Avoid breakdowns and keep your car running smoothly with our vehicle health check.

Your car performs at its best when it is well maintained but it can be tricky juggling your busy lifestyle with looking after your car as well. Some of the most common causes of vehicle breakdowns involve damaged tyres and dead batteries but these can be easily avoided with a regular inspection of these elements and other key components on your vehicle. If you don’t have the time or you don’t know what to look for when checking over your vehicle, we’re here to help.

To give you one less thing to worry about, pop in to your local MK2 Motors and our trained technicians will carry out a vehicle health check on your car and get you ready for the road.

What is a vehicle health check?

A vehicle health check is also known as a visual health check. It’s a visual inspection of your car which is often carried out by a garage or mechanic alongside a service or repair. Vehicle health checks are a useful extra that can be carried out alongside your service or in between services, for that extra bit of security.

After looking at your car, a mechanic will usually give you an idea about your car’s health and let you know whether they recommend any repairs or maintenance work. The mechanic will usually score each component that they check based on a traffic light system. Each part can be categorised as one of the following.

Green: Safe and doesn’t need any work.

Amber: Work is recommended but is not urgent.

Red: Unsafe and needs urgent attention.

What does a vehicle health check include?

A vehicle health check will usually include checks on the parts of your car that can be inspected visually. This includes your car’s:

Bodywork

Brakes (specifically the brake and disc pad thickness)

Electricals

Exhaust

Fluid levels

Lights

Steering

Suspension

Tyres (specifically the tyre tread thickness)

This is much less detailed than the other kinds of checkups you can get on your car. A full service is a much more thorough inspection of your car that involves more than 60 different checks. It’s recommended that you get a full service every 12 months or 12,000 miles to spot any issues that could turn into bigger problems later down the line.

Meanwhile, an interim service involves around 30 checks and takes place around six months after a full service for cars that frequently cover a lot of mileage. And an MOT is a test of your vehicle’s safety that all cars legally need to get every year.

A vehicle health check doesn’t replace any of these other checks. Instead, it’s an ad hoc service that you can get while your car is at the garage for other purposes, or if you notice something strange but you’re not sure what it is.

Why get a vehicle health check?

A vehicle health check is a good way to give your vehicle a once over to make sure that nothing obvious needs to be repaired or replaced. It will normally only take a mechanic between 15 and 30 minutes to carry out, so it’s a quick and easy way to give yourself peace of mind that your car is in good condition and has had all the work it needs.

It’s also a great chance to spot any small issues with your car that could become bigger issues if they’re left unfixed. This way, you’ll often be able to save money in the long run by nipping any problems in the bud nice and early.

When do I need to book a vehicle health check?

Vehicle health checks aren’t a legal requirement and there’s no recommended timeframe for getting one. Often, garages will carry out a vehicle health check on your car for free whenever you bring it into the garage, for instance, while it’s getting its annual service, MOT or another repair.

That said, vehicle health checks can also allow you to get your car examined if something doesn’t quite feel right but you can’t put your finger on the problem. In this case, asking a mechanic to carry out a vehicle health check could clarify whether there is indeed a problem with your car, and if so, what repairs are needed.

Some garages also offer vehicle health checks that are specific to the changing seasons. For instance, a winter vehicle health check can help you make sure that your vehicle is well-prepared for the cold weather and darker evenings, while a spring vehicle health check can highlight any issues that have been caused by those challenging winter conditions.

What impacts the cost of a car health check?

As we’ve mentioned before, vehicle health checks are often free, especially if your car is already at the garage for another service. That said, different garages operate in different ways and what you end up paying could depend on a few factors like:

The make and model of your car

Whether your car is having other work carried out

Your location

The main thing that will affect the cost of your car health check, however, is whether any repairs are needed – and, if so, which ones. Your vehicle health check could throw up some major problems with your car and, if it does, you can usually pay to get them fixed there and then.