Once you have your own car for a while, some maintenance tasks just become second nature. It’s easy to remember to change your oil because it’s usually written right on your windshield. However, there is some car maintenance that often gets overlooked. These things aren’t any less important; they just haven’t been drilled into us as much over time. Here are some of the most neglected car maintenance tasks you should watch out for.

Fluid Flushing

Your oil isn’t the only thing you need changed or inspected on your car when it comes to fluids. There are a number of other fluids you don’t want to forget about when it comes time for maintenance, such as:

• Brake fluid
• Power steering fluid
• Transmission fluid
• Coolant
• Windshield wiper fluid

All of these play crucial roles in your car’s function, so don’t neglect them. Get them regularly checked along with your oil.

Brake Maintenance

Brakes are integral to our cars, yet checking and replacing them are two of the most neglected car maintenance tasks. Your car can’t function without brakes, and it will let you know when there’s a problem with them. The moment you start hearing strange noises from your brakes, take your car to a mechanic right away and have them looked at. You don’t want a brake surprise to happen while you’re on the highway.

Check Engine Light Maintenance

Those lights on the dashboard can be annoying, but they do let you know very clearly when your car needs a tune-up or something fixed. The check engine light, in particular, can mean a multitude of different problems, and it’s hard to decipher what it means unless you’re an expert. Don’t ignore these lights; they exist for a reason, so get your car serviced when they pop up.

Battery Terminal Maintenance

Most drivers would prefer not to think about their car’s battery, but it can have problems of its own. One of the more uncommon yet very serious problems it could have is corroded terminals. If you look at all the connection points into your battery and see anything that looks like rust or white cauliflower sprouting, you need new battery terminals as soon as possible.

Tire Checks

We put a lot of pressure on our tires, but we don’t always take care of them in turn. It’s easy to think they’re doing their job just fine, but there could be more problems there than you realize. You need to monitor both tire inflation and the depth of the tires’ treads in order to make sure they’re working efficiently. Your tires are how your car meets the road, so it pays off to perform regular maintenance on them.