Before and after a road trip: car care basics

Before you leave

Do these a few days ahead rather than the morning of the trip, so there is time to fix anything you find. None of them need tools beyond a tire gauge.

• Tire pressure, checked cold, set to the figure on the driver door jamb sticker, not the maximum on the sidewall.
• Tread depth and sidewalls: look for uneven wear, cuts or bulges.
• The spare or inflator kit: make sure it is there and the spare is inflated.
• Oil, coolant and washer fluid levels, as described in your owner's manual.
• Wiper blades, all the lights, and the horn.
• Any warning lights on the dash that you have been ignoring.

Load and visibility

A loaded car behaves differently. Many manuals list a higher tire pressure for a fully loaded vehicle, so check yours. Keep heavy items low and toward the front of the trunk, and do not stack bags so high they block the rear window.

Wash the car before a long trip, or at least the glass, mirrors and lights. Hours of driving into the sun, or at night on the 401, are much easier with clean glass, inside and out.

What a highway trip leaves on the car

After a few hundred kilometres of summer highway, the front of the car is covered in bugs: the bumper, the grille, the leading edge of the hood, the mirrors and the windshield. Bug remains are slightly acidic and stick hard once baked by the sun. Left for a week or two on a hot car, they can leave faint etched marks in the clear coat.

The lower panels collect tar from road repairs and the fine black grime of highway traffic. Long stretches of construction zones add dust and sometimes fresh tar or paint overspray.

Cleaning up when you get home

Deal with the bugs first and soon, ideally within a day or two. Soak the front end with a bug remover or plenty of soapy water and give it a few minutes to soften them. Then wash. A touchless wash will clear most fresh bugs and road film. The ones that stay usually come off with another soak and a soft microfibre cloth, never with a scrubbing pad.

Tar spots on the lower doors need a tar remover, wiped gently and washed off afterwards. If the trip involved gravel, cottage roads or wet weather, rinse the underside and wheel wells as well. At Fast Lane, the Full Wash includes an under-car spray for that.

Inside, take out the food wrappers, sand and road trip debris before they settle into the carpet, and wipe the inside of the windshield, which picks up a film from a few long days of the heater or air conditioning running.

A quick post-trip check

While you are cleaning, look at the windshield for new stone chips and the tires for anything picked up along the way. Check the pressure again once the tires are cold. If you drove a long way, you may be due an oil change sooner than you thought.