good motoring
Keep the heat at bay
H. Kishie Singh

YOU should take appropriate steps to prevent your car from overheating. A seasonal check is necessary and it will make sure you have a trouble-free motoring summer. Start with your radiator. Coolant should be changed once a year. Pre-summer is the best time to do it. Flush out the radiator before adding fresh coolant. The coolant can be added only while the engine is idling. The bonnet is open. So you can see the whole engine bay. A visual inspection will show up frayed wires, loose connections, leaks and other small faults. Sort them out.

As the engine idles, listen to it. You should be familiar with the normal sound of your engine. Believe me, the car talks to you. You just have to learn the language. A lot of problems can be nipped in the bud if you can detect a change in the sound of your engine. There should be no rattles and squeaks or grunts and groans. If you hear them, the car is saying something. Look into it. Now that the bonnet is open, check hose pipes, fan belt, AC belt and, of course, the battery.

There is no such thing as a maintenance-free battery. All batteries need to be topped up with distilled water. Especially now, with the intense heat in the engine bay, evaporation is normal. Almost all workshops have compressed air. They use it to blow clean car interiors. Use it to blow clean your radiator. Make sure the air is blown in from the rear. This will blow the lodged particles out of the way they entered. Blowing air in from the front may jam the dirt in the radiator. This will in turn decrease the efficiency of the radiator, resulting in heating up.

Never use a high-pressure water hose to wash the engine. The force of the water may bend the fins and this again will effect cooling. Correct tyre pressure is one of the most important aspects of your car. Tyres heat up due to friction while rolling plus the heated road.

Do you know where the fuse box is? There should be a couple of spare fuses housed in the fuse box cover. Make sure they are there and learn to change a fuse. It will come in handy. The reason I asked if you know where the fuse box is that a blown fuse will not allow your A.C. to work. That can make life very uncomfortable. A little bit of preparation at home can be of great help.

First, carry a couple of bottles of water from home. Avoid buying bottled water along the highway. Chances are it could be spurious. Cars these days have numerous tiny spaces to hold bottles. Children love soft cold drinks. Avoid. Carry a bottle or two of prepared oral re-hydration salts (ORS), which you should have prepared in advance. They taste good and are a cure for dehydration. Another step to keep the heat at bay is to have a wet towel sprayed with your favourite cologne in the glove compartment of your car. The AC conduits run behind the glove box and will keep it cool. Its great to wipe your hands, face, the back of the neck and chest with the perfumed cloth. It really makes you feel refreshed. The towel is damp and smells good. A great feel-good factor. Feeling good while at the wheel is very important. It gets rid of driver fatigue. An alert driver is a safe driver.

Happy motoring.