Truck Maintenance: Your Quick and Easy Guide
Trucks are a lot like electric lights. Often we don’t appreciate them till suddenly they burn out in some way. When you do regular maintenance checks and service your truck in simple ways you can reduce the cost of owning a truck and keep both you and your truck happy!
Truck maintenance doesn’t have to be intimidating. There are several truck maintenance tasks you can easily do yourself. Here are some valuable truck maintenance tips:
Keep your windshield washer fluid tub full. After screwing off the cap, just pour windshield wiper fluid in the reservoir. It’s easy to check the fluid levels quickly whenever you fill the gas tank, and it sure makes roadway driving easier and safer after you’ve been on some dusty dirt road.
While you’ve got the windshield washer fluid out, pour some on a rag and clean the bug guts and other dirt balls off the wiper blades.
Every fall, replace your wiper blades. Trucks need new ones once a year anyway – and you might as well get them before winter arrives and you’re always dealing with freezing ice and sleet!
If you see colored fluid leaking from your truck, check it out and get it serviced immediately if you can’t figure it out yourself.
If you smell any peculiar odor coming from your truck, take it to the nearest service station. Odors mean something inappropriate is going on under the hood of your truck!
Be sure all your lights are clean and working, including brake lights, turn signals and emergency flashers. You can check this quickly when you fill up your gas tank.
Check the pressure in your tires once a month. You can easily do it yourself with a handy tire gauge you keep in the glove box or you can get a serviceman to do it for less than five bucks, if anything. If you’re going off-road, deflate your tires to about 20 psi. If you’re carrying a heavy load, inflate them to 32-35 psi. Be sure to look in your truck manual to find the tire pressure guide for your truck.
Check your tires once a month for cuts, bulges, or nails or other foreign objects sticking out. Be sure your spare is inflated and easily available, and be sure your jack is in the back!
Have your oil and oil filter changed every three months. You can also have an inspection done at the same time. It’s worth it to more to have this done. Ask to have your battery checked, too.
Have your air filter changed when it gets dirty. You can do this when you change your oil. The service people will be happy to change it for you.
No matter how non-truck savvy you may have felt in the past, finding that you can do some simple maintenance checks puts you in the driver’s seat. You’re likely to discover in advance if your truck has a problem that should be taken care of immediately. As a bonus, your truck will keep its value better as well.
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