I come from a family where my dad is a pretty capable mechanic. His attitudes towards me and my car is that he knows best, so I should let him do everything. Now, I'm a pretty independent person, and like to know how stuff works and how to fix basic things.
What are the top five things you consider most important to know about your vehicle?
I came up with a list of things I thought based on past experience, but wasn't sure if I was missing anything pertinent:
1. How to gas up your car! For a while, I was *not allowed* to gas up my car. My dad has some paranoia about me being vulnerable in a gas station.
2. How to change/put on a spare tire. This is one thing I insisted on, especially since sometimes there isn't time to wait for someone to help you.
3. How to jumpstart your car. On the hottest days, my key security system would get all fucked up, and kill my battery charge and not let me start my car. For my birthday present, I was given my VERY OWN set of cables
4. How/When to check fluids. Pretty self explanatory, but my younger sister doesn't even know where to look for the dipstick!
5. How to change the oil on your car. Still working on this one since the oil was just changed 500 miles ago, and dad is all worried about the jack slipping or something while I'm under there. Don't know how it's any safer when he's under there!
A couple others I came up with were checking the tire pressure, knowing how to check/change spark plugs( I can do this, after my shorted my entire system while driving), and checking/changing brake pads.
Anyone with any other must knows or an opinion about this feel free to share