How do avoid these excessive and costly automotive repair bills or breaking down unexpectedly on the side of the road somewhere while traveling miles from McHenry? The answer to both questions is simple – automotive maintenance.

If you take care of your car it will take care of you. If you treat it badly and let it lapse into disrepair, don’t be surprised if the additional costs and unreliability your car will generate and exhibit.

When it comes to taking care of your car, automotive maintenance is really not that hard to keep with. In fact, if procedures are done in their time, you can rest assured that you won’t have many unexpected costs or breakdowns. Oil changes; checking the antifreeze/coolant, the thermostat and hoses; testing the battery, alternator and starter; checking the belts, brakes, exhaust, steering and suspension – these are all critical matters in their time.

So, when is the right time for automotive maintenance? Here is a basic guide though you’ll want to check your owner’s manual for a more specific maintenance schedule:

• Oil Change: Oil changes require regular attention. You’ll probably change the oil three or four times each year. Fail to do so and you’ll put unnecessary wear and tear on your engine, shortening its life and increasing the likelihood of damaging expensive internal engine parts.
• Check Antifreeze/Coolant: You should check the antifreeze and coolant seasonally – spring and fall. In the spring, you want to make sure the coolant can keep its cool through the summer heat. In the fall, you want to make sure the antifreeze (same fluid by a different name) won’t freeze on the cold, frigid winter nights. When checking the coolant/antifreeze, it’s a good time to check the hoses and thermostat. Might as well check the belts at that time, too.
• Check Steering and Suspension: The steering and suspension are best checked in the spring after their components have taken a winter’s beating, fighting their way through potholes and across blocks of snow and ice. It’s also a good time to rotate the tires and have an alignment done.
• Check Battery, Alternator and Starter: You’ll want to have the battery, alternator and starter checked in the fall since winter has its own way of testing them. When the weather is bitterly cold, they have to work harder to keep up. Additionally, who wants to discover their battery is dead in the middle of a winter night?
• Check Brakes and Exhaust: The brakes and exhaust, well, you can have those checked most any time. A good idea is to have them checked once a year while the car is in for an oil change.

For convenience sake, you may roll a number of these maintenance steps into one trip to your trusted McHenry area auto repair shop. For instance, in the spring, you can bring the car in for an oil change, have the coolant checked, along with the hoses, belts and thermostat. Then, have the steering and suspension checked.

In the fall, have an oil change and check the antifreeze, hoses, belts, thermostat, brakes, exhaust, battery, alternator and starter.