1. Drive less. Especially, avoid short trips. Cold starts are hard on engines, your gas mileage, and the environment. Short trips can also significantly shorten the life of your muffler. Basically, you get condensation in the exhaust when you start a cold engine, and if you don’t run the car for long enough to evaporate all of the condensation out of the system, excessive amounts of water can accumulate in your muffler, and rust a hole through it. Avoid starting a cold car just to pull it into the garage, for instance. Consider walking to the nearest store for a change. Combine short errands, and, if you have multiple vehicles, drive the one more recently driven when you go out again. Do drive a car at least every week or so, since cars that sit for longer than a week or two at a time have other problems, such as fluids gradually draining out of systems. Consult a mechanic if you will store a car for an extended period.
2. Check the fluids: You should check the level of your antifreeze, oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and brake fluid, very regularly, like every time you buy gas. Even if your car doesn’t leak fluids, it can develop a leak and quickly have a dangerously low level of something. You should also check the color of some of these fluids. Some of these have see-through plastic tanks that you can look through, and some have dipsticks. Antifreeze should be either pink, green, or yellow (Pink for newer cars with “Dex-Cool”, green for old cars with plain Ethyl-Glycol, and green or yellow for cars that have been flushed and filled with universal antifreezes…brown antifreeze should always be flushed, it either has rust or a lot of dirt in it, probably both. Also, never mix antifreezes; if you don’t know what color antifreeze your car has, buy a universal brand. Oil should be relatively clear, not black - black oil has been left in the engine for too long. Oil that looks white and milkshake-like has water in it, probably from an internal antifreeze leak, or very rarely, just a large amount of condensation. Transmission fluid should be bright red, and should not smell burnt…it probably needs to be changed if it’s brown or smells burnt.
3. Change the oil regularly: This will improve your gas mileage and protect your engine. The recommended mileage between oil changes is 3,000 - 5,000 miles (or 5000 - 8000 kilometres) or every 3 to 6 months. Change the oil filter as well - there is no sense in putting clean oil through a dirty filter, and filters are very cheap and available at any parts store. Please check your service manual, or contact your dealer for your car’s specific needs.
4. Change the air filter: This is something you can do easily at home without using tools, and should be done approximately every 50-80 thousand miles. You can buy a matching filter at nearly any auto parts store and your owner’s manual will show you where your air filter is located. A dirty, dusty filter can lower gas mileage.
5. Flush the fluids every two years: power steering fluid, and brake fluid, cooling system. Check this timetable against your owner’s manual. Newer cars generally allow longer intervals between changes.
6. Monitor your brake pad thickness and don’t let the pads wear down to metal - this will cause damage to your brake rotors (”discs”) at least and possibly your calipers as well. Rotors and calipers are much more expensive to replace than pads. There is no such thing as “cleaning” a brake pad while it is still on a car - the friction between the pad and rotor will eradicate any outside substance almost immediately.
7. Rotate the tires. Changing tire position reduces uneven wear and tear on the tread, thus extending the life of the tires. The recommended rotation cycle is twice a year or every 6,000 miles. Rotate them diagonally - front right to rear left and front left to rear right. However, this pattern can change depending on the drivetrain of the vehicle, and the type of tire. Your vehicle manual will contain detailed rotation information. Keep in mind some tires (especially on sports cars) are directional and are meant to spin only one way. They will have a large arrow on the sidewall to indicate this.
8. Keep the tires inflated. Under-inflated tires can reduce the tire life by 15% and will slightly decrease your gas mileage, perhaps by 10%. Inflating tires is perhaps the easiest of all activities, and many stores sell tire gauges for a very small cost. Checking your tire pressure every other time you get gas will reduce tire wear and prevent these issues. Monitor your tire tread with a penny. Insert the penny into the tread with Lincoln’s head down. If the top of his head is not obscured by the tread, your tires need to be replaced. Basically, if you can see all of Lincoln’s head, you must replace your tires.
9. Keep the front end aligned. If you notice your car shaking while driving at high speeds (not while braking - shuddering while braking indicates warped rotors), or if your tread is wearing unevenly, then you may need an alignment. This is also key to extending the life of your tires and will keep the tread even for increased safety.
10. Get your car off to a good start every time you drive it. Start the car and drive off slowly and gently until the car reaches operating temperature. This reduces the strain on the engine while the oil is still cold and thicker. Another option is to use electric engine space heaters, and start the drive with a warm engine. Accelerate promptly to the target speed. For most modern cars, idling a cold engine is both counterproductive and wasteful. Additionally, as you accelerate, release the gas a bit to cause the automatic transmission to upshift while you are not pressing hard on the gas. This causes less wear on the internal clutches. It is easier on the clutches for the car to shift when you ease up on the gas.
11. Use your parking brake. Even if you are driving a car with an automatic transmission, use your parking brake regularly, especially if you’re parked on an incline. It helps keep the brakes adjusted in the rear of the car and makes them last longer.
12. Wash your car: Road salt, sludge and pollution can lead to costly body work. Without regular cleaning, you can start to notice rust on the bottom of your doors within four years. Another three to four years and the corrosion will creep to underbody components, like brake lines. It can cost thousands in rust-related repairs if you neglect to wash your car, especially near ocean/gulf shorelines where the road sand or morning dew might be salty.

