As another Johnsburg winter fades into the  the rearview mirror, it's time to think about whether your vehicle is up to date on its oil changes with summer heat approaching.

This is the last week of April; it’s fairly safe to say that this Johnsburg winter is behind us. The days of worrying that you’ll have to dig your car out of the driveway after a big snow are over. The slush and ice are not likely to appear on the roads again until next winter. But it’s not quite time to stop thinking about the maintenance your vehicle requires because of winter.

As winter rolled into Johnsburg, any smart car owner started thinking about preparing their vehicle for the season ahead. It was vital to check your anti-freeze so you know it won’t freeze when the thermometer seriously dips in the months ahead. You wanted to make sure that you had good wipers and plenty of washer solvent so you could clean the windshield while driving on winter roads.

You wanted to check the charging and starting system so you could trust your car to start on bitterly cold winter nights. You wanted to make sure the heater worked so you wouldn’t have to freeze in winter. And, of course, you also wanted to change the oil on schedule so it was prepared to lubricate and protect your engine through the cold.

Now that winter is over, you’ll want to make sure the coolant (also known as anti-freeze) will keep your car from overheating as the temperature rises. You still want good wipers and plenty of washer solvent – windshields still get dirty, and rain can be a challenge to your vision while driving.

It’s still possible that your car won’t start on a warm summer night and, rather than worrying that you’ll be cold in your car, you now have to worry you’ll get too hot. You’ll want to have your brakes, steering, suspension and alignment checked. And then there’s that oil change.

In the winter, we worry that the oil will take too long working its way through oil passages so that it can lubricate moving parts that create friction. In the summer, we worry about the ability of your oil to withstand higher temperatures.

In your owner’s manual, you’ll find a recommended schedule for properly maintaining your vehicle. It includes recommendations for how often you should change the oil.

If you follow that schedule completely, you’ll do a great job of maintaining the condition of your car. But nothing on that schedule is more vital than the schedule for changing your car’s engine oil.

Just as Johnsburg can get darn cold in the winter, it can get darn hot in the summer. Changing the oil on schedule is a fantastic way to protect your car’s engine, the mechanical reliability of your car and it’s resale value.