Parents Autocare: The Little Things in Your Car

The more we advance in years, the more features get packed into a car. Features that

we now use every day, like power windows or even windshield wash, were all once

upon a time luxuries in a car for people to pay extra for. Nowadays all of these things

are offered quite freely as standard features, and even more things are being added to

car luxuries. With so many features being put into a car on an annual basis, it’s no

surprise that extra maintenance is required. A lot of people neglect to think about

these things when it comes to maintaining their cars, as they’re features they take for

granted, but your car is packed with little jobs you need to do all the time without

realizing it.

The Wipers

One of the biggest features people take for granted are the windshield wipers. They

are a crucial part of driving safety these days and installed in every car. They help us

see when we’re driving in the rain and are used to clean the windshield quickly with

windshield washer ﬂuid. But people don’t realize that windshield wipers require some

forms of maintenance as well. Keeping them clean of debris, for example, is a major

factor in keeping them effective. During the winter it’s important to clean the snow

from your windshield so that you don’t burn out the motor the wipers are operated

with by making them push a lot of weight. They’re designed to clean, not to move

things, so they do require some help. And if they stop working optimally, it might be

time to look into windshield wiper replacements.

Steering wheels have always been an advancing part of the car. It started as a mere

column in the ﬂoor directly connected to the front axle so that if the wheel was turned,

the axle was turned. As time advanced, there were more indirect methods taken,

allowing room for the suspension and other features that came along in car design.

Nowadays there is power steering, an automated system that help you turn the wheel

and keeps the wheel centered otherwise. But this is an electric system, like any other in

the car, and requires maintenance. Furthermore it can be greatly affected if your tire

alignment is off, meaning you need to take care of your car to get the most out of it.

Older cars were all designed in a very similar way. This is referred to now as ‘standard’

transmission, but in the last few decades it’s become more and more rare. It’s actually

harder now to ﬁnd standard cars over automatic cars, loaded with automatic

transmission. This is a mechanism in the car that does some of the work for you. With

standard cars you had to watch and listen and switch gears so that the car continued

to function and pick up speed. With automatic transmissions, the car does all this for

you with sensors. All this requires maintenance as well, making sure that the sensors

continue to work or else your engine can be damaged, just as easily as that.