The season of road trips is near with oncoming monsoons, how to prepare your car?

Perhaps the best thing about the onset of monsoons is the joy of relishing our favorite kachoris, medu vadas, murukkus, samosas, pakoras, or whatever your favorite monsoon munchies are! And the next best thing is certainly the joy of stepping out and visiting your favorite destinations with friends and family on a monsoon road trip from Mumbai or where ever you’re based. While we think about these delicacies, we have some food for thought for all the car owners.

Whether you have already made your trip plans or are still to finalise some details you might have at some instant thought of preparing your car for a monsoon road trip. Because as much as we pay attention to activities and destinations for going on road trips, our vehicles are a central figure in that whole scheme of things. Let us quickly glance over all the essential monsoon road safety tips to ensure a great outing for you and your loved ones.

When it comes to monsoon car care tips, it is a great idea to get your vehicle serviced. However, if your service schedule doesn’t allow you to get the car serviced, just do the following checks and inspections: 

• Check your tire tread depth and gauge it against the recommended depth the manufacturer provides for each vehicle. If the treading is low it means your vehicle will have a very weak road grip. So then it makes all the sense to get the tires replaced to avoid any slipping on wet roads.
• Ensure your spare tire and the toolkit is fully equipped to handle emergencies.
• Get done with any major repairs like brake disc replacement or any defect in the main components and parts of the vehicle.

While one generally keeps an eye on the above points, we’re also giving you some small yet very important monsoon car care tips as well as hacks that help you go a long way, safely.

Make sure to steer clear of mud

The biggest trouble with monsoons is the insane amount of mud and dirt that gets trapped inside the vehicle parts and on the under-body. As we know accumulation of moist mud is very dangerous for the under-body since these parts are made of cast iron. The cast iron base gets eroded very fast because of the rusting process enhanced by mud laden with moisture when it remains seated on it for weeks. And when we take our vehicle for washing, this portion is generally not paid the utmost attention it deserves. Make a habit to get the under-body completely washed once a month to clean so that it remains free from any rust damage.

Breaking off the rust accumulation on brakes and parts

Apart from the under-body, some of the most prone car parts are brake discs, rotors and other components. These parts start getting rusted in monsoons, but this minimal rust is generally removed when the vehicle is used for some time and which obviously involves applying brakes and that helps to shake off this rust build up. This minute amount of rust can prove damaging in the long run if the vehicle gets parked for more than 3-4 weeks. For example, brake rotors are made of iron, parts like these can get significant damage due to the growth of rust. And once the rust sets in and starts eating off the brake rotors, it can affect the thickness of the this part. In such a condition the application of brakes will lead to vibrations on the brake pedal.

Hence it is recommended to not park cars for a long time in the rainy season and frequently use rust removers after washing your car and otherwise also.

Water seepage in car parts and its consequences

Once in a while rolling down the window to let the drizzle come inside the car is no doubt a blissful experience that all of us enjoy. But letting the water also leads to accumulation of a smell typically associated with dampness. So, we should keep this in mind as one of the other important car care tips for rainy season includes always having a car perfume handy to get rid of the damp odor. If the perfume doesn’t help with the smell, then one could place some activated charcoal in the vehicle. It will effectively soak in the dampness and the odor.

The next point to keep in mind is the danger of water seepage in electric buttons and switches of car parts like power windows and outside rear-view mirror buttons. Make sure that your car doors and other interior parts are not exposed to direct rain showers to avoid faulty and jammed parts.

Tips for avoiding unnecessary paint job costs that might happen in rains

Besides the above tips, we should also be keeping a close eye on the painted metal parts of the vehicle. This close inspection will help us in detecting even the smallest portion with paint peeling off and the metal is exposed to air. Finding any such small defective paint parts can help us in saving enormous paint job costs later. What happens is that if these painted parts have any such exposed portion with even traces of rust, this will keep increasing the rust amount beneath the paint layer leading to complete destruction of the part. In other words, upon finding small dented parts, one should priorities the painting job during the rainy season to minimize damage to painted parts.

And hence, having a good quality car wax is also one of the important monsoon car accessories. Because frequent use of car polish and wax extends the life of painted parts of your vehicle and pays off in the long run.

Now that you know all the necessary tips for preparing your car for a road trip in the rainy season, don’t forget to check out our other blogs for all the monsoon car service tips and techniques to keep your vehicle in top shape in any season. Happy driving.