Regular Maintenance

The Secrets

As an Automotive Technician, I want to try a post some more useful tips that may help you with your car maintenance and let you know that there are no secrets to make your vehicle run for ever.

Maintenance

Maintenance is what makes the difference between that car with 100,000 giving no trouble the owner and that car with 60,000 miles in the shop every other month.
If you will just accept that you’ll put $50 a month towards the upkeep of your car you will have less problems over the long run, most people don’t want to part with the $30 dollars for an oil change when there is nothing else in my opinion that will do more to extend the life of your engine and vehicle.

So here is a quick list of things that will help you avoid costly repairs.

1. Change your oil every 3000 miles; if you’ll pay that little extra for synthetic I will say 3500 to 5000 miles. This is the most important thing you can do, it does not matter if you put 3000 miles on your vehicle in a month – change the oil, and this will also help with fuel economy.
2. Rotate your tires every other oil change and have them balanced every other rotate. You should rotate your tires 5000 miles or so and balanced every 10,000; this will help save money on tires and help with handling. An alignment every 15k to 20k also helps maintain your tires. It also important to maintain your tire pressure as this helps with tire wear and fuel economy.
3. Change your coolant every year. I like to run a flush through the system too, this helps clean out the system of built up rust. This will help keep your block, water pump, radiator, heater core – expensive repair, clean and free of leaks.
4. Brake fluid is something people do not change often enough, but it’s another flush I recommend you do every 1 to 2 years, have the brakes bled and new fluid run through. Brakes fluid absorbs moisture from condensation and will corrode the brake lines, rubber hoses, seals etc.
5. Transmission fluids do not need changed as often but follow your vehicles recommended service interval. Transmissions operate under high temperatures and the friction discs used to hold gears are made from high quality paper but they still come apart causing fluid to become gritty which isn’t too good for the parts it’s supposed to lubricate.
6. The engine air filter is an inexpensive part that anyone can easily change out every 7500 – 10,000 miles dependant on your vehicles maintenance recommendations, this will help your engine to breathe easier and also help with your fuel economy.

Driving Habits

Obviously your driving habits will factor into the vehicles wear and tear, so keep that in mind on a cold morning when you know you should let the engine warm up, I usually let mine idle for 2 minutes on a warmer day and at least 5 minutes on colder mornings just to allow the oil to get around and lube all the moving parts before putting additional stress on the engine.
I also recommend getting an inspection from a reputable dealership every 6 months as they will identify concerns before they become problems and find work that can be covered by the warranty - that means no charge to you.

to be Continued……

I will try to go into more depth in the future about particular parts and how to identify potential problems. You can also check out another post on fuel economy from a few weeks ago here.