As all of us are familiar with the fact that the whole world is going through a very tough situation due to the Chinese Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Due to this coronavirus outbreak, most of the countries have declared nationwide lock-down until this situation becomes under control.

Due to this lock-down period, We all are advised to stay indoors and isolate ourselves. And so our beloved vehicles, too.

Nobody knows that for how long, this situation will continue and therefore it is extremely necessary to take care of our isolated vehicles. Because if you don’t do so, you will potentially end up paying larger repair bills in the future.

So I would like to share here a few ultimate tips in my own pattern to follow with which you can take care of your car in this lock-down period very well.

1. Start, charge and lubricate

Start your car daily to avoid battery getting discharged. If not possible to start daily, start your car once in 3-5 days and remain negative of the battery disconnected. Starting the engine will also help to lubricate all moving parts of the engine for batter life.

One can also use the trickle charger to charge the battery. Basically, trickle charger allows to charge of a fully charged battery at the rate equals to its self-discharge rate while not in use for too long.

2. Safe parking

Choose parking space wisely. Possibly park your car inside your premises. Do not park under any tree to avoid bird poop as it damages car paint. Secure parking of your car helps to avoid dust and foreign objects in the atmosphere to gather onto your car. The use of a body cover is a great recommendation.

3. Yes to gear- no to parking brakes

When you park your vehicle for a longer period, use parking with a gear engaged instead of parking brakes. This is just because when you use a mechanical parking mechanism, due to rusting, the parking brake mechanism becomes stuck.

4. Avoid getting flat spot

If you do not move your car by inch for a long period, a flat spot produces on the tire due to the continuous load of the vehicle. Flat spot reduces tire life. To avoid flat spots, drive your car once a week. Also do not forget to check and correct the inflation of all the tires including the spare wheel to the recommended PSI.

5. Clean, ventilate and avoid bad smell

Before you put your car in isolation, thoroughly clean the interior to eliminate the remaining food particles and other contaminated bacteria if any. Once in a week ventilate your car by roll down all the windows for at least five minutes.

By doing these steps, you would feel any bad smell in the interior even after long isolation days.

6. clean and shine

Regular clean and wash your car to make it shine like forever. If you don’t do this, the paint becomes dull and lost its shine which potentially lowers the look of the car.

7. Keep rodents away

Rodents can damage your car. It can damage any of the wiring harness, interior or any other important part of your car.

Use rodent repellent around your car to keep them away. Once in a week, open your engine bay and inspect all the areas and components for rodent bite marks to avoid any system failure. Even keep your eyes on the interior.

8. Pull up wipers

Wiper blade rubber stuck to the windshield or to the rear glass when they are used for a long period. This can damage your windshield and wiper blades both. To prevent this, just pull up wipers away from the windshield when it’s isolated.

So, these were few tips to maintain your car’s health during isolation in this lock-down period or whenever your vehicle is parked for a long while.

I hope you will like this and if any feedback or suggestion is there, let me know in the comment section below.

See you in the next article, Till then #Stayhome #Staysafe