August
10
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Any Driver Can Keep Their Car Younger For Longer
There is no shortage of good reasons to be concerned with the longevity of your car. The better you take care of it, the more money you save in repair costs. The healthier It ages, the more of its value it retains. Most importantly, the better you fight the risks, the lower the chances that your car gets you into an accident. For those reasons, we’re going to look at some of the ways that just about anyone can get a little more mileage out of their auto.
Make the necessary changes
The parts of your car, just like everything else, suffer the ravages of time. Though you can take good care to preserve it as much as possible, there are parts that are going to need to be replaced on a regular, or semi-regular basis. This includes the spark plugs, fuel filter, air filter, the oil, fluids, and more. It can be a lot to keep on top of, but a car replacement calendar can help you keep on top of it. What’s more, you can save costs at the garage by making a few of the changes yourself. It’s not too difficult, at all, to change the brake pads, spark plugs, or air filter.
Check those tires
The tires are a far more crucial part of the car than most people tend to give them credit for. Not only are they essential for maintaining traction and help you keep control on the road. If you let them degrade, it can have consequences for your suspension and steering systems, stressing them out and forcing you to pay for expensive repairs on those, too. As soon as you notice any issues like veering from the road or a bumpier ride, have your wheels checked and see if you need a complete tire installation. Don’t forget to check your tire pressure on a regular basis, too. You should especially check it if you’re about to head out for a long-haul trip, such as a road trip.
Drive smoothly
We all like to hear the roar of the engine as we accelerate suddenly from time to time. However, you shouldn’t make a habit out of it. For one, accelerating suddenly and breaking abruptly risk your safety on the road by making it harder from other drivers to react you. It also consumes a lot more fuel if you do it on a regular basis. This bad habit is also bad for the car’s health, however. Sudden acceleration stresses out the drivetrain components, while hard braking is harder on the brake pads and rotors, as you might imagine. You will be replacing those pads a lot more often if you don’t make an effort to resist the urge to drive with a dramatic flair.
Pay heed to those icons
There are so many dashboard icons that it’s easy to assume that one or two flashing is no big deal, and you can simply handle it later. However, those icons can very often be the first signs of trouble that can lead to breakdowns or extensive and expensive damage to repair. You should learn what your dashboard icons mean. They can signal a whole range of issues from your engine overheating to oil pressure problems to a low battery. As soon as you see a warning light, you should ensure you know what it means, and have it fixed as soon as possible. They are all put there for a reason, after all. Yellow signs, in particular, indicate issues that can make your car much less safe to drive, such as tire pressure issues and engine warnings.
Avoid that excess weight
Do you tend to have something of a hoarding problem in your backseat? Or perhaps you like taking road trips and bringing everything including the kitchen sink with you. You might already be aware that a heavy load on the car can negatively impact the performance and consume more fuel per journey, but did you know that it can also cause it some damage? It puts more strain on parts that are liable to wear-and-tear such as the tires, brake pads, and suspension, meaning that you’re likely to have to replace them sooner than you otherwise would. Unless it’s essential, avoid driving with anything besides the car emergency kit in the trunk.
Keep it clean
You want your car to both look and smell as fresh as possible, from the inside and the outside. However, it’s easy to let a busy lifestyle get in the way and to neglect washing it as often as you should. Any mechanic will tell you, however, that a clean car is a healthy car and letting dirt and moisture accumulate can lead to severe rust issues that can force you not only to replace parts of the chassis but can go on to do severe damage to the components underneath, including the suspension. It’s especially important to wash the car during the winter, when the salt on the road can accelerate the growth of corrosion dramatically.
Get it serviced regularly
Your routine service will carry out a lot of the checks mentioned above (though that doesn’t mean you should skip them.) What’s more, it will help you follow the manufacturer’s specific instructions regarding checks and maintenance. Not only will this help you keep much safer on the road, but it’s one of the greatest contributions you can make to ensuring the vehicle’s value stays as high as possible. Besides getting it serviced as often as the logbook suggests, keep an eye out for other warning signs. New noises from the car, a difference in the feeling of the drive, and leaks from underneath can all indicate issues that, left untreated, can be highly dangerous.
As you have hopefully noticed, you don’t have to be a mechanic to make any of the points above into a regular habit. Save yourself the costs, hassle, and danger of driving a vehicle that’s prematurely aging and start being responsible for your car.