Tips

• The best thing that you can do to extend the life of your car and potentially save yourself a bundle of money is to have your car serviced on a routine basis. All car manufacturers have a schedule of recommended service for each vehicle they sell. Follow this schedule. The best place to have work done on a new vehicle that is still under warranty is the dealership. On cars without a warranty, it is best to find a reputable independent shop and have it serviced regularly there.
• Check your local auto parts dealer for manuals specific to your car for complete instructions on how to perform basic maintenance on your vehicle. Often, you will save a bundle of cash doing simple tune-up work on your own. Schucks and Autozone are great stores that have these manuals.
• Consult your mechanic or your owner’s manual. Depending on the manufacturer, there are different procedures to take for each vehicle.
• If your user manual says it’s best to let the car warm up a little first before forcing it to apply power to the wheels, it’s best to follow it and do so; for as written several times before, the people who made it know best.
• Manual transmission cars or cars with turbo/superchargers will require different maintenance schedules, depending on the climate, road conditions. Always consult your owner’s manual or ask a local dealership service department.
• Synthetic oils may be initially more expensive, but provide better protection than regular motor oil. On your switch to synthetic, change the filter, drain all old oil, and add new synthetic. Then each 3000 miles, change the filter, but DO NOT drain the oil every time. Instead, add enough oil to replace what was lost in the filter change only (usually less than one quart). After 15,000 miles, change out all of the oil completely. This is safe for cars, especially newer ones. The synthetic oils are detergent oils, meaning they suspend dirt and carry it to the filter. Non-detergent oils wash oil around, leaving deposits of sludge elsewhere. Also, synthetic oil doesn’t breakdown as naturally derived oil does, as heat doesn’t affect it the same way. Synthetic is most recommended for cars that have had oil changes performed regularly since purchase, and for engines with less than 60,000 miles, as wear will be less. Remember, synthetics are designed to reduce wear, but they will not undo wear.

Warnings

• Check Warranty: Check the terms and conditions before repairing your vehicle on your own while if it is still under warranty. Unless you are a certified mechanic, this may invalidate your warranty.
• Beware First-time Repairs: Do not attempt to complete repairs on your vehicle without supervision if you have never attempted a repair before. Today’s cars are complex jigsaw-puzzles and might require removing several components to reach one particular screw. Get help at first.
• Avoid pot-holes: which can knock air out of tires or dislodge weights to throw tires out of balance.
• Avoid Fuel-additives: Do not use a “fuel additive” in an older engine without expert help: fuel additives can loosen a chunk of sludge that jams engine components, potentially throwing a rod and causing $$ thousands to fix an old engine.

from wiki-how.

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Last Modified : January 5th, 2008 Filed under : How To Navigate : Previous post / Next post