The 5-Minute Spring Check You Can Do in Your Driveway Right Now
You don't have to be a mechanic to catch something early. A quick walk-around in your driveway takes about five minutes and can tip you off to issues worth knowing about before they become roadside problems. Here's what to look for this spring. Check under the car. After your car has been parked overnight, look at the ground beneath it. A few drops of water from the AC condensate drain is normal. Anything oily, green, orange, or red-tinged is not — that's a fluid leak that needs attention. Look at your tires. Do they look visibly low? Is the wear even across the tread, or is one edge wearing faster than the other? Uneven wear points to alignment or inflation issues. Low tread depth in wet spring conditions is a real safety concern. Check your lights. Walk around and look at your brake lights, turn signals, and headlights. Burned-out bulbs are easy to miss from the driver's seat but immediately obvious to the driver behind you. Pop the hood. You don't have to know what everything does. Just look for anything that looks wet, cracked, frayed, or obviously wrong. Check the oil dipstick — if the oil looks black and gritty rather than amber, it's overdue for a change. If any of these quick checks turns up something you want looked at, bring it by Lubrication Corner in Franklin. We'll take it from there and give you straight answers about what we find.
