Car Care: 8 Essential Tips To Keep Your Vehicle in Tip-Top Shape

Having to repair a vehicle is never something that drivers enjoy. It’s potentially incredibly inconvenient, but above all, it’s often incredibly costly. Modern cars are also designed in such a way that often, repairs to components are not possible, and instead, parts need complete replacing. This cost can be significant, and not something drivers may have budgeted for.

It’s not a new concept, but it still holds true. Maintaining your vehicle is a far better option than waiting for something to break.

If you want to stay on the road and out of the mechanic’s garage, these tips can help.

Change The Air Filter

An air filter ensures that dust and particles don’t get into your vehicle’s internal components and that air from the outside passes through the filter before moving into the internal components. As it passes through the filter, it will catch the particles. However, what happens over time is that the particles build up in the filter, and it becomes less and less efficient. This means that your engine gets full of dirt, grit, and other debris that can cause clogs and blockages.

Air filters are fortunately quite inexpensive and fairly simple to change. It’s worth keeping an eye on your filter, and changing it when needed. In certain vehicles, you can simply remove the fitted filters, wash or rinse them in water, and then place them back in the vehicle. In others, new filters need fitting.

Check Tire Pressure And Tire Rotation

It’s always a good idea to keep checking your tire pressure. When filling up with petrol, check your tires at the same time. Tire pressures are normally written in a service book or on the inside of the driver’s door. Remember to change pressures if you’re carrying a full load of people or transporting heavy items in the car. Tires can wear out quickly if they are not at the correct pressure, so keeping tabs on them is crucial.

Front and back tires wear differently. Often, they also wear differently whether they are on the left or the right of the vehicle. Periodically, it is worth swapping your front and rear tires around and rotating the side of the vehicle they’re on. This will ensure that tires wear evenly over an extended period, and this can increase their lifespan too.

Check Belts

Many of the vehicle’s components run with the assistance of a belt. These belts turn at high speeds and are constantly turning while your vehicle is running. Belts consist of rubber and other compounds and they have a distinct life span.

Various factors such as temperature affect them, and over time they wear out. Replacing a belt before it breaks is always a good idea.

Monitor the belts, and if you notice cracks or imperfections starting to appear, this is a sign that the belt needs replacing. In certain cases, belts lose their tension. Here, you need to either tighten the belt or decide if it needs replacing.

Spark Plugs And Spark Plug Wires

Spark plugs and spark plug wires deteriorate over time. As this happens, it impacts their efficiency, which can impact the quality of your drive. Faulty spark plugs and wires lead to the car underperforming, and the drivability of the car reduces. Check your plugs regularly to keep your vehicle in tip-top shape.

Check Brakes

Keeping tabs on your brakes is essential, as they’re key to a safe and smooth drive. Even if you have comprehensive car insurance in place, you never want to put your safety or the safety of others at risk. Changing brake pads requires some level of expertise, so it’s best to only attempt this if you know what you’re doing. Because they’re so directly linked to safety, proper installation is vital.

Brakes wear out over time, so you need to know the signs of wear and tear. These include:

Pedal vibration when stopping
Slow response when slowing down
Screeching or grinding noises
Visible wear and tear
Sensitive response when pressed

Fuel Filters

In a similar fashion to a car’s air filters, the fuel filters can also become clogged or damaged. When this happens, it affects the fuel injectors, which reduces the performance of your car.

If things go badly wrong, the whole engine is badly affected, which results in expensive repairs. Check the fuel filters often and change them as and when needed.

Services

Perhaps one of the most important things to keep a car in tip-top shape is to service it at regular intervals. A car service will check most of the vital components of the vehicle and can identify issues or problems before they occur. If booking in your car for a longer service, or if you need a different vehicle to get around in that day, hiring the latest model luxury car has several benefits:

– Test out the comfort of the new car

– See what it feels like to drive in traffic and on the open road

– Get a feel for the new safety features in the latest model car

– Decide if it might be a vehicle you would like to purchase in the future

– The ability to test out a new vehicle at every service.

Revving, Accelerator, Brakes

A final tip that’s very useful in keeping your car in tip-top shape is to look carefully at the way you drive. Try to limit revving the vehicle, especially when starting up. When the engine is cold, revving can damage the engine. Drive your car responsibility and sensibility. Being too hard on the accelerator or being late and hard on the brake pedal is never advisable. Driving in this fashion will certainly affect the drivability of the car, and the lifespan of its components.

These 8 tips will go a long way towards keeping your car in tip-top shape. Look after your car and it will look after you. By doing this, and following the guidelines of major automobile associations, you’ll ensure that your vehicle performs at its peak for the longest possible time.

Meta Title: Top Tips To Keep Your Car In Great Condition

Meta Description: These 8 tips will ensure that your car stays in tip-top condition and performs at its best. Learn how to look after your car and extend its lifespan on the road.