As the saying goes, "It's easy to buy a car but hard to maintain a car." This sentence is even more obvious when it comes to second-hand cars. After all, a second-hand car is no better than a new one. After long-term use, its parts will be more or less worn or damaged. In reality, many people lack understanding of second-hand cars and do not know how to take care of them after buying them, which directly aggravates the car's longevity. In the end, I regretted it until the car was overwhelmed and people and property were injured. Therefore, it is necessary for Xiao Mushroom to give you a tip today and talk about what we should do after buying a second-hand car.
1. Exterior and interior cleaning and beautification
As the saying goes, "People rely on clothes and horses rely on saddles", and cars are no exception. After buying a second-hand car, you must first take care of the exterior. The reason is simple. After all, most second-hand cars are old cars. It is normal for the car to have some dirt, scratches, and missing paint. Therefore, after buying a car, you can do some beauty treatments such as car cleaning, car waxing, car body touch-up, car coating, etc. to make it look new and make you look and feel comfortable.
In addition, interior cleaning cannot be ignored. After long-term use, most used car interiors will have odors, mold, stains, etc. For the health of you and your family, deodorizing and disinfecting the interior must be effective and thorough. Since it is not just about cleaning and dusting, Xiao Mushroom recommends that you should not be cheap at this time and try to choose a regular car 4S shop or beauty shop. This can maximize the guarantee of service quality. For cleaning projects, it is recommended to use a full set of methods such as steam sterilization, negative ion air purification, air conditioning duct cleaning, and interior cleaning to eliminate all kinds of odors and stains remaining in the cab.
2. Check whether the tires and spare tires have been overused
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If a second-hand car does not have a good pair of "shoes", how can it run far? As we all know, tires are consumables on cars, and wear and tear cannot be avoided during daily travel. Because of this, it is still necessary to re-inspect the tires after purchasing a car.
Generally speaking, the service life of a tire depends on its own wear and tear. If the tread of the tire becomes hardened or the pattern wear is severe, it should be replaced. But here comes the problem. Pattern wear is relatively easy for ordinary people to judge. They only need to observe whether the wear exceeds the warning point of the pattern recess. How to identify hardening? In fact, it is not difficult. When inspecting the tires, you can tap the tread with a wooden stick. If it is obvious that the rubber has lost its elasticity, it can basically be judged that the rubber has hardened and deteriorated. The hardened tires are easily damaged due to insufficient grip. It can lead to traffic accidents, so even if the pattern is clear, it cannot be used again. In addition, Xiaomogu also reminds you to pay attention to the service life of the tires. If it is more than 5 years, you also need to install new tires.
3. Check whether the braking system is intact
After the tires have been carefully inspected, it is natural to pay attention to the braking performance of the vehicle. For cars, light can run No, it also needs to be stopped. I don’t need to explain how important a car’s braking performance is. You should also know that having a good braking system can often save someone’s life in a critical moment. Therefore, it is urgent to maintain the braking system after buying a car.
If you find that the brakes are not working properly or there is a "squeaking" or "hissing" sound in the braking part while driving, it indicates that your car's braking system may be faulty. At this time, we need to observe the thickness of the brake pads and whether there are obvious chamfers or cracks on the brake disc. Usually the thickness of a new brake pad is generally about 1.5cm, which is equivalent to two iPhone 6S falling together. The thickness of the brake pads will gradually become thinner with constant friction during use. When it is found that the brake pads have worn to one-third of their original thickness, which is less than the thickness of "three overlapping one-dollar coins", the brake pads at this time cannot be used normally.
At the same time, when inspecting the brake system, you should also check whether there is air leakage or oil leakage in the brake pipeline. Needless to say, oil leakage can be seen with the naked eye. As for air leakage, it can be seen through Experience the feeling when you step on the brake pedal. Usually there is a problem with the brake pipe. When the brake pedal is stepped on, it will feel stiff and not as relaxed as before.
4. Confirm whether the car’s fourth filter needs to be replaced
After getting the second-hand car and taking care of the surface, it’s time for some routine maintenance involved in the vehicle. When it comes to Routine maintenance of a car inevitably makes people think of the four filters of the car, namely air filter, gasoline filter, oil filter, and cabin filter.
The fourth car filter has its own maintenance cycle. Its maintenance cycle is generally determined based on the mileage of the car or the maintenance records provided by the car 4S store. However, due to the serious phenomenon of table adjustment in the second-hand car market in reality, and the fact that the original car owner did not replace the fourth filter in a 4S store, many car owners are unable to judge on paper whether the fourth filter of the vehicle needs to be replaced. Therefore, when encountering this situation, you can only take the trouble and disassemble these four filters one by one to check the degree of contamination of the filter element.
Generally speaking, if there are a lot of dust particles, oil or mold attached to the filter element, it means that the fourth filter needs to be replaced. If it is relatively clean, it only needs simple maintenance. However, I would like to remind everyone that most of the current filter elements are made of paper. Do not use water or detergent when cleaning. You can use an air pump to blow air from the inside of the filter element to the outside to blow away the sticky residue. Dust attached to the outer surface of the filter element.
5. Replace "blood"
In addition to replacing the four filters, changing oil and water are also part of the routine maintenance after buying a car, but the oil change and water change mentioned here by Xiaomou Water not only refers to changing the engine oil and water in the water tank, but also includes changing the transmission oil, brake hydraulic oil, antifreeze, glass water, etc. Due to limited space, only the most important ones are highlighted here.
When it comes to changing oil, the first thing that comes to mind is engine oil. Whether the engine oil needs to be changed depends on its quality. As a veteran, Xiao Mushroom will now teach you a set of simple but very effective engine oil inspection secrets. You can find out the quality of engine oil by just looking, smelling and twisting.
Look - smear the oil on the dipstick on a napkin to observe the color. If the oil is found to be dark brown, it means the oil should be changed.
Smell - Normal engine oil has no special smell, only a slight aroma. If you smell a strong sour smell from the oil, it means the oil has gone bad.
Twisting - This is the simplest method. Use your thumb and forefinger to twist the old engine oil out and rub it repeatedly. Good quality should have lubrication, no abrasion, and no friction. If you feel a large friction sensation such as sand grains between your fingers, and the viscosity is poor, or even astringent, it indicates that there are iron filings, sludge and impurities in the engine oil. Encountering this situation not only indicates that the internal wear of the body is serious, but also indicates that the engine oil has already reached the replacement period.