Maintaining your car

Expert advice: essential spring car care

person fixing back right tyre of Jeep outside on grass

With wild weather and unpredictable temperatures, spring car care can be tricky. There’s a lot to think about.

Thankfully, we’ve got some expert advice to help you out.

Here, our Technical Customer Support Manager, Scott Wilson, explains how best to look after your motor over the next few months.

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How to jump start a dead battery

Jump start

Flat batteries are the most common cause of breakdowns. Jump starting is the easiest technique to start a car with a dead battery. This is where you use the power of another car to charge a second vehicle’s dead battery.

Always check your car’s handbook before doing this: some manufacturers recommend their cars aren’t jump started because it can damage the engine management system.

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Supporting our customers with EV qualified technicians

EV technician next to a Green Flag van buzz-ing to see a customer, both waving at each other.

The electric vehicle market is growing. Quickly. And with government plans to phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, the charge of the EV is showing no signs of slowing down.

EVs are exciting, but from a breakdown recovery perspective (one of our favourite perspectives), they are one of the biggest challenges in our industry right now.

Luckily, we like a challenge. That’s why we’re proud to announce that at the end of 2022, more of our technicians became Institute of the Motor Industry Level 3 and 4 qualified to work on EVs.

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Expert advice: all about pothole damage to your car

pothole damage
Drive though this and you could inflict all sorts of damage on tyre, wheel or suspension (Picture iStock/Marc Bruxelles)

Now’s the time of year when the number of potholes on our roads starts to increase. Winter weather with its extreme temperature variations along with heavy rain and sometimes snow results in more damage to road surfaces. And more holes mean the greater chance that you’ll drive through one and suffer pothole damage to your car in one way or another.

So I thought it would be the perfect time of year to look at pothole damage and what we as drivers can do to spot and limit the effects of it.

Tyre damage is easy to see

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Christmas sales: only get what your car really needs

Christmas and January deals can be hard to resist. It’s on offer, so we need to get it… right?

Not quite.

This year, you could take advantage of the right deals and give your vehicle some TLC. Depending on what you buy, you could save money now and in the long run!

Here are some things that’ll help keep vehicles healthy and drivers happy.

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Pre-drive checks to help avoid a car breakdown.

Nobody wants to deal with a breakdown. In fact, that may be the only thing every driver has in common.

It can be a significant inconvenience, cost you money, and it could even pose a danger to yourself, passengers, and others around you.

But, it’s not all doom and gloom. We have good news. There are some simple pre-drive checks you can do that will (hopefully) lower your chances of breaking down.

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Expert advice: why are repair costs going up and what to do about it

repair costs going up
Some drivers are cutting back on essential servicing to save money (Picture iStock/Gilaxia)

If you’ve taken your car in for mending or a service recently, you might have noticed that like most things in life, we’re seeing repair costs going up. That’s because four out of five garages (79 per cent) say they’re experiencing increases in the cost of doing business.

A survey conducted by dispute resolution body The Motor Ombudsman (TMO) asked independent garages and dealer workshops what their biggest challenges were. Their answers make illuminating (and slightly depressing) reading for us as drivers.

Why are costs for garages going up?

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Electric car MOT passes are higher than petrols or diesels

electric car mot passes
Electric cars are proving better at passing the MOT than petrols (Picture iStock/SimonSkafar)

Struggling to see the benefit of switching to an electric vehicle? Look no further. Electric car MOT passes are higher than regular combustion engine models according to a new study.

And hybrid cars – which combine petrol engines with electric motors – are even better at passing their MOT test than EVs. We try to explain this unexpected bonus to battery-powered motoring.

What does the MOT check?

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Summer motoring hacks to help your car hang onto its value

summer motoring hacks
Bird poo is acidic and bad for paintwork (Picture iStock/Gorica Poturak)

Many of us think of winter as being the most testing season for cars. But actually summer throws up just as many challenges. Here we look at some of the main ones and offer some handy summer motoring hacks that will help you to preserve your car’s value and ensure safe, comfortable and trouble-free motoring.

How to clean bird poo off

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