Vince’s top tips

1. Weekly checks under the bonnet are vital, especially if you drive your car for a living, check your oil levels often.
2. PSA Group (Peugeot, Citroen, DS, BMW, Vauxhall) typically have Smaller Petrol Engines (1.0 - 1.2 Litre) which use ¼ Litre of oil every 1000 Mile. Most of these vehicles have a capacity of 3 litres of Oil. So will need topping up around every 10,000 miles. Oil levels dropping too low can cause excess heat resulting in the engine to overheat and potentially catch on fire. Low oil levels can also cause moving parts in the motor to run against each other creating too much friction and heat which eventually damages your engine. This is driver error, and will likely be rejected by warranty, if this happens and your engine is damaged, the cost to repair will be charged to you.
3. In the colder months, make sure you use screen wash with an antifreeze property to prevent your windscreen wash from freezing.
4. Making sure your antifreeze/ engine coolant is topped up during winter helps your car run more smoothly, low coolant levels make it harder for the car to drive in hot weather and freezing temperatures.
5. Making sure your tyre pressure isn’t too high or too low can help prevent premature tire wear, making your tyres last longer.
6. If the tyre pressure is too high, it will increase the wear to the centre of the tyre and if the tyre pressure is too low it will increase the wear of the outer edges.
7. If the tires of the vehicle don’t meet the minimum standard of the legal tyre tread depth or patten (1.6mm), the driver is at risk of 3 points for each tyre. If all four tyres don’t meet the minimum requirements, it’s an automatic 12 points to the driver’s licence which is an automatic ban. We authorise tyre changes at 2mm.
8. If you drive a diesel car, whenever you fill your car up with fuel, we encourage you to top up your AdBlue at the same time especially if you do a lot of town driving. Town driving or frequent short haul drives increase the consumption of the vehicles AdBlue, low levels of AdBlue cause engine shut down and the engine will not turn back on unless the AdBlue is topped up. Any damage done to the engine due to low levels of AdBlue is chargeable as driver error.
9. Most new vehicles now have a puncture repair kit in the boot instead of a spare wheel. Puncture repair kits are a one time use only so in the event of a punctured tyre and the repair kit is used, please assure that you throw it away and buy a new one as you never know when you are going to find yourself in a situation with a punctured tyre.

 

---

See our full range of dual-control cars for hire and dual-control cars for sale.