May 25, 2024 • 4 mins
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kick-off of the summer travel season, and it's important to make sure that your vehicle is in tip-top shape as you head on out your adventures. Mark Schieldrop at AAA Northeast spoke with Nichole for a few minutes about early summer vehicle maintenance and what you should focus on for a quick checkup.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend. Each week
we come together and talk about allthe topics important to you and the place
where you live. It's so goodto be back with you again this Memorial
Day weekend. I'm Nicole Davis.Whatever it is you're doing this holiday,
if it's involving a car, oreven not just this weekend, but if
you have any sort of summer travelplanned, you might want to give yourself
(00:30):
a few minutes and go over afew basics with that vehicle. Just make
sure everything's up to snuff. Theother day, I was talking with Mark
shield Drop at TRIPAA Northeast. Iwas working on a news story for WBZ
about this. During that interview,I asked him about, well, what
exactly you should look for to makesure your vehicle is ready. Here's what
he had to say. To getyour car ready, you just want to
give it a quick one silver andthere's a few key items that you want
(00:51):
to check before you give yourself thethumbs up and that you're good to go.
The first tip is your tires.You want to quickly just check that
tire pressure. If you don't havea tire pressure gauge. Go to a
gas station. Nowadays you can findautomatic tire pressure fillers right there. You
might have to pay a little bitof money a buck or two to get
that air, but it allows youto calibrate your tires. So in the
(01:14):
door card right when you open yourdriver's side door, there should be a
sticker there that tells you what yourtire pressure should be, so you can
punch in the correct PSI and getthose tire tires to the correct pressure.
It's going to give you a betterfuel economy and it's going to reduce tire
wear, and it's a very easyway to do it without having to use
the old fashioned tire pressure gauge therewhere the thing pops out and you have
to read it, and you mightnot have the best eye sight like being
(01:36):
and I need reading glasses. SoI swear by those machines at the gas
stations that are really effective and theywork. Secondly, you want to make
sure your tires are in decent shapeso you can have the right tire pressure.
But if your tread's all worn out, it may be time to get
a new set of tires put onbefore that road trip for safety reasons,
comfort as well as the economy.So the best way to do that is
to just take a quarter out ofyour pocket or find one under the couch.
(01:59):
Stick it between the in that tread. And if you can see the
president's head above that tread, itmeans it's time to replace it. So
Washington, Washington's head is below thattread. That means you still have some
life left in your tire. Sothat's an easy way to quickly check without
having to get into the math andthe fractions. Secondly, your breaks.
If you're haven't had your breaks donein quite some time, if your car
(02:20):
is more than sixty thousand miles onit, have somebody inspect those breaks,
make sure you've got life on thosepads, make sure those roadors are in
decent shape, and it might betime to get that break fluid changed.
Over time, our break fluid absorbsmoisture and does start to break down.
And the last thing you want tohave happen on a road trip is have
a problem your breaks. The otherthing is your battery. So in the
heat of the summer is really whenour batteries tend to suffer the most.
(02:43):
Were they do tend to up andquit in those cold winter days, and
you get a lot of battery callsin that first cold snap in the winter
because those batteries which got really beatenon all summer finally decide not to have
enough juice in the winter. Butwe do get a lot of battery calls
in the summer at triple A.When people go on a road trip,
maybe they park their car for fouror five days in a hotel parking lot
(03:04):
only for the return trip home.When they get in the car to go
home, it doesn't start. Soif your battery is more than four or
five years old, it's pretty muchgetting to the end of its life,
so you want to get that testedand replaced if needed. Oftentimes people don't
realize their batteries are really at aworn out state until it's too late,
so that's one thing you want totry to avoid. And then finally,
you know oil, get your oilchange, make sure to stay on top
(03:25):
of that routine maintenance, especially inthe warm heat of the summer. We
need our fluids really taken care of. And then a few other small things
you can do just to make sureyour trip goes smoothly. Replace warm wiper
blades. I like to do itevery season, so I do it in
the spring and I do it inthe fall, so that way you have
a good fresh set for the coldwinner. And we've had a lot of
(03:46):
rain lately, so our wiper bladescertainly had taken a beating over the last
year. And then finally, youshould have an emergency kit in your car,
so replace the batteries in that flashlightin there so they're fresh. Make
sure you have your jumper cables ora battery booster, which which is great
because then you don't need to findsomeone to jump your car. However,
a lot of these battery boosters thatpeople get, you need to charge them
up, so plug it in nowso it's good to go when you're on
(04:09):
that trip. And finally, Ikeep saying finally, but I do want
to give this one last tip.Check your vehicle for recalls at safercar dot
gov. You just punching your vinfind out if there's any recalls that are
outstanding for your vehicle. You'd besurprised. A lot of people are driving
with open recalls on their cars andthey don't realize it. So it's a
good time to double check that whileyou're out there under the hood. And
(04:30):
checking all your fluids, check theVN number two and make sure that you
don't need to bring it in forthat free repair offered by the manufacturer.
