How To Prepare Your Car For A Long Journey

Traveling by your own car brings much more emotions and impressions than traveling by any other means of transport. And in order not to spoil these emotions and impressions by technical mishaps, the car should be properly prepared for the road. 

How To Prepare Your Car For A Long Journey
[image: pexels by taras makarenko]

Even a new and technically serviceable car requires a careful attitude. This is the pledge of its reliable operation, and, accordingly — a pleasant trip. If you want to skip the stage of preparing your car, then I strongly recommend you rent a car. Moreover, many rental services offer sports cars which are not always comfortable to travel but get the most out of your vacation. In this material, we will consider the works which are worth being carried out before the departure on a car trip.

1. Wash the car 

It is desirable to wash the car with your own hands — this will help to assess the condition of the paintwork for cracks, scratches. At the same time inspect the car for any leaks of working fluids — leaks indicate the presence of breakdowns and the need for repair.   

2. Perform a general inspection of the vehicle

Check if electrical appliances, sensors are working properly. Check the battery (if the terminals are dirty, they must be cleaned). It is better to replace old spark plugs. Check the condition of the headlights of low and high beams. If you are continuously getting issues with any part of the car due to ECM, TCM, PCM, or BCM failure and,  you can examine the affected part number of the car then order the new available at npcautomotive.com. 

3. Check the level of service fluids and oil 

The level of brake fluid, antifreeze, CPS, water in the windshield washer reservoir, and also the level of engine oil, gearbox oil — must correspond to the norm (top up if necessary). 

Brake fluid and antifreeze are aggressive chemical compounds. They can damage painted surfaces of a car, and in contact with eyes — cause chemical burns. 

If you need to top up the hydraulic fluid, check the leaks in the system. 

If you have 1-2 thousand kilometers left before scheduled oil replacement, it is better to change it before you leave (as the engine will likely be operated with increased loads during your mileage).   

4. Have your car checked at a service station 

At least at the service station, you should check the suspension of your car, and better to make full diagnostics at nissan auto body shop. Check the wheels and adjust the "suspension" right away.

If there are 1-2 a thousand kilometers left to the planned maintenance - make the maintenance checkup.   

5. Check the wheels, check the balance 

Inspect the tires for defects - scuffs, bumps, etc. Check the tire pressure, and bring it to the manufacturer's recommendation (check and inflate the spare tire as well). There should be no cracks, chips, etc. on the rims. And if it has then you must get the rim repair from a nearby location. So that the defects do not have a significant impact on your car tires.

6. Adjust the wheel camber

Alignment of wheel camber and toe-out, as well as balancing, affects the drivability of the car.

7. Check the package of the car 

We have considered useful things for the car. This list should be supplemented by the spare parts that can fail in your car (for example, timing belt, set of spark plugs) and at least one liter of engine oil. 

Recall that, in accordance with the traffic rules, the driver of a passenger car must have: 

● A driver's license (authorizing the management of the appropriate category of vehicles). In this case, the coupon warning is no longer needed.

● Technical passport for the car.

● In the absence of the owner - the power of attorney (if your name is not written in the technical passport).

● A medical first-aid kit of the appropriate type, corresponding to DSTU 3961-2000.

● Emergency stop sign.

● A fire extinguisher.

Choosing a first-aid kit is not a simple thing. When preparing for a trip, the standard first aid kit should be supplemented with drugs that you may need. Complete it with anti-seasickness medication (if you are traveling with children), antihistamines, antipyretics. 

In addition to drinking water in the car must be a stock of non-perishable food: chocolate, cookies, dried fruits, nuts. 

If you’re a newbie and can’t complete the above checklist, we prefer to rent a car from a renowned car rental company like https://rentalcarsuae.com/. All of their cars are passed from strict quality inspection and you don’t need to perform any checklist as you do in the cars. Just rent your car from Rental Cars UAE and drive it without any worries!

It is desirable to carry out works on the technical preparation of the car one-two weeks before departure it will allow discovering and correcting mistakes made during the preparation of the car in time.