Your car is probably one of the biggest expenses in your life. You know that keeping your car in good working order is actually the best way to avoid spending even more money in the future. If you let your car fall into disrepair, you’ll have to pay very big bills at the car service shop. You also run the risk of missing work or missing appointments that will end up costing you even more money. However, you don’t want to run to the repair shop every time your car makes a weird noise, and you don’t want to waste your money for little problems that actually aren’t a problem. Here are a few common signs you do need to go to the car shop:
- Gears Grinding
Whether you have an automatic transmission or a manual transmission, your gears can grind. With an automatic transmission, you’ll notice the grinding if you change speed or if you start heading up a hill. You’ll probably hear the transmission grinding as it tries to change gears. There will also likely be some kind of lagging and lurching as it changes gears. This is a sign that your transmission is having some kind of problem. You can check to see if your transmission fluid is low or dirty. However, you’re probably better off going to get your car serviced. Transmission problems never get better; they only get more severe and more damaging.
- Brakes Grinding
Your brakes often give you a warning sign before they absolutely fail. Many brake pads are designed to have little noisy metal parts that hit your rotors and whine when you apply the brakes. If you haven’t heard that whining sound or if you have brakes that don’t have those pads, you might have missed when the pads were getting low. Now, you can hear a scraping or grinding sound when you press the brakes. That is your brake pad grinding against your rotors because you need new brakes. Brake repairs are one of the most common reasons for car service in Manukau and the surrounding areas.
- Overheating
Your car has a thermometer somewhere that monitors the temperature of the engine. It’s possible for your car to overheat. If you see the thermometer climbing, get to where you’re going and turn your car off. Give it some time to cool off. Then you should pop the bonnet and check all of the different fluids, specifically the coolant. It is incredibly important that you never take the cap off the radiator while it is still hot or even warm. If any part of this makes you nervous, take it to a shop instead of trying it yourself. If you do check your fluids and see that they’re pretty high and your car is still overheating, you need to go to the auto shop. You have some kind of problem that’s only going to get worse.
These are probably the three most common problems you’ll encounter with your car that will require you to go to a car shop.
