Your car in summer: what to check before a long trip (and don't improvise on the roadside)
August concentrates more road trips than any other month of the year. And more roadside assistance calls too. It’s no coincidence: cars come out of weeks of routine urban driving only to hit 600 kilometers of highway with a packed trunk and the air conditioning running at full blast. If something was operating on a knife’s edge, the long trip will expose it.
Most of those stops can be avoided with an hour of checks before you leave. You don’t need to take the car to the mechanic for every trip, but you should know which points suffer most from heat and mileage.
Tires: pressure and condition first
Heat increases the internal pressure of tires. Leaving with correct pressure when cold and having it rise during driving is normal and expected; leaving already with high pressure when cold is a problem. Check tire pressure before leaving with the car cold—not after driving—and adjust it to the manufacturer’s values, which you’ll find on a sticker on the driver’s door frame or in the manual.
In addition to pressure, visually inspect the tread and overall condition of all four tires. If any have been on for several years or the tread is near the limit, a long trip in extreme heat is not the time to discover it on the road.
Don’t forget the spare tire. Many drivers don’t check it for months and discover it’s flat precisely when they need it.
Fluid levels
Five minutes with the hood open before a long trip:
Engine oil. The dipstick is the quickest check. If it’s below the minimum, add the oil specified for your engine before leaving. Running with low levels in summer, with the engine working harder from the heat, accelerates wear.
Coolant. This is what keeps the engine at the correct temperature. The reservoir has minimum and maximum marks; if it’s below the minimum, it needs to be topped up. Never open the radiator cap when the engine is hot.
Windshield washer fluid. It’s not critical for mechanics, but on the highway consumption is much higher. In the heat, insects and dust on the windshield can significantly reduce visibility.
Brake fluid. If you can’t remember when it was last checked and the car is two or three years old, it’s a good time to ask the mechanic to check the level and condition. Brake fluid absorbs moisture over time and loses effectiveness at high temperatures—exactly what happens on long descents with a loaded car.
Brakes
If the brakes squeal or the pedal feels different from usual, don’t put it off until after the trip. A long journey with extra load—packed trunk, passengers, trailer—is more demanding on the braking system than everyday city driving.
If you’ve had the same nagging feeling for several months that “something isn’t quite right” with the brakes, this is the time to verify it before leaving.
Air conditioning
Air conditioning in summer is not a luxury: it’s a safety factor. Fatigue at the wheel increases with heat, especially on trips of several hours. If the climate control isn’t cooling as effectively as before, the refrigerant gas may be low. Recharging is a quick and inexpensive service at any mechanic shop.
Belts and cooling system
Extreme heat is when components under the hood work at their limit. If the car is more than five years old or has high mileage and there’s no record of the cooling system having been recently checked—thermostat, hoses, water pump—it’s worth mentioning to the mechanic on your next visit before summer.
An engine that overheats on a highway in August is a problem that won’t be solved quickly.
What’s worth recording after the trip
When your return trip is over, it’s a good time to note the car’s current mileage and any issues you noticed: a new noise, a vibration, a warning light that came on and went off. With that record, if the car goes in for a checkup before winter, you have concrete information to give the mechanic instead of “it seemed like something sounded different, I don’t know when.”
If you keep the history in OwnAutoCare, add the trip’s mileage and note any observations in the notes of the last recorded service. It’s a minute of work that can make a difference in the next checkup.