whether it's an SUV a car a minivan or a pickup truck powered by gasoline
electricity or diesel all vehicles have one thing in common they rely on fluids
lots of fluids different kinds and it's your job to make sure they don't run low
I'll show you how we'll start with an easy one all cars have washer fluid all
you have to do is find the reservoir and if it's low just top it off but know
this they're not always where you'd expect to find them motor oil which
lubricates your engine is one of the most crucial fluids and one of the ones
most likely to run low as your car ages especially and begins to leak or burn
oil with the car on a level surface turned off for at least five minutes get
the dipstick pull it out wipe it off and reinsert it
before you take your reading to get an accurate reading now when you pull it
out you will see the oil comes up to a particular point so this section here
it's plastic in this car represents the operating range and the oil you can see
is just above halfway through the operating range there it's okay if it's
anywhere in this range but if it's below half you're gonna want to top it off
typically that operating range represents a quart of oil and motor oil
is provided in quart bottles so if you need to fill it you find the filler
which in this case is up here pretty highs it's always a separate filler and
top it off now don't try and get ahead of things by over filling it as that can
cause problems in the long run what you want to do is follow the directions for
your particular vehicle or your vehicle's oil life monitor to decide how
often to change your oil now if you have a gas powered car and the oil is this
black chances are you need an oil change right away this happens to be a diesel
car and Diesel's turn black very quickly and it's considered normal oil dipstick
can be hard to find but nowadays they tend to be highlighted with colored
plastic now if you can't find one and you don't find it in your owner's manual
you might want to dig a little deeper because
new especially expensive and exclusive cars have electronic oil level
monitoring that you can view in the instrument panel coolant is the fluid
that keeps your engine cool it is a mix of antifreeze and water usually 50/50
mix and to check it all you have to look for now is the recovery tank which is
usually a plastic translucent tank like this one even if the radiator itself has
its own cap there's seldom any reason to remove that anymore and you'll see
typically because it's translucent you can see the level of the fluid in here
you can even backlight it a bit with a flashlight if that helps and these tanks
tend to be marked either maximum and minimum or hot and cold because the
level varies whether the engines hot or cold and if it is below the minimum or
cold level when the engine is completely cold you need to add some 50:50 mix
water and antifreeze never open the recovery tank cap or the radiator cap
when the engine is hot we're not going to get into replacement intervals in
this video but if you want to test the quality of your coolant while you're
checking a level an inexpensive tester like this will tell you if the coolant
still has its antifreeze and anti boil properties to keep driving for many more
miles some cars will give you a warning inside if your brake fluid is low but
not all cars will and it's best to check just to be sure
regardless brake fluid reservoirs typically are near the driver and they
are similar to coolant recovery tanks they're translucent plastic so you can
tell what the level is this one is marked Max and min if it's not full top
it off and keep an eye on it because brake systems typically don't lose much
fluid unless there's a leak you might want to use a funnel because this stuff
is very corrosive you don't want to get it on your paint if you have an
automatic transmission you have some kind of transmission oil or fluid but
that doesn't mean you'll be able to check it yourself because nowadays
transmissions are sealed but with older cars like this one typically they would
have a dipstick and it would be further back like this closer to the cab
and then the oil dipstick which is usually at least a little bit further
forward and there are ways of doing this differ from one vehicle to another you
might need to have the engine warmed up or the transmission warmed up or even
the engine running while you do this but for our purposes we're just gonna check
this way now if you do find that you need to add some you're gonna find there
is no filler hole for automatic transmissions so you're gonna need a
funnel to use the dipstick tube itself if you have a manual transmission it has
oil - but there's no dipstick that the average consumer can just check if it is
a modern stick shift though you probably have a hydraulic clutch and that means
you have a reservoir and fluid there it's actually just brake fluid some cars
will have a separate reservoir for the clutch master cylinder in some cars will
use the same reservoir for both the brakes and the clutch for most of
automotive history power steering has been hydraulic which
means it has fluid - typically you will find the power steering pump driven by
the belt that'll help you find it and there is an integral reservoir built
right in this is an a typical design I won't show this one usually there is a
cap with a little dipstick built right in that shows you whether you've got
enough fluid nowadays hydraulic power steering is on its way out in the past
few years electric assist power steering has taken over so if you have a newer
car you might not have fluid at all so what about electric cars well they don't
have motor oil or transmission oil that you can check yourself but they do
surprisingly have a lot of the other same fluids they got washer fluid
they have brake fluid and a lot of them still have the same type of coolant that
a gas engine car has it's used to control the heat of the electronics and
the battery pack
you