In Focus

On one warm February day (which is still odd to say—but I like it) I decided to do a little maintenance on the car. 

I topped off the fluids and checked the oil; it was a little low. I could not locate a funnel, so I decided that I could freehand it. I’ve done it before with no issues— but that day was not my day—I spilled some. 

My positive battery terminal was extremely corroded. I grabbed an old toothbrush, baking soda, and vinegar to clean it up. I didn’t realize until I was done that I had scrubbed on the terminal for an hour. I removed about 98 percent of the gunk. I took the dirty rag I used when checking the oil and wiped off as much of the baking soda as possible. Then I did something I was not sure if it was wise or not. I took a squirt bottle of water and used it to rinse off the battery and surrounding area, and wiped down everything I could. I left the hood up to let it all dry out. 

The last time I used my windshield wipers, the one popped off the arm as I was driving and proceeded to scrape across the windshield. I replaced the windshield wiper with a different brand, hoping I wouldn’t have any problems with it. 

There was a streak on my windshield and I was hoping it was just some removable gunk. I cleaned the area and tried to scrape it off. While I was able to remove some of it, there was an arch-shaped scratch in the windshield on the driver’s side. Oh great, I thought to myself. Now I have to take it in to get checked out and see if it’s fixable. 

I was satisfied with my maintenance project, and headed off to a friend’s place. It didn’t take long for the smell to hit me—the gagging smell of burning oil. When I reached my friend’s house and turned off the car, it was slightly smoking. I knew it was from the oil I had spilled, and I knew I couldn’t do anything about it. I just popped the hood while the smoke cleared out. Ugh.

This ended up being a crash course in “How to not do car maintenance 101.”