The Girl Scouts are so much more than the great tasting cookies most of us know them for. These young ladies are inspired, hands-on and eager to use the skills they learn with their troops. Well, our Audra Fordin invited one local scout troop to sharpen their automotive knowledge in MotorWeek’s “Your Drive.”

AUDRA FORDIN: Here at MotorWeek, we like to encourage young people to become involved in their family’s automotive maintenance, repair and safety. The Girl Scouts are all about working together to make our world a better place. So, it is with great pleasure that we welcome Troop 2370, joining us to today, working on their automotive maintenance and their automotive engineering badges. And this kind of basic information can be understood by most pre-teenagers.

Girls, when you’re driving in the car and you look at the stoplight, what color are they?

GIRLS: Red…

AUDRA: And?

GIRLS:  Yellow…

AUDRA: And?

GIRLS:  Green.

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Audra: So, the stop light is red, yellow and green. Those are the same colors that are on the dashboard when you start up the car. The red lights mean stop, something needs attention. The yellow lights on the dashboard, they mean maintenance. Your car needs something but not emergency right away. And those green lights mean everything is good to…

GIRLS: Go!

AUDRA: Yes, that’s right!

When you’re opening up the hood, there are a few things that are really important for you to take a look at. We’re gonna look at motor oil, and we’re gonna look at your battery, and we’re going to look at windshield washer fluid.

When you need to fill up your washer fluid, you’re going to take a look, there’s an icon here, it looks like this, and you’re going to take some washer fluid, using a funnel, that way you don’t spill…

You could do that?

GIRLS: Yeah.

AUDRA FORDIN: Absolutely. Now, when we’re taking a look at the motor oil, the motor oil has a dipstick. We’re going to take a look on the dipstick, and I want you to see… see those two dots there?

GIRLS: Yes.

AUDRA FORDIN: Those represent the minimum and the maximum lines. So, as long as the motor oil does not go past that maximum line, everything is good. And then, if it’s in between these two lines, that means its time to add oil.

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The windshield wipers need to be working because you need to see, right?  All the decisions that are made on the road are based on you being able to see. So, it’s very important that you keep your eyes on the road. No cell phones, no distractibility…

So, with a little bit of window spray, you’re cleaning the windshield wiper directly, in case there’s dirt on it.  Sometimes you don’t really need to replace it, you just need to clean it.

Now, we’re going to finish up and talk about tires and tire pressure. If you take a look, yup,  at the shoes on your feet, you can see how your tires… how your shoes are wearing, which is the same like the alignment on your car’s tires. Make sense?

GIRLS: Yep.

AUDRA FORDIN: Great! Now, let’s take a look at tire pressure. The tire pressure, you’re going to find, is written on a sticker, on the driver side door jamb. When you check tire pressure, you’re going to use the tire pressure gauge. See that big open mouth on there?  You’re going to put that onto the mouth on the valve stem.

And we’re going to apply some pressure, and then be able to read how much pressure is actually inside of that tire. Can you see that? You think you could do that?

GIRLS: Yeah.

AUDRA FORDIN: I think you can too. Let’s give it a try. But for now, you have a great foundation to understanding automotive maintenance, repair and safety that’s needed for your family vehicle. If you have any questions or comments, reach out to us, right here at MotorWeek.