Somewhere along the line every car owner is guilty for mistreating their vehicle, and a lot of the times the driver is not fully aware that what they are doing is actually harming their vehicle. This guide is going to show you what you have been doing wrong and how you can prolong the life of your vehicle.
Due to the fact that everyone is always in a rush, the hustle and bustle of traffic and deadlines, we tend to neglect our cars, and forget about the little things. If we just take a few minutes and give our cars that extra bit of care, it could make a massive difference.
One of the most common mistakes that car owners make, is driving off straight after starting the engine. This is an easy mistake to make, but a costly one for the engine. Once you have started your car, give it a few seconds, depending on the weather and allow for the engine to warm up properly and to let the oil flow. So give yourself enough time in the mornings that your engine can warm up, just like humans are slow and sluggish when we wake up, so is your vehicle. Nobody wakes up and immediately starts running around.
Once you have started your car and driven off, don’t be quick to rev your engine or accelerate. It’s not good to push a cold engine, rather ease slowly into it.
It’s important that you conduct a regular inspection of your vehicle to prevent being pulled over for something that you are unaware of. Walk around your vehicle and check your tyres as well as the tread of the tyres and make sure that all your lights are working. When checking your tyre pressure, be sure not to over or under inflate, make sure that you pump your tyres to the recommended pressure suggested by the manufacturer.
This might sound strange, but check your spare tyre, firstly to see whether you have a spare tyre or not, and secondly to see whether it is flat or operational. The last thing you need is a flat spare tyre when stuck on the side of the road.
When stopping to fuel up, try get in the habit of checking your oil and water, you might have an engine problem that you are unaware of and could be putting unnecessary strain on your vehicle.
Make sure you know the contents of your vehicle’s owner manual, you should know where everything is and how everything works.
The warning lights that appear on your vehicle’s dashboard are there for a reason, it’s the vehicle’s way of communicating with you, so be sure to listen to the warnings. Don’t prolong a service or a scheduled maintenance as these warnings are vital to the functionality of your car. If your vehicle is high-tech, then avoid servicing the car on your own, rather take it to a qualified dealer which will have the proper equipment.
If you can take that extra bit of time to look after your car then your car will be able to do a better job at looking after you.
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