Tis the Season For an Oil Change

Maintaining your car is important in all seasons, but it can be especially important in severe winter weather conditions when you count on your car to start and get you home safely. Seasonal maintenance includes making sure you have the proper type and levels of coolant in your car, checking your brake fluid levels, replacing your air filter and oil filter and making sure your oil change has been done for the season.

The purpose of oil for your car is to help keep everything in your engine running smoothly without friction and if your car's oil is low you can't do its job properly. Even in the dead of winter when it's freezing cold outside, your car still produces engine heat and the outside elements won't defuse those inner heat elements.

The last thing you want to have happen when it is -0 outside, with snow up to your hip, is to have your car leave you stranded somewhere, or not start. If you go through your pre-winter checklist and maintain your car properly, you can do a lot to eliminate any future problems that could potentially leave you stranded.

If you're not comfortable changing your own oil, it's not hard to find a trusted mechanic that can do this job for you without charging you an arm and a leg. Most of the time oil change shops will do more than just change your oil and oil filter, they will also do extra services such as check your air filter and replace any filter that needs to be replaced as well as balance and align your tires for an extra fee.

This is a great way to get a multitude of services at one time, for one price, and it helps prepare your car for the season ahead. So why not take advantage of it at least twice a year? The other two seasons you can simply get by with the basic oil change and oil filter changes and let your tires ride.

Oil change shops are convenient and easy to get into without an appointment and appeal to a wide clientele. These shops aren't just for women anymore, although that may have been their initial target audience, but nowadays men are just as likely to be customers as their female counterparts because they too can be pressed for time or the energy needed to devote to car repair and vehicle maintenance task are an easy task to let somebody else handle.

Shop around before you commit to one oil change places and get some price quotes around town. A few local chains may be way out of line with their prices especially in light of what other shops are charging. They count on you not checking around and being a savvy customer to get you to pay ridiculously high prices for what basically amounts to a ten minute service. Since you're going to be a loyal customer, find a shop that will appreciate that.