. You'll then see that there are two markers for minimum and maximum on the end of the dipstick. The distance between maximum and minimum marks generally represents around one litre of oil out of the four to five your engine will have when it's full.

To check how much oil your engine has left, you'll need to gently insert the dipstick all the way back into its tube, give it a second, then slowly remove it again. The oil will coat the end of the dipstick, and the highest point it reaches between the marks will tell you how much is in there. Ideally the oil will be at the maximum level (but not above) and never below the minimum

If it's looking like you need a top up you'll need to find the oil filler cap on the top of the engine (or the 710 cap, as urban legend would have it!) and unscrew it . This is usually marked with the word oil, or a symbol of an oil can. Take a look at the bottom of the cap while it's off, and if there's a creamy, mayo like substance on it then your engine needs to see a mechanic quickly because water is getting into the oil somehow.

Stick a funnel into the oil filler hole and pour a little oil in, based on how much the dipstick said you were missing. Give it a minute or so to drain down through the engine, and do the dipstick check again. Once you're near to the maximum marker, screw the oil cap back on, replace the dipstick and you're done. Never fill your engine above the maximum marker as this can damage the catalytic converter, and replacements are painfully expensive.

Do this check at least once a month and you'll have a happy engine. If you find that it's drinking a lot of oil, ie a litre or more each month, then it might be worth getting a more in-depth check done with a mechanic.

Coolant (also known as Antifreeze)

Your coolant has two jobs - cooling the engine down when it's hot, and stopping it from freezing when it's cold. It flows around the engine and draws heat away to the radiator where it can escape into the open air or be used to warm up the inside of your car. If the coolant gets too low you may seriously damage your engine, and by damaged, I mean beyond reasonable repair. Your dashboard will have a temperature gauge somewhere that indicates how warm the engine is running, and if this goes into the red it might mean that you have a coolant leak or a fan has stopped working.

You'll find a little plastic tank in your engine bay containing coolant, marked on the side with maximum and minimum levels just like the dipstick. You want your coolant level to be near the maximum but not over. If it's dipped below the minimum level then something is iffy. It is possible to top up this level but you do need to make sure you have the right type of coolant and that you don't mix different types. This info should be in your manual. You'll either buy coolant pre-mixed from your dealer, or mix it with water yourself in proportions stated on the bottle.

As you might expect, you only need to unscrew the cap on the coolant tank and top it up but there is a warning - NEVER unscrew that cap if the engine is hot, because you'll be rewarded with a whoosh of scalding hot steam and will quite probably be badly burned. Only ever top this up when the car's been standing for a while. You don't really want coolant on your hands and you should never pour it away down drains if you have any left over.You also need to keep it away from pets because they seem to like the taste (slightly sweet, apparently) and it'll poison them. make sure the cap is screwed back on tightly when you're done.

Brake fluid and Power Steering fluid

If you find your brake pedal is getting spongy, or your steering feels heavy or makes whining noises then you may have a fluid leak. Just topping either fluid up might hide the real problem, so take leaks here very seriously and ask for professional help.

The tanks for each of these will both look very similar to the coolant tank, but usually smaller, and will have the same markers on the side. Give the tank a wipe if necessary and look through the plastic to make sure the fluid levels are between the two. It can sometimes help to shine a torch though the tank to help you to see the liquid as the plastic will be quite thick. You might also have to give the car a bit of a bounce so you can see the fluid moving.

If you're losing lots of either of these fluids you need to have a chat with your mechanic, as the loss of either could seriously affect the handling and safety of the car.

Washer Fluid

This is the stuff that sprays out when you use your windscreen washers. Plain water won't do the job here, especially when it comes to getting rid of bugs and dirt, so you'll need to dilute a bit of screenwash. You can buy screenwash just about anywhere, and the back of the bottle will tell you what proportion to mix it in. It's better to mix and use this a little bit at a time, because you can't pour any extra away down the drain.

The washer fluid bottle will usually be marked on the cap with a symbol that looks like a sprinkler, and will match the symbol on the screenwash stalk by the steering wheel. This fluid is easy enough to check and replace - you can basically fill the bottle up to the near the top and then forget about it. If it's run out previously it might take a few seconds of spraying to come through the washer nozzles. If you're finding that the nozzles are just letting out a dribble instead of a spray, you can poke a pin down them and give it a slight wiggle to clear out any dirt.

Those are your everyday underbonnet checks done. It might seem like a lot but most of that was explaining why you need to carry them out. Once you've done them once and remembered the process they'll only take you about two minutes, with up to ten minutes needed to top up the oil if required.

Next time we'll do the stuff on the outside of the car - tyres, lights, etc - and maybe look at a few more advanced things you can keep an eye on. Hopefully we'll save you a lot of money and avoid a few breakdowns in the process!