What to do before a long drive?

What to do before a long drive?

Before going for a long car journey, don’t forget to check your car is ready.

To help you get prepared before you start up your engine, we’ve put together a list of essential car checks.

If you’re going to be driving for miles, you’ll want a smooth ride. This is why it’s so important to keep your tyres in good condition.

Keeping your tyre pressure consistent is key to the quality of your drive, and will ensure that your tyres last as long as possible. 

It’s a good idea to check the general condition of your tyres when checking the pressure. Lumps, bulges, tears or cuts in the sidewall could lead to a dangerous failure if ignored. 

Finally, make sure you keep an eye on the tread on your tyres. The legal tread depth is 1.6mm, but most garages and tyre shops will recommend changing your tyres if the tread depth is less than 2mm. 

There might be more daylight during the summer, but that doesn’t mean that you should forget about your car’s headlights.

We know that when prepping the car there’s a lot to remember, but making sure that all of your bulbs and lights are working is easy to do, and shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.

In order for everything to stay healthy under the hood, it’s vital that you keep tabs on your engine oil.

Check your oil when the engine is cool, and you’re parked on level ground. All you need to do is pop open the bonnet, and look for the dipstick. Pull it out, wipe off all of the oil so that it’s clean enough for you to see the two distinct marks, identifying the maximum and minimum oil levels.

Dip it back into its tube, give it time to sit, and then remove it again so you can see what the oil level is. If the mark sits midway between the two points, then you’re ready to go. 

As we all know, visibility is vital when driving, and if you’re heading away on holiday, you won’t want your vision impaired. During the summer months, pollen and flowers can drop onto your windscreen, and so it’s sensible to stay topped up with screen wash.

In order to replace your screen wash, you’ll need to find the car’s washer bottle. You can find it if you look in your car’s handbook, but you may be able to find it without – the cap is often blue, although it can sometimes be white or black. The top of the cap should be easily identifiable because it’ll have an image of a windscreen with water droplets dotted on it.

All vehicles (especially electric ones) need a car battery to run. If your car has been sat unused for a long period of time, make sure you start it in advance to make sure the battery hasn’t gone flat.

If the battery has died, you can revive it with jump leads and another vehicle with a fully-charged battery. If this fails it can be replaced at home or at a local garage.

If you’re planning to drive for a distance, then it’s always good to have some tech in the car to help with the journey. The right in-car technology can help you to know precisely where you’re going, keep passengers entertained, and even capture footage of anything that goes wrong on the road.