| By Chilton Staff |
As winter turns to spring, car owners brush off the mud and dirt and do needed maintenance and repairs before embarking on summer road trips. Do snow tires or wiper blades need to be changed? How are the brakes? Does your ride need a spring cleaning? Maybe the car looks nice but the muffler seems exhausted?
The 293 million registered vehicles in the United States have an average age of 12.5 years. Keeping older vehicles road safe and road ready are the main goals of preventive maintenance. Preventing costly repairs and extending the service life of cars and trucks are added benefits.
ChiltonLibrary can help with factory service information, whether vehicle owners intend to pick up a wrench or not. Best of all, it is accessible online 24/7 from any device.
Do-It-For-Me
The ChiltonLibrary knowledgebase assists a range of drivers. For those who will have someone else do the work, Chilton provides information based on the car or truck’s year, make, model, and original equipment, including:
- What maintenance tasks need to be performed and when.
- Inspections and procedures showing what the tasks entail.
- Labor times, to give an idea of how many labor hours the automaker expects each task would take a dealer technician to complete. Add time for an independent shop because they work on different older makes and models and don’t have the training, tools, and repetition the dealer tech has.
- What components the vehicle was originally equipped with and a list of any unrepaired safety recalls via the ChiltonLibrary VIN (vehicle identification number) tool. It features real-time NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) data.
Do-It-Yourselfer
There are a range of tasks that do-it-yourselfers can perform, and ChiltonLibrary can help with automaker step-by-step procedures, specifications for the type and amount of fluids—even cleaning tips. Keeping one’s car or truck clean inside and out is one maintenance task many car owners can perform. Replacing the cabin air filter is another.
Does the car or truck have an issue? The ChiltonLibrary knowledgebase includes auto manufacturer recalls and service bulletins. These automaker notices to their dealers relate to vehicle issues and how to solve them. A bulletin could be about a faulty component or a minor noise issue that’s disturbing the driver or passengers, such as the squeaky seat described in the ChiltonLibrary Subaru service bulletin excerpt below.
Check out some ChiltonLibrary programming ideas for year-round car care.
If your library doesn’t currently subscribe, request to take ChiltonLibrary for a test drive.
