Every repair shop and dealership will tell you, you have required automotive maintenance to do to your car. Most people question just how necessary all this maintenance is? Is it worth the money? However, it’s been proven time and time again that good automotive maintenance will prevent costly repairs in the long run.
The necessity of automotive maintenance depends on the type of car owner you are. Those people who buy brand new cars and trade them off every few years. You don’t have to worry about automotive maintenance. You won’t own the car long enough to worry about the cost of maintenance paying off. Plus, it’s unlikely your car will breakdown due to lack of maintenance. Provided you at least change the oil.
On the flip side if you buy a $2000 or less car. Don’t worry about maintenance. You’re lucky if you aren’t spending all your money just repairing your car. Automotive maintenance isn’t going to help preserve the long life of your already older used car.
For the rest of you. The people of you who buy a low mileage used car. In great condition. Who want it to last until you run the wheels fall off. You need to do automotive maintenance. This will save you lots of money over the life of your vehicle.
Oil Changes
Every car needs regular oil changes. How often depends on the type of driver you are. Many people think if you run synthetic bend oil or full synthetic oil you can prolong your oil change intervals. These oils don’t break down as fast as a conventional oil does. Thus you can run them for longer.
Manufactures mileage suggestions on oil changes are based on optimum driving conditions. This means you get in your car drive gently until it is warmed up then drive at a constant speed for 20-30 minutes. Then slow down allowing your engine to cool off before stopping and parking it.
Most people start their car drive less than 10 miles and shut it off. This is the problem. Even with better oil. When a hot surface cools down the moisture in the air condenses on it. Every time you heat your engine up and cool it off quickly you get moisture in your oil. If you don’t get your engine oil up past the boiling point of water for long enough to get rid of this water, it will build up.
This is one reason you need to change your oil every 3000-5000 miles. Another reason is, your oil does more engine cooling than your coolant. Thus when you get your engine hot in traffic, then shut it off. It can burn the oil.
Unless you drive mainly highways, and for at least a 1/2 hour each trip. It’s best not to extend your oil changes out past 5000 miles even when suggested by the manufacturers. With all the things controlled by oil pressure, and the tighter tolerances of newer motors. The money you spend money on changing your oil more often will be saved by avoiding costly repairs later. Making oil changes the best cost-effective automotive maintenance you’ll do.
Transmission Fluid
Many new car transmissions have what they call lifetime transmission fluid. The claim is that the fluid will last the life of the transmission. Meaning never needs to be changed out. This claim is 100% correct. In fact, all transmissions come with life fluid. Since the automatic transmission runs on transmission fluid. The life of the fluid means the life of the transmission.
Transmission fluid is the lifeblood of your transmission, just like engine oil is to your engine. Thus you should change your fluid on a regular basis. How often is dependent on the type of fluid it uses. A good rule is 100,000 miles. However, some fluids need to be changed every 30,000 miles. Check your owner’s manual or ask your mechanic.
Engine Coolant Flushes
Back 20 years ago coolant flushes and changes were suggested every year. This was due to the chemicals in anti-freeze breaking down over time. In recent years there have been big changes to the additives in coolant. They can now go longer without being flushed. However, you have to be careful. Even extended life coolants need changed every couple of years or 100,000 miles.
The main reason behind flushing these coolants out is that they can become acidic. Add acidic coolant to aluminum parts and you can cause major damage to engine blocks, heads, and other vital engine parts. Which means a coolant flush every couple of years as automotive maintenance is a pretty good cost-saving idea
Brake Fluid
Brake fluid is one of the most overlooked fluids when it comes to automotive maintenance. It is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture. This wouldn’t be a problem if the brake system was 100% sealed. Even a brand new master cylinder cap will leak a little air. Air and moisture can also get in when you check the fluid level by removing the cap. You will eventually get moisture in your brake fluid.
Brake Fluid Moisture Problems
Moisture in your brake fluid can rust your steel brake lines out from the inside. That’s a problem. You don’t even know your brake line is rusted and could leak any second. No one wants a brake line to break on them. Mainly because they never do it while you are driving 1 MPH and have 10 miles of road with nothing in front of you. Nope, they always do it in bad traffic when the guy in front of you slams on his brakes.
The other reason you don’t want moisture in your brake fluid is the water can boil. It’s no secret your brakes get hot when you use them. How hot? Hot enough to turn steel blue. Or warp 3/4″ thick steel, from the heat. With new brake fluid boiling at 400 degrees. While just 3.7% water in your brake fluid makes the boiling point goes down to 284 degrees. This means it doesn’t take much for old brake fluid that has moisture in it to boil. When water boils it becomes a gas.
