Car Preparation - Interior Inspection

Brian Trochelmann: I am Brian Trochelmann with Fairfax Motors and I am showing you how to prepare your car for a road trip. We are now going to be turning our attention to the interior of the car. First and foremost we want to make sure that all our mirror settings are correct. Our manual interior mirror but also our exterior mirror that on this specific car, we have the setting of the mirrors on the door. We can select left and right mirrors. Obviously the setting is something that we want to do before we set out.

On most modern cars seat belts are imperative in their operation. Modern cars are equipped with airbags and they will not function properly unless our seat belts are functioning properly. What we just need to do is take our seat belt and buckle up. Once we have buckled up we are going to look at the warning seat belt light that it is no longer illuminated. Also if an air bag light was on, it should now also have turned off. We can now unbuckle. A few other things that we want to pay attention to any instrument cluster. There are few warning lights that are imperative for you to keep your attention on. Let's mention first the check engine light. If the Check Engine light is illuminated on a continuous basis it is important for you to visit your repair facility to have this fault inspected. If at point in time your Check Engine light flashes it is imperative that you do not operate your vehicle. It is important that if this happens while you drive you pull over to a safe location and turn your car off and have your car toed. At no time should you operate your car with your Check Engine light flashing. If your air bag light comes on at any point in time with your seat belt fastened, it means that your air bag system has been disabled. So that means most likely in an impact your air bags will not function .

Also with the ABS light, if your ABS light is on it means that your Anti-locking brakes are no longer functioning. This is something that is important to have checked out in order to maintain safety of your car. A few other things in the instrument cluster that we want to pay attention to. On our BMW it is no longer equipped with a temperature gauge, it has warning lights. These warning lights are going to indicate when your cooling system has reached the temperature that is no longer safe for operation. If your car is equipped with a temperature gauge it is imperative that you know what the normal setting is. Most manufacturers will give you an indication of the normal setting in the provided owner's manual. Many times the temperature gauge will be at half way pointing at 12 o'clock. This would be the normal setting. Many times it can go very, very rapidly from normal operation to overheating. At no time should you ever operate your vehicle if your temperature gauge is in the red. The red meaning that your car is overheating. This will cause extensive damage .

Many cars are also equipped with an oil pressure gauge and or an oil temperature gauge. Keep your eye on that also to make sure it is always at its normal setting. Before you get going on your road trip it's always advisable to have all your comfort settings set to a manner that is befitting the trip that you are about to take. Make sure your air conditioning system is operating properly and that the settings are convenient for you. Also make sure that you can preset your radio stations, that you don't have to fumble with your radio system while you are in operation. Inspect your wiper system,make sure the wipers are working. Also make sure that the washer system is working and functioning properly. Last thing we want to check is the operation of the horn. So that's it .

Hopefully I have given you enough tips to check your car to make sure it's safe for your road trip and thank you for watching.