Care and Feeding of your Mustang
In today’s world we no longer have the Texaco Service Station attendant, who in days gone by would come running out to your vehicle and pump your gas, check under the hood, and check your tires. In essence, the service station attendant was the ER doctor for your car.
Fast forward to today and we now usually pump our own gas, start the car, and leave the station. As a net result, many of our car’s (both Mustangs and daily drivers) needs go unchecked.
Below are some of the areas we tend to overlook concerning vehicle maintenance.
Tires – Over time tires lose air pressure and even if your vehicle has tire pressure sensors (early Mustangs don’t) you should periodically check and fill the tires to the manufacturer’s specs listed on your vehicle.
As important is checking the air in your spare tire. What good is having a spare if it’s flat when you need to use it? Recently when we checked Lois’ spare in her daily driver and it only had 32# of air instead of the required 60#.
Coolant – Periodically the radiator (when cool) and overflow bottle should be checked and coolant added as necessary.
Washer fluid – Oftentimes we forget about topping off the washer fluid reservoir. In Washington, fluid is used frequently with our rainy weather.
Wiper blades – Wiper blades don’t seem to last nearly as long as they did when the first Mustang came out. They tend to get hard or brittle a lot quicker and don’t effective clean the windshield. Check them at least annually.
Motor oil – Motor oil should be checked occasionally between oil changes. A good way is to check it halfway to the next oil change if you aren’t having oil consumption issues.
Manufacturer’s recommendations for oil changes should be followed to help keep the engine properly lubricated.
As a reminder, if you own a vintage Mustang with a flat tappet motor just changing the oil falls short of what your motor needs. The composition of oil has changed and current formulations do not have enough zinc additive to protect the camshaft. Put a ZDDP additive in the car during an oil change.
Brake fluid – Brake fluid should be checked occasionally to ensure the reservoir has adequate fluid. An ongoing loss may indicate a failure somewhere in the system.
Well, that’s all I have for now, but keep your Mustang happy and it will help keep you happy and having fun.
Scott Robinson
