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Today’s episode focuses on the crucial topic of basic car maintenance, highlighting how the driving test often falls short in preparing new drivers for real-world driving.

Terry Cook emphasizes the importance of understanding tyre tread depth, recommending that drivers replace tyres when they reach 3 millimetres rather than the legal minimum of 1.6 millimetres for safety reasons.

He encourages listeners to incorporate a simple 30-second walk-around check of their vehicle before driving, which can help spot potential issues and avoid accidents. Additionally, Terry discusses the significance of knowing how to check fluid levels and the type of oil appropriate for your car, pointing out that relying solely on the “show me, tell me” questions from the test is insufficient. The episode wraps up with a call to action, encouraging listeners to dedicate just a few minutes each week to car maintenance, which could ultimately save lives.

The Driving Test Podcast is here to give you all the information and tips you'll need to help you pass your driving test. Whether you're learning to drive, getting ready to start, or helping someone else, this show will get you in the right gear.

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Takeaways:

• Basic car maintenance is crucial for safe driving, beyond what the driving test covers.
• Understanding tyre tread depth is important; replace tyres before they reach 1.6 millimetres.
• Performing a simple walk-around check can help identify potential car issues early.
• Resources like Google can provide vital information about car maintenance and oil types.
• Communicating with instructors and experienced drivers can enhance your post-test driving knowledge.
• Spending just 15 minutes a week on car checks can significantly improve road safety.

Welcome to the Driving Test Podcast.

I am your host, Terry Cook of TC Drive, and I'm here as your guide on your journey to passing your driving test and beyond.

That's right.

Also here to help you prepare for all those lovely journeys you're gonna go on once you've actually passed your driving test.

And today we are continuing our look at how the driving test doesn't prepare you for life on the road.

And today is day six of this miniseries and we're going to be looking at basic car maintenance.

But before we do, I just want to take a moment to remind you that I'm releasing these episodes throughout Road Safety Week, which is run by Brick, which is a real safety charity and they help support families of those that have lost their lives due to a road traffic collision.

And unfortunately, there's still a lot of crashes every day.

So break do need that support.

If you would like to donate, you can find a link in the show notes or you can Visit the website brake.orguk but as I say, I'm releasing these episodes because I want to keep you safe by talking to you about the way the driving test doesn't always prepare you for real world driving and what you can do to get yourself ready.

And today is basic car maintenance.

So on your driving test, you'll be asked a tell me question.

And these are a great start.

You may have heard of these already, your instructor may have talked about them, you may have seen them online, you may watch videos around them, and they're a great start into that basic car maintenance.

But they don't really go into an awful lot of detail.

So even though they're a good start, you don't necessarily really get what they're talking about because one of the problems that comes across a lot is people tend to memorize answers.

So, for example, on the DVSA's official Show Me Tell me Questions video, so you can find on YouTube, there's a question there about how you would check the tread depth on the tires.

And one of the points it makes in the video is that the tread depth should be 1.6 millimeters across the central three quarters of the tire.

And when I talk to a lot of my learners who have watched these videos, they will quote that and often have no idea what it means.

And that's part of the problem with memorizing these answers.

We want to know what that means.

And also, sometimes people don't realize what 1.6 millimeters actually is.

So grab yourself a ruler and have a look and you'll see it's tiny.

So I'll come back to that later on because the thing I will say for now is you don't need to be an expert.

I want to clarify this.

We're not asking anyone to be a mechanic.

You don't need to be an expert.

You just need to be able to identify when a problem may occur.

So we're not asking you to be a tire expert.

We're asking you to be able to perform a quick visual check before you, you take your car out.

So going back to that 1.6 millimeters across the central three quarters.

The central three quarters is the middle three quarters.

So if you picture your tire and you looked from the edge of the tire and kind of went 3/4 in.

So you'd have 3/4 at one side and 1/4 at the other.

Now move those 3/4 across to the middle.

That's essential.

3/4.

It's not something that's easily explainable as you've seen by me trying to explain it.

There's.

We're just looking at the center part of the tire, a big chunk of that center part.

But the other thing I want to mention here is 1.6 millimeters.

That's tiny when you think of the job your tires are doing.

They're the bit that keep your car on the road.

They're the bit when you need to break.

You're kind of relying on those tires working.

So 1.6 millimeters is tiny.

So my recommendation after speaking to, you know, people within the industry, including the Thai lady, Sophie Lydon, and I include a link for her in the show notes because she's some awesome, awesome social media stuff specifically for you guys on this.

Recommends releasing when it gets replacing when it gets below 3 millimeters, don't wait till 1.6 millimeters, replace it when it gets to 3 millimeters or below.

1.6 millimeters is the absolute lowest that tie needs to be.

