The best way to lengthen the lifespan of your vehicle and make it drivable always is to adopt maintenance discipline. Don’t leave everything to mechanics to deal with your car, instead fix simple areas that consume not much of your time. Owning a car is no longer an option but a necessity. Others it has become an extension of their house.
A vehicle can enhance your working condition especially providing you with mobility where public transport isn’t the best choice. However, to give you better service, frequent maintenance can keep the car in good condition and prevent some incident from happening. For instance if you have a problem with your windshield, know the do’s and don’ts, while for car door replacement/new one, check best garage doors in Perth for a good experience plus quality services.
It means as a car owner, you should know a thing or two about your car. This is important as stuff happen and you never know at what time you may get unexpected surprise.
Common Maintenance Tips That Lengthen your Car Lifespan
If you are new and it’s the first time to own a car, you can follow the manual and then create a schedule when to be doing it. Inspecting different parts and component of your car is the best thing you can give to your car that daily offers you service.
- Wheels & Tires: Regular checking of tire pressure is important as it determines the comfort of your car and if you are used to carrying heavy loads performing it daily is ideal. You can also be doing it on a weekly basis for a normal car especially those not going for long distance, however, if you can do it daily not only is it better but preferable. Luck is having your car installed with a tire pressure monitoring system. Alternatively, there are tools you can use to monitor the level of pressure in your tire, and in case you are not technologically savvy, just have a schedule of checking the health of your tire pressure.
- Check Drive Belt in your Car Engine: Drive belts are very important part in ensuring smooth running of your vehicle. However, the material they are made of wears quickly as it is made of a rubber while others use polymers. After some time the rubber lose integrity and it’s good to check whether it has cracks and hairline. Such are some of the instances that warrant you replacing with a new one for safe drive. There is a V-belt, serpentine belt, and timing belt. So, ensure you know where they are placed, how they function, and when it’s time to fix new ones after signs of wearing out becomes evident.
- Check your Engine Levels: Your car has a lot of many mechanical moving parts which without the oil it would cause friction and rendering the whole vehicle dysfunctional. As you carry your daily car maintenance, check oil levels. You do this by locating in your engine area where the “oil dipstick” is placed; pull it to see the oil levels through indicators shown on dipstick. The first round you can wipe with a clothing to avoid getting misled, then dip the stick again and check not only the level, but the condition of the oil. Good oil should have an amber color, but if the color is black you should change the oil as it shows presence of contaminants, chemicals and excessive heat.
- Check the Car Engine Coolant Level: Before you leave your drive at home, check whether your car radiator has enough fluid to keep the engine cool. If it is low, that means the engine will not be able to dissipate heat into the environment. So, add the fluid to the brim or accepted level and drive with confidence.
- Check Spark Plugs: For you to know the health of spark plugs, you can check the manual to tell you after how many miles you are supposed to change. However, that information sometime may be misleading as that is reflection of tests done in the laboratory. Therefore, checking their health or listening to the car can tell you about their condition. Some of the red flags are when the car does not respond to acceleration, high fuel consumption, engine surging and others. Those symptoms are enough you need to replace them.
- Check your Battery Terminals: Your car battery is important and regular check-up may prevent some unexpected future occurrences. Check your battery terminals if there is any corrosion or even mineral building up. If you find any indication of those two, rub the stuff using a brush intended for battery terminals only. Doing that lengthens your battery life and saves you from battery dying along the way when not prepared.
- Check your Windshield Wipers: Your windshield clarity is very important and regularly you should check the wipers. The wiper material wears out very fast and the replacement process is very swift its no-brainer. Once you hear grating sound or the squeak happen every time you turn it on, it tells you a replacement is needed.
- Check Fuel: Your car manual clearly shows the level you should maintain and it’s prudent to follow that. The idea most motorist have is to maintain a full tank all the time for power, which is not the case. The vehicles requiring full tank of fuel are high-powered engines to avoid detonation/knocking. Therefore, depending on your car make, follow your manual and maintain that and not what other motorists tell you.
Conclusion
Your car maintenance is not rocket science but simple process that you can learn all by yourself. You can as well follow the manual and manufacturers ensure the language used is as simple as possible for car owner to understand. Performing car maintenance helps your car to stay in good shape and helps you to save money in the process.
