Your car doesn’t know that you’re not a mechanic; it could give you problems anyway. How can you understand the car trouble and know what needs to be repaired?
Sometimes, it’s pretty easy to know what the problem is with your car. When a tire goes flat, you’ll have a strange sound, a lack of steering control, and a lower corner on your car. When you get out to see what the problem is, it’s pretty obvious when your vehicle is sitting on a flat tire. Other problems don’t tell you what they are quite as easily.
How Can You Understand Problems With Your Car?
Even if you don’t like to get your hands dirty and spend time under the hood, you can understand more about what’s wrong with your car than you might think. This is good for when you need to tell the mechanic what you see, feel, hear, and smell with your vehicle. Thankfully, you won’t have to taste anything, we’ll leave that sense out of this conversation. The more you can tell your mechanic, the better they can diagnose what ails your machine and get you back out on the road.
What do You See?
Your eyes don’t lie to you, and you might find the problem with your car visually before seeing any other problems. Did your dashboard light up with warning lights to signal car trouble? These warning lights are the right place to begin. If the Check Engine light came on, it could mean several different things. On the other hand, the temperature light, tire pressure light, and oil light are much easier to understand without knowing much about cars. If any of these lights come on, you need to take the vehicle to a mechanic.
Other visual problems might not appear on the dashboard. If your car doesn’t have a tire pressure light, you might need to get out and see if there’s something wrong with one of your tires. Walk around and check. Your eyes can also tell you something is wrong with the car if you see smoke billowing out from under the hood or notice a fluid puddle under the vehicle while parked. Both, smoke and fluid are causes for concern and require you to take your car to a mechanic to be professionally diagnosed and fixed before driving again.
What Do You Hear?
Some of the problems facing your car don’t show up visually, but you can hear them. Have you ever ridden inside an older vehicle? You hear sounds that you don’t in new models. This is because some parts of the older car are worn and are giving signals they need to be replaced. A worn-out suspension makes clunking or creaking sound and is a sign of car trouble that you should fix soon. The ball joints and bushings require lubrication, and if the grease dries out, they make a lot of noise.
Do you hear squealing coming from the engine? That’s a sure sign your belt needs to be replaced. Are you hearing a loud squealing or grinding noise during braking? Guess what? Your brake pads and rotors need to be replaced. If you hear loud explosive bangs from your engine, it’s time for the mechanic to check out your engine because you’ve got a backfire. Grinding noise coming from the transmission means the gears are grinding. If you’re new to driving a manual transmission car, this will be a normal noise, but experienced drivers know this is a sign the gears are worn, or the transmission fluid is low.
What do You Feel?
Most of the time, the rough feeling in your car is accompanied by sights and sounds but using the sense of feel allows you to tell your mechanic more about what’s wrong with your car. Often, when you have a flat tire, most of the sensory signals come in the feeling during your drive. Use this sense to understand some of the car trouble that you’ll need to explain to your mechanic or try and fix on your own. One of the most common feelings you’ll get when something is wrong is vibrating or shaking. This usually happens when something is wrong with the wheels and tires or the suspension parts attached to them.
Does your car lean or pull to one side? This is a problem with the wheels. It could mean that your wheels are misaligned. This can often happen if you’ve recently hit a pothole and it sent your wheels out of alignment. If the steering changes suddenly, you might have a flat tire. Other feelings you might find are spongy brakes, which means the brake fluid pressure needs to be improved. Loose steering could mean a problem with your tie rods, which should be checked by your mechanic.
What do You Smell?
The smells of car problems can tell a mechanic a lot about your car. Cars that have had standing water inside them often smell moldy or of mildew. This is a simple thing to identify, and your nose can tell your more about the car trouble you’re facing than you might think. If you smell a burning or smoke in your car, there’s something wrong. This is something you should tell your mechanic, and you should take the car to the shop right away before the burning smell turns into something much worse.
If there’s a hole in your fuel or exhaust lines, you’ll smell fuel or exhaust in the cabin. Have you ever smelled rotten eggs in your car? This isn’t your breakfast from two weeks ago; it means your battery has a problem. Batteries have sulfuric acid in them, and when you smell this foul stench, it means your battery needs to be replaced. A sweet smell typically indicates a problem in the coolant system. If you have a coolant leak, your engine could overheat and cause serious damage to your car. Your nose can tell you a lot about what’s wrong with your car.
You don’t have to be a mechanic to diagnose car trouble; all you need is to use your senses and pay attention to what they’re telling you. Share this information with your mechanic; it helps them understand what might be wrong with your car.
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