Summer Car Care Check

Indian summers are brutal on cars. Heat kills batteries faster than cold does, thins your oil, stresses the cooling system and exposes every weakness in the AC.

Cooling system first

Overheating is the most common summer breakdown and the most preventable. Check the coolant level when the engine is completely cold — never open a hot radiator cap. Look for crusty white residue around hoses and joints, which points to a slow leak.

Battery

Heat accelerates the chemical wear inside a battery, and most failures happen in summer even though they surface on a cold morning. If yours is over three years old, get it load-tested rather than waiting for it to strand you.

Air conditioning

If the AC blows cool rather than cold, it's usually low refrigerant or a clogged cabin filter. The filter is cheap and often something you can change yourself in ten minutes — start there before paying for a regas.

Tyres, again

Hot roads plus under-inflation is the classic recipe for a blowout. Air expands as it heats, so measure pressures in the morning and never bleed air out of a hot tyre to "correct" a high reading.

Protect the interior

• Use a windscreen shade — it slows dashboard cracking and fading

• Park in shade where you can, even if it means a longer walk

• Crack the windows a few millimetres if it's safe to do soo