All Right, have a safe andhealthy weekend. Please join me again next
week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio
on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend. Each week
we come together and talk about allthe topics important to you and the place
where you live. It's so goodto be back with you again this Memorial
Day weekend. I'm Nicole Davis.Whatever it is you're doing this holiday,
if it's involving a car, oreven not just this weekend, but if
you have any sort of summer travelplanned, you might want to give yourself
(00:30):
a few minutes and go over afew basics with that vehicle. Just make
sure everything's up to snuff. Theother day, I was talking with Mark
shield Drop at TRIPAA Northeast. Iwas working on a news story for WBZ
about this. During that interview,I asked him about, well, what
exactly you should look for to makesure your vehicle is ready. Here's what
he had to say. To getyour car ready, you just want to
give it a quick one silver andthere's a few key items that you want
(00:51):
to check before you give yourself thethumbs up and that you're good to go.
The first tip is your tires.You want to quickly just check that
tire pressure. If you don't havea tire pressure gauge. Go to a
gas station. Nowadays you can findautomatic tire pressure fillers right there. You
might have to pay a little bitof money a buck or two to get
that air, but it allows youto calibrate your tires. So in the
(01:14):
door card right when you open yourdriver's side door, there should be a
sticker there that tells you what yourtire pressure should be, so you can
punch in the correct PSI and getthose tire tires to the correct pressure.
It's going to give you a betterfuel economy and it's going to reduce tire
wear, and it's a very easyway to do it without having to use
the old fashioned tire pressure gauge therewhere the thing pops out and you have
to read it, and you mightnot have the best eye sight like being
(01:36):
and I need reading glasses. SoI swear by those machines at the gas
stations that are really effective and theywork. Secondly, you want to make
sure your tires are in decent shapeso you can have the right tire pressure.
But if your tread's all worn out, it may be time to get
a new set of tires put onbefore that road trip for safety reasons,
comfort as well as the economy.So the best way to do that is
to just take a quarter out ofyour pocket or find one under the couch.
(01:59):
Stick it between the in that tread. And if you can see the
president's head above that tread, itmeans it's time to replace it. So
Washington, Washington's head is below thattread. That means you still have some
life left in your tire. Sothat's an easy way to quickly check without
having to get into the math andthe fractions. Secondly, your breaks.
If you're haven't had your breaks donein quite some time, if your car
(02:20):
is more than sixty thousand miles onit, have somebody inspect those breaks,
make sure you've got life on thosepads, make sure those roadors are in
decent shape, and it might betime to get that break fluid changed.
Over time, our break fluid absorbsmoisture and does start to break down.
And the last thing you want tohave happen on a road trip is have
a problem your breaks. The otherthing is your battery. So in the
heat of the summer is really whenour batteries tend to suffer the most.
(02:43):
Were they do tend to up andquit in those cold winter days, and
you get a lot of battery callsin that first cold snap in the winter
because those batteries which got really beatenon all summer finally decide not to have
enough juice in the winter. Butwe do get a lot of battery calls
in the summer at triple A.When people go on a road trip,
maybe they park their car for fouror five days in a hotel parking lot
(03:04):
only for the return trip home.When they get in the car to go
home, it doesn't start. Soif your battery is more than four or
five years old, it's pretty muchgetting to the end of its life,
so you want to get that testedand replaced if needed. Oftentimes people don't
realize their batteries are really at aworn out state until it's too late,
so that's one thing you want totry to avoid. And then finally,
you know oil, get your oilchange, make sure to stay on top
(03:25):
of that routine maintenance, especially inthe warm heat of the summer. We
need our fluids really taken care of. And then a few other small things
you can do just to make sureyour trip goes smoothly. Replace warm wiper
blades. I like to do itevery season, so I do it in
the spring and I do it inthe fall, so that way you have
a good fresh set for the coldwinner. And we've had a lot of
(03:46):
rain lately, so our wiper bladescertainly had taken a beating over the last
year. And then finally, youshould have an emergency kit in your car,
so replace the batteries in that flashlightin there so they're fresh. Make
sure you have your jumper cables ora battery booster, which which is great
because then you don't need to findsomeone to jump your car. However,
a lot of these battery boosters thatpeople get, you need to charge them
up, so plug it in nowso it's good to go when you're on
(04:09):
that trip. And finally, Ikeep saying finally, but I do want
to give this one last tip.Check your vehicle for recalls at safercar dot
gov. You just punching your vinfind out if there's any recalls that are
outstanding for your vehicle. You'd besurprised. A lot of people are driving
with open recalls on their cars andthey don't realize it. So it's a
good time to double check that whileyou're out there under the hood. And
(04:30):
checking all your fluids, check theVN number two and make sure that you
don't need to bring it in forthat free repair offered by the manufacturer.
All Right, have a safe andhealthy weekend. Please join me again next
week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio
on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Start Here
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.
3. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.