Think Twice – Car Care Practices to Avoid
Taking good care of your vehicle is highly commendable, but sometimes what you think is a good idea might turn out to be something detrimental for your car. Considering that the average price of a new car in the U.S. is over $30,000, it’s definitely going to be in your best interest to know which practices you need to toss to the side and avoid like the plague. Luckily, you’ve come to the precise place where all of this knowledge can be found, so get ready for some usable advice that you can immediately apply to your vehicle maintenance practices.
Ignoring Alerts:
When you have