Watch out for oil leaks
By H.Kishie Singh

SOME years ago the cii building had some posters in their lobby which gave very good advice to their members. One was "keep the shop floor clean". Excellent advice. You should follow this advice at home and certainly in your garage.

The garage floor should be clean, unless you own an Amby. This car was designed to leave litres of oil on the garage floor, the driveway and on the highways. The new cars don’t do that. If opening the bonnet is too much trouble, just look under the car . A drop of oil means impending trouble, a coloured liquid on the garage floor means the coolant is leaking. These are the tell-tale signs and you would do well to pay attention to these signs. Remember, what that stitch in time did! It saved nine!

Oil on the floor can also be very dangerous. Your floor could be cleaned everyday but the service station and petrol pump are bound to be filthy. If you get out of the car, you could step onto oil or diesel spilled on the floor.

Once a foreigner sitting in my passenger seat remarked, "Indians lack hand-to-eye coordination!" This was said as we sat in line to refuel. Two vans refuelled ahead of us. In both cases the attendant made sure that the diesel overflowed and made a puddle on the tarmac. Not wanting to waste my petrol, I was obliged to get out of my car and supervise the refuelling. That’s when I stepped onto a diesel spill.

This was in Narkanda, and we had to go downhill for the next 30 km. A thin film of diesel/oil on the sole of my shoe could have made the foot slip off the brake pedal and onto the accelerator, resulting in a disaster.

Most cars these days are fully carpeted and to get oil or diesel on carpet can be a messy affair. Carpets can be dry-cleaned but that is expensive and time-consuming. Prevention is better than cure. So make sure your shoe sole is clean before you get into the car.

Another advantage of looking under the car before starting off for the day is that a flat tyre can be changed in time. There’s nothing so exasperating as leaving the house, briefcase in hand, and hearing the mali announce as you are getting into the car, "Saabji", the car has a puncture". You’ll waste time and be late for your first appointment of the day.

The car should be cleaned and checked in the morning and ideally the car should be rolled out of the garage. You’ll get to see the garage floor without bending over. May be you won’t even have to open the bonnet.

Happy motoring!