So I've spoke about tires a lot there, but I wanted to just use that example specifically of how the tell me question doesn't repair.

Because if you just go off the tell me question, you can memorize, answer not really understanding what it means and work off 1.6 millimeters, which isn't very safe if we're being honest.

But I want to talk to you a little bit about the 32nd walk around check.

It's what I get all my learners doing at some point during their lessons.

And most or a lot of problems I should say can be spotted within that walk around check.

So if you imagine you pass your test on your off out to drive to work or whatever, instead of getting straight in the car, just do one full lap around the car, that's it.

And what we're looking for is the tires.

We're just looking to make sure there's no obvious damage to them.

We're not asking to do a full inspection, it's a check to make sure there's no obvious damage to the tires.

Is there any obvious damage to the bodywork?

Now as an example, I recently went out to my car and did my little walk around check and I've spotted a little bit of damage to the bodywork.

Not a massive amount, but a little bit on the passenger side.

So if I'd have got straight in, I wouldn't have seen that.

Now I've been able to communicate with the people in my car park.

I've got some CTV coming out saying who's damaged my car, that kind of stuff.

But if I'd not have checked at that time, I wouldn't have known when that occurred.

So even though it's not necessarily preventing a crash by me checking and finding that, it's helping me find out when it's occurred.

So now I can try and find out who's damaged my car and just drive it off.

And that came from doing one full lap around the car.

So other things we can be checking is things like your windows, new mirrors, any damage there.

Checking the reg players are still on because it's not a big thing, but it does happen from time to time when they might get removed.

Also now we're in the bad weather, we can be just looking for what the condition of the car is.

So we can be looking for the frost and the snow which on the windscreen or on the back windows and also on your headlights, on your tail lights.

So when you're walking around that car, your windows might be clear, but there might still be some frost on the headlights.

Give that a quick wipe before you get in.

That's essentially a walk around check.

And you can see how you could see spot quite a few problems earlier there.

So the other thing the tell me questions also talk about is under the bonnet, which is great.

And they do tell you how to check this stuff.

They do tell you how to use a dipstick and how to check your level and your coolant and stuff like that.

But it doesn't talk about your screen wash, it doesn't talk about your battery or anything like that, which again, we're not asking you to be a mechanic, it's just knowing how to top up the coolant and just any obvious checks that you can see.

But the other thing I would mention here is do you know how to find out if you're using the right oil?

Because you should be using the oil that's correct for your car.

So how would you find that out?

Well if you go somewhere like Halfords, I mean first of all you can ask someone there and they will help you identify that straight away.

But they're also, they've also got like on screen computers that you can use, they've got little books that you can scroll through to find it or often in your car manual it'll tell you.

But the other thing I would say is that if you are just going by the tell me questions at crop one year test you wouldn't necessarily know to check.

You get in the right oil, you might just go and buy any old oil but you want to make sure that you get in the right one.

Because the other thing I'll mention here is the tell me questions don't mention Google.

And to me this is really outdated because if you think about when you want to search for something you might look in Google, you might look on YouTube, you might look on TikTok or wherever.

Now I'm not saying these are necessarily the best resource available but they're definitely going to point you in the right direction and it's a search engine that you use.

So if you wanted to check what oil I've got you could type into Google what oil do I use for and then put your make and model and year of car in and you're going to get an answer.

And I think that that's something that's missed.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing that.

It's a resource that we have available.

But what else can we do to prepare you better for post test driving around this?

Well first of all ask your instructor about it.

So don't just rely on watching the videos on the show me tell me questions actually talk to your instructor about things like the tires, about how you would check your brakes are working, about not just the stuff on the tell me questions but all the lights on the dashboard.

Talk to your instructor or if you've not got an instructor, talk to your parents.

And if your parents don't know again one of the best resources out there I mentioned earlier but Sophie Lydon I will include a link in the show notes for her social media.

She covers some awesome stuff on there but I just want to finish off by saying this, that spending 15 minutes a week on your car could save yours or someone else's life.

So doing that 30 second walk around check once a week or every couple of weeks, checking under the bonnet, checking the tires properly, just doing some of these checks could be the thing that makes a difference in how fast you break or something going wrong whilst you're driving.

And if it goes wrong at the wrong time, that's where you've got a problem.

So spending 15 minutes a week on your car could save yours or someone else's life.

Now, I hope you've enjoyed this.

Look today how we can look at basic car maintenance.

Now, the test doesn't necessarily prepare you for all that and we've got one more of these coming tomorrow.

So if you can consider breaking to donate this week because that's what this is all about, you'll find a link in the show notes.

But for now, make sure you're subscribed to the Driving Test podcast because we'll be returning with a brand new format soon.

And until next time, stay safe and drive safe.