Car care tips for the spring season

AccuWeather

Warmer weather means more road trips. To get your car ready for the spring and summer seasons, AAA's Robert Sinclair offers crucial maintenance tips for your car.

Transcript

00:00warmer weather means road trips they're ahead and here with what to add sorry here with expert

00:06advice to make sure your car is ready before hitting the road is triple a's robert sinclair

00:12thanks so much for being with us one of our favorites thank you very much for having me

00:15oh we always enjoy having mr robert here today oh goodness you're too kind thank you if you want

00:22a good sound bite you get it from him yeah all right first let's start with the tires now no

00:26pressure right no pun intended did you do that on purpose no i really didn't let's get back on track

00:32how do you check to make sure they are safe and road ready well tires are very important you have

00:39to check the pressure ideally once a week minimally once a month uh the government the national highway

00:45traffic safety administration says that eighty percent of us are driving around on improperly

00:50inflated tires with that improper inflation tending to be under inflation now underinflated tires create

00:56extra rolling resistance the engine works harder to propel the vehicle with that the case burning

01:03more gasoline and also it's a safety problem the tires are softer you're going to get bad handling the

01:09tire can overheat and fail catastrophically known as a blowout and those situations are particularly bad

01:15on long trips when the weather is very hot and when the vehicle is heavily loaded and 85 to 90 percent

01:22of americans who take a holiday or vacation trip drive to their destination so tires are very very

01:28important you also need to rotate them which is kind of a misnomer they rotate all the time but you

01:34need to swap them from front to rear that will equalize the wear on the tires the front tires do more work

01:39because they carry the weight of the vehicle the weight of the engine up front they steer the vehicle and

01:45also due to weight transfer when you're braking there's more force put on those tires so it's very important

01:50you take care of them all right let's talk about uh under the hood the fluids the belt and the hoses

01:57what should you check for for performance of safety oil is very important oil is the lifeblood of an

02:05engine and dirty oil can come up and clog an engine uh it's recommended that you follow the vehicle

02:12manufacturer's recommendation service intervals on changing oil which is usually three to five thousand

02:18miles bit longer if you're using a synthetic oil make sure you change the filter when you're at it

02:24also it's the uh coolant coolant is very very important we don't get boil overs during the summer

02:30like we used to 20 years ago because the systems are closed they call called closed loop systems

02:36they pressurize the fluid which raises the boiling point so they last pretty long you usually don't get

02:41a boil over but you have to change the fluid probably once every three to four years uh some do it

02:47your selfies can do that you have to uh make sure you get the proper procedure some multiple youtube

02:53videos can help out with that but you have to flush all the old fluid out of the system and you have to

02:57make sure you use the right fluid from the correct manufacturer and the right color it's very important

03:03that the proper fluid be used when you're changing coolant also transmission fluid is very important

03:09now in most new vehicles the transmissions are sealed for life but if your fluid is able to be changed

03:15and you have a dipstick you really need to get a qualified professional to check the uh transmission

03:19fluid and change it according to again the manufacturer's recommended intervals um belts and hoses are

03:26very important you can do a visual inspection of hoses you're looking for those really kind of aneurysms

03:32in the in the hoses if there are any soft spots in them belts you're looking for cracks and pits and

03:38those kind of things uh and have them changed by a professional if necessary maintenance is very very

03:44important so you don't wind up by the side of the road we know something about helping people when

03:48they're broken down and not only is it inconvenient it can be very very dangerous um unfortunately we

03:54lose uh road service personnel uh somewhere in the united states every two weeks when they're servicing

04:00someone by the side of the road when they are unfortunately struck by a passing vehicle so

04:05maintenance is very important to make sure that does not happen to you yeah absolutely that's a good

04:10uh view of uh view of that meanwhile gas prices what is triple a expecting in the coming weeks

04:17you know gas prices are really low uh we're around 3 11 3 12 per gallon nationwide and that's upwards of

04:2350 or 60 cents less than a year ago the there's lots of crude oil united states depending on what day

04:30it is the number one uh provider of crude oil upwards of 13 million barrels per day um some opec plus

04:37nations just came back online at the beginning of may pumping an extra two million four hundred

04:42thousand barrels per day uh global production daily production of crude oil is about 100 million

04:48barrels so there's lots of crude oil out there being turned into gasoline but the unfortunate thing is

04:55the econ economic uncertainty is playing into the price of gasoline it's thought that with all the things

05:01that are happening with the economy that there'll be slower economic activity and when that happens

05:06there's less demand for petroleum products particularly diesel and gasoline now right

05:12now diesel and gasoline is at a premium i'm sorry diesel and jet fuel is at a premium uh so they're

05:17pumping out lots of that but when you pump out lots of diesel and jet fuel you also pump out lots

05:22of gasoline so there's plenty in reserve plenty in inventory as it's called so it's anticipated that

05:27prices should stay low the way they are for a while given some unforeseen circumstance that happens

05:35to affect the market and i think drivers will enjoy that uh forty percent of drivers have told us that

05:40three dollars a gallon is the pain point for the price of gasoline was slightly above that nationwide

05:45so it's still a problem for a significant portion of drivers

05:49robert sinclair with triple a just so much knowledge we appreciate you joining us on accuweather early

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