NEVER Road Trip without Checking these 5 Things!!!

Hey guys, Chris Fix here. Here's everything you should check on your car before taking it on a road trip, that way you don't get stranded. And we'll start by checking our fluids. First, you want to top off your car's wiper fluid so you can actually clean off your windshield if it gets dirty. Next, we want to check our coolant level and that is full. And then we want to come over here and check our brake fluid level. We're right near the max line. If yours is near the min line, that means that you probably need brake pads soon. And then finally, let's come over here and check the oil. And if you take a look here, the oil's right to the full line, so we're good to go. But it's not just the oil level that's important. It's also how many miles are on your oil. If you have old oil like this, it's not going to protect as well as brand new oil. So if your mileage is close to your next oil change interval, I'd definitely change your oil so you have fresh clean oil protecting your engine. And the last fluid to check is your fuel level. You can see I'm just under half a tank. And since I'm usually running late the morning I'm leaving for a trip, something I've learned to do that works really well is to fill up the day before to avoid being late. And with the tank full, that's one less thing to worry about when I leave in the morning. Next, it's very important to check your tires, especially the tread depth. You want at least 4/32 or 3 mm of depth. And since most people don't have a tread depth gauge like this, a little trick is to use a quarter. So what we're going to do is flip George Washington upside down and put the coin in the tread. And you cannot see the top of his head, it's covered, that means we have more than 4/32 of tread, which is good. But if it looks like that, where you can see the top of his head, you need to replace your tire soon. Now, all my tires are good, so the next thing we want to do is check the pressure. And the correct pressure for your tires could be found in the door jamb on the sticker right here. For this car, my front cold pressure is 35 PSI and the rear cold pressure is 33 PSI. So when the tires are cold, check the pressure. And in this case, we need to add some air. And finally, something that pretty much everybody forgets to do, check the spare tire. And good thing we checked because our spare's at 14 PSI and it should be at the recommended 60 PSI. So that would make this spare useless if we had to use it. You also want to make sure you have your jack and a way to lift the jack, as well as your tire iron, which I am missing, which again would make this useless. to go throw my ratchet in here with the correct socket just for now. Next, you want to check your wiper blades to make sure the rubber isn't cracked or ripped, and these seem to be in great shape. And even if your wiper blades look good, spray some water on your windshield and test them out. If it's skipping or leaving streaks, you should replace them. And here's an example of bad wiper blades. If we take a look at the end here, you can see the rubber blade is starting to peel off, which isn't good. And then this one looks pretty good, but then again, if you carefully look, you can see the rubber is starting to separate, and these won't work for you, so they have to be replaced. And finally, I always clean my windshield before a road trip. That way there's no bugs, dirt, or water spots in my field of view, which drives me crazy. Next, you want to check your 12-V battery. So, first, check the connections to make sure they are clean and tight, and both of these are. And now let's load test it. Most of the big name parts stores will load test your battery for free. And holy smokes, I was not expecting that. 19% health, so I definitely need to replace this to avoid getting stranded on my road trip. And finally, you want to check your headlights, high beams, tail lights, brake lights, license plate lights, and turn signals. And that's everything I do to check my car before a road trip. Comment below if there's something that you like to check that I didn't include.