Every car owner needs to carry out regular fluid checks, and anything that makes that easier (and stops you putting it off) is a good thing.
So knowing that the fluids you need are just five yards away in the garage and not five miles away at the car accessory store can make a big difference.
With that in mind, here’s our list of the fluids you should keep in your garage… and a couple you shouldn’t.
01 Engine oil
Your engine oil level should be part of your regular checks, especially if you have an older vehicle that’s started using a little more oil than it used to.
This weekend chore is a lot less annoying if you know you’ve got a carton of fresh oil in the garage ready to top it up with.
Check what oil your car maker recommends and get some in for when you need it. That’s a lot less bothersome than having to do a last-gasp dash to the 24hr petrol station to buy the wrong oil at a hyper-inflated price and having to glug it into the filler by the light of your smartphone.
02 Anti-freeze
The cooling system on a new car might not leak a single drop between services, but on older vehicles the hoses loosen and perish, the radiator corrodes and fluid levels can fluctuate.
Once upon a time you might have got away with plain tap water or distilled water when topping up, but this dilutes the anti-freeze mixture, and most makers now recommend leaving this in all year round because it also contains corrosion inhibitors.
So get some anti-freeze for the garage, and do read the instructions – some is ready-mixed and can be poured straight in, some needs to be diluted with water in fixed proportions.
03 Screen wash
You can use regular tap water in your screen wash reservoir but it doesn’t clear screens as effectively as proper screen wash fluid, which contains detergents to help wet the screen and dislodge grime.
Some, we’re told, have an anti-freeze action so that they’ll still clear the screen even when the temperature is below zero.
Don’t use washing up liquid because it creates a lot of foam, it’s difficult to estimate concentrations accurately and it’s bad for rubber parts and paintwork.
04 Glass cleaner
So you follow a bend in the road, and suddenly you’re driving into a low sun and your crystal-clear windscreen suddenly becomes practically opaque. Does that sound familiar?
The outside of the windscreen may be clean, but over weeks and months of use the inner surface accumulates a thin, hard layer of grime that you don’t notice in regular driving.
So when you clean the outside of our car, clean the insides of the windows too. And use a proper glass cleaner, not a regular household detergent.
You need a cleaner which can cut through this tough grime but without leaving smears.
05 De-icer
We all have a morning routine, right? We’ve been doing it so long we know exactly how long every task takes, so if something happens to upset the routine it’s a disaster.
Like when you know you’ve got six minutes to get the kids to school and you realise the temperature fell overnight and your car has a coating of ice.
You could start the motor, wait five minutes for the ice to soften enough for you to scrape it off and then be late for school, for work and the whole of the rest of the day, or you can get that can of de-icer you bought to keep in the garage and be on your way in just a minute or so.