<p>… check the oil in the car?</p>
<p>… add oil if needed?</p>
<p>… check the air pressure in the tires?</p>
<p>… add air to the tires if needed?</p>
<p>… change a tire?</p>
<p>Yes, this is inspired by the “life skills” thread. </p>
<p>And a follow-up question: do YOU know how to do all of the above? :D</p>
<p>not yet, but she can build Ikea furniture, so I think she will figure it out.</p>
<p>My daughter doesn’t drive, and while I don’t know how to do those things I DO know how to drive up to a car repair shop and ask them to check those thing for me :)</p>
<p>Yes and yes. I taught them.</p>
<p>Back when I taught physics, one of the homework “labs” that I did required that students change the tire on their car, then document the mechanical advantage the jack gave them. (They were allowed to work in pairs.) I was always astonished by the number of students who were allowed to drive without knowing that one key skill. </p>
<p>By the time I taught my kids how to drive, they already knew the rest, because helping me do those things was part of getting the privilege of driving.</p>
<p>I just turned 17 and I perform all of the maintanance checks on my Toyota that I’ve owned for half a year.</p>
<p>D2 does know but not D1. I guess D2 is interested in cars and stuff.</p>
<p>You asked me if I know how to handle these important life skills!? Of course! In fact, here are the essential steps I’ve learned from experience: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>If I hear a noise, see a light go on, or suddenly realize its been awhile since something was done to my car, then I evoke step two below.</p></li>
<li><p>I locate my cell phone and hit my husband’s icon and wait for step three while the phone rings. </p></li>
<li><p>When either husband or his voice mail picks up, I do step 4.</p></li>
<li><p>I speak into my phone and say I hear a noise, I see a light go on, or think it’s been awhile and we need to do something to my car. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I also have AAA roadside assistance.</p>
<p>Yes to all. My father was an automotive engineer so I can even pull and check spark plugs. I 'm in charge of the cars 
not my husband. I make sure the kids can do all kinds of checks and basics as soon as they get their license, but I’m a self sufficient kinda gal. The thing you forgot is “how to jump a car.” All my kids have had dead batteries at one time or another or two or three times. It’s surprised how many people can’t do that and pay for a tow person for a simple jump. Having jumper cables will also make them popular in high school LOL.</p>
<p>No and no. That’s what car repair shops are for.</p>
<p>They are also for removing dead mice from your car’s air conditioning ducts – something I have had to have done twice, at great expense, in the past month. Our neighborhood is overwhelmed with mice this year, and some of them seem to find Toyota ventilation systems to be the perfect nesting place.</p>
<p>I had a dead mouse in my car, and removed it myself. But it wasn’t in the ducts. And I made a panicked call to the county health department first to see if I was going to get Hanta virus. The guy said I was in no danger. (Then he said, “call us back in few days and let us know how you’re doing.” Which made me wonder how much danger I was really in.)</p>
<p>I’ve been an Auto Club member for 29 years and never had to wait more than 30 minutes.</p>
<p>Triple A, FTW! My office is in a AAA building…although they have nothing to do with roadside assistance. I’ve got run flat tires, a gajillion "warnings’ about everything that MIGHT go wrong, and one of those buttons you can push in your car too, but I only seem to push it accidentally.</p>
<p>Kids just have triple A…</p>
<p>H made sure D knew all of these things before she got her license.</p>
<p>I know them, but I refer to my cell phone & my AAA card as my tire changing kit.</p>
<p>Yes to all of the above. Plus drive a manual transmission. </p>
<p>No, I don’t. Which is why I made sure they did. Although I did learn to drive a stick after I got married.</p>
<p>Yes, I learned how in driver’s ed. But I’ve never done them since I learned, so I’d probably mess up if I tried. xD</p>
<p>Yes to all except changing a tire for me and daughter, yes to all for husband, and probably yes to all for son except maybe the tire.</p>
<p>Thanks for reminding me about the tire. In town, I would just call AAA. However, on vacation this summer we got a flat going up a steep, steep rocky mountain road to our cabin. No cell service. If it had been just me and my daughter, we would have been in trouble. Fortunately, my husband knew where to find the Toy Spare (underneath the car) and was able to put the temp tire on so he could get back down the mountain and find a tire shop.</p>
<p>I watched him, but I’m not sure I got it all. I do believe daughter and I will have him give us a lesson.</p>
<p>Knowing that these things need to be done regularly, and knowing how to do them, can save many trips to the repair shop.
By the time one is calling AAA from the side of the road, the car may be toast.
If you know how, teach your kids. Keeping your tires at the right pressure is a safety issue even if you don’t care how long they last. Since I fill up at Costco, nobody is doing these maintainence things if I don’t.
Mine know how. And when D1 got into an accident she learned how to order a fender from an online junkyard and help her dad replace it.</p>
<p>Re dead mice and hantavirus.</p>
<p>The first time we had dead mice in the car, it was during the summer, and my daughter was the principal driver of the car at that time. The smell had been there for two weeks before we decided to do something about it. When she heard what the problem was, hantavirus was her first concern. But I don’t think field mice in Maryland carry it.</p>
<p>Getting back to the subject of this thread –</p>
<p>I’m not at all sure that changing a tire yourself is a good idea. When I was in college, I got a flat tire and a friend changed the tire. I had seen people do it in garages, and they always used a power contraption to tighten the lug nuts. My friend and I just tightened them by hand, and I was afraid the tire would fall off. As soon as I could drive the car and my friend had gone on his way, I took the car to a garage and asked them to tighten the lug nuts.</p>
<p>Apparently, my concern about loose lug nuts was not entirely unwarranted. Once, after my father went to buy new tires, one of them fell off the car on the drive home. It turned out that the mechanic had been interrupted while he was working on the car, and he forgot that he had not yet tightened the lug nuts on that one tire!</p>
<p>Please, please teach them how to drive a manual transmission. Here is the reason. If your child is riding with someone who has a stick shift and that person has been drinking there is no way your child can take the keys from this person and drive. If your child has no other way home then there will be the temptation to ride along. It only takes about an hour to give them basic instructions and basic clutch skills. (I would suggest finding a very patient uncle to do the teaching)</p>