Brake systems are designed to work on hydraulic pressure, not gas pressure. Thus your brakes stop working if the brake fluid starts boiling. Yet again this isn’t going to happen when you don’t need your brakes. This happens as you are coming down a mountain and you have been riding your brakes trying to keep your car slow.
When To Change Your Brake Fluid
When should you flush your brake fluid? There are test strips to tell you if your fluid is bad. If you or your mechanic don’t have these strips you can’t go wrong flushing your fluid every time you put on new brake pads or shoes on. However, if you live a very humid climate or the mountains, you may want to flush it more often.
Tires
Tires are one of the most ignored items on a car. A majority of people figure if they don’t look flat they must be ok. This can be the furthest thing from the truth.
You need good tires for good traction. The less tire depth you have the less traction you’ll have on anything but dry pavement. This why many times you’ll hear a mechanic tell you, “your tires will last until winter”. You’ll have traction for dry pavement but they will be dangerous in snow and on ice.
The problem is rain. Tires without tread will hydroplane on standing water. This means summer or winter you need to have tires with enough tread on them.
Car tires start with between 9/32″-12/32″ tread depth. Whereas truck tires start at 13/32″ and up tread depth. By the time the tread depth gets to 5/32″. You should start looking for new tires. By the time they get to 3/32″ left you will need to buy tires.
Tire Rotation
With the cost of tires nowadays you want to get the most mileage out of your tires. Do this by rotating them every 5000 to 6000 miles. Rotating your tires gives all four tires a chance to wear evenly. Thus you don’t get front tires that are bald while your rear tires are almost new. That is as long as your alignment is good.
Alignments
Alignments aren’t just about your car driving straight. Your alignment can be so far off that it wears your tires out in less than 50 miles. Yet still, drive straight. A car’s alignment affects tire wear and driveability. Alignments are an often overlooked automotive maintenance. Thus having your alignment checked often is a good idea. Even hitting a small pothole can throw your alignment off.
You will need an alignment when you get new tires or have any steering or suspension work done. It’s a good idea to have it checked if you see abnormal tire wear. The best policy is to have your alignment checked once a year.
Spark Plugs and Wires
Standard copper spark plugs should be changed out every 30,000 miles. Most newer cars use platinum or iridium plugs. These plugs can go 60,000 to 100,000 miles easily. However, steel plugs in aluminum heads can become seized in the head. So waiting much longer 100,000 can cause expensive problems.
When you replace spark plugs go ahead and replace the wires or boots. Coil-over plugs have a boot on them like a very short plug wire. If these boots are replaceable without replacing the whole coil do it.
Rubber wears out overage. The problem is until it causes a misfire you can’t really see the problem. Thus replacing the boots or wires prevents having to go back and replace them shortly after replacing the plugs. This saves money in the long run.
Air Filter
Your car’s engine is a big air pump you must have air getting in for it to run. The air coming in must be clean, as dirt can damage your engine. This is why we filter the air coming into the engine. You should replace the engine air filter when can’t see light through it. If you hold the filter up to a light and you can you see light through the filter it’s ok to keep using.
A very common misconception is that you can blow a dirty air filter off and it’s good as new. This is far from the truth. Yes, it will look cleaner, but it will not function right. Your air filter has very small holes in it to let the air through without letting dirt particles through. When you blow your air filter out you make those small holes bigger. This means your filter no longer filters the smaller things out of your engine. This means by trying to save $20-$50, you just put your engine at risk of damage.
Cabin Air Filter
The cabin air filter will not damage your engine if it gets dirty. If your cabin air filter gets plugged up, it can put undue stress on your blower motor. The cost of many cabin air filters are not cheap replacing your blower motor is even worse. Thus replacing your cabin air filter once a year can save you money in the long run. As a bonus, it will also keep the inside of your car cleaner. Better yet for those with allergies, it will help keep pollen and other stuff out of your car.
Conclusion
By doing automotive maintenance you can save yourself money, and make your car last longer. Maintenance is all about avoiding a lot of expensive repairs. Yes, cars break down and not all automotive maintenance will prevent parts from wearing out. However automotive maintenance will make parts last longer thus getting you more life from your car. Don’t skip your maintenance and be gentle with your car and it will treat you great for a long time.