With the new school year upon us, now is a great time to make sure your car is best equipped to handle school carpools, college commutes and simple every day trips.

Regardless of where your back-to-school journey takes you, our auto repair experts share important car maintenance tips for a safe and healthy running vehicle, including:

1. Check your tires
2. Change your oil
3. Check your brakes
4. Top off fluids
5. Check your battery

Check Your Tires

The first thing you should do is something that so few people do as often as they need to: check the tread wear level on their tires. Your tires are legally required to have a minimum of 2/32 of an inch on them, but it’s highly advised you consider replacing your tires with as little as 4/32 of an inch.

Tires that don’t have enough tread are extremely dangerous for the following reasons:

• Hindered stopping power
• Higher chance of a blowout
• Lose traction with ease during wet weather

We also recommend rotating your tires every other time you change your oil to ensure even wear.

Change Your Oil

When was the last time you changed the oil in your engine? An oil change is vital to your engine’s health by reducing friction, keeping wear and tear to a minimum, and removing sludge from your engine. The average vehicle requires new oil around every 4,000 to 6,000 miles, with some requiring it roughly every 3,000 miles and some as high as 12,000 to 14,000. Check your car’s owner’s manual to find out how often you should be swapping your oil as well as how much to put back into your car and what type.

Check Your Brakes

Your brakes are another one of those components that will wear out eventually, and thus you should check them regularly. Whenever you rotate your tires, take a second to inspect your brake pads and see how much surface they have left on them. If you hear a loud squeaking every time you press the brakes, it’s probably due to a small piece of metal rubbing against your brake rotor to warn you the pads are getting low. Worn-out brakes not only can’t stop your car as fast, but they may not even be able to stop it at all, which is very dangerous to you, your passengers, and everyone around.

Top Off Fluids

Your car has a ton of various fluids that need to periodically replenished, and thus you should check them and top them off if need be. First, check your windshield wiper fluid, which is simple and inexpensive to replace but gets used fairly frequently. Check your engine oil levels to make sure you have enough to sit comfortably within the accepted range. Lastly, check your power steering fluid levels, which is located in a small reservoir under the hood. If this level has dropped below operating standards, you may have a serious problem and should bring your car to a professional for repair.

Check Your Battery

Lastly, check your car’s battery to see how much life is left in it. Nobody likes getting into their car only to hear it struggle to turn over and then eventually quit, especially when they’re in a hurry. To make matters worse, a dead battery comes often with little to no warning. Checking your battery is fairly simple to do with a volt-meter, but a professional auto repair service expert will often include this as part of a standard tune-up service.

To Schedule your tune-up for the school year we invite you to visit your local Christian Brothers Automotive.

About Christian Brothers Automotive

Christian Brothers Automotive understands the stress and worry that often comes with car maintenance and repairs. Since our founding in 1982 it has been our pursuit to transform the way people think about auto service by providing knowledgeable, honest, and genuine car repairs. If your car is ready for service or repairs we humbly invite you to call the skilled auto repair professionals at your local Christian Brothers Automotive. We are a full-service auto repair shop with 190+ locations nation-wide. Each shop is locally owned and operated providing dozens of expert car repair services to local communities throughout. From Houston, Texas to Minneapolis, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and beyond.

Posted By, Christian Brothers Automotive