Some Basic Repair Advice For Keeping Your Vehicle Running Smoothly

As someone who has been associated with car maintenance services for essentially all his life, I feel as though there are some things that should be introduced to the public that they don’t necessarily know about as far as common knowledge goes when it comes to giving repair advice. After all, the majority of people have the basic knowledge to be able to change their oil and air up and change tires, but beyond that you really lie within an area where there is a lack of knowledge. So, let’s discuss a few topics which could help you stay out of trouble and keep your vehicle running smoothly while staying as far away from the shops that would take advantage of you as possible.

Basic maintenance is definitely going to be your best friend. This means checking your oil every 3000 miles or so, making sure that your tires are close to the appropriate pressure so you don’t lose mileage, and ensuring that all of your fluids are as high as they need to be. These may seem very basic and that everybody knows about them, but you would be surprised at the amount of people who don’t put a little bit of effort into their vehicle. Granted, it’s not expected that you spend every waking moment working on your car, because to be honest that can actually happen, but it’s more expected that you understand when your car needs a little bit of attention from you. For instance, when you show that you have low oil it’s assumed that you should replace it. However many people if they try to replace their own oil don’t replace the oil filter at the same time. This little nuance is actually a major mistake because that oil filter is pulling out all of the gunk that find its way into your oil overtime. If you don’t change it, then you make the big mistake of putting something dirty into clean oil which is essentially going to nullify everything that you just did. Oil runs through this so that it stays clean and doesn’t destroy your engine, so not replacing it is actually a major problem and can cause big issues within your engine

Tire pressure is another really basic piece that actually has an extremely large influence on how their vehicle runs. The average person may see the tire as being a couple of pounds under pressure as not a problem. True, your car is going to run close to the same and not necessarily at a noticeable difference. However over time you will notice that your fuel expenses have increased dramatically. Low tire pressure can actually be one of the biggest culprits when it comes to destroying fuel efficiency . Even a couple of pounds can shred off miles upon miles per gallon. It adds up extremely quickly considering that a tire only usually holds around 35 pounds. Losing even 3 pounds is essentially 10% of your total tire pressure, which then find its way into your fuel efficiency. Make sure that you get the best out of your vehicle possible by trying to keep it relatively close to that optimum pressure. We don’t mean that you need to have it there 100% of the time, but so long as it’s within a pound or two you should be good.

The final little basic tidbit is something that doesn’t necessarily affect your fuel mileage, nor does it have a great effect on the lifespan of your vehicle. However, should you let the fluids in your vehicle get too low, then you will start to notice a very large difference. Oil is among these, antifreeze is also among these, and windshield wiper fluid is among the. Granted windshield wiper fluid does not have a huge impact on the vehicle itself, but your driving conditions could be worse should you not have the ability to clean your windshield. Even still, the other two are much more important to the health of your vehicle and over time leaving them low can damage your engine. It’s just like having really low fuel all of the time. Your fuel pump can go out and probably will go out over time should you decide to leave your fuel really consistently.

It’s little things like this that make the biggest differences within your engine, and I really hope that this blog has helped you come to at least appreciate the complexities that come along with the vehicle. Sure, you may not need to check it but more than once a month, but even doing that can have a massive influence on how long your vehicle stays performing at optimum efficiency. With how much gas costs and all the expenses we have these days, every dollar counts and giving yourself the option to spend less by just spending a little bit more time making sure everything works right is a great deal, one that you should take advantage of every time you get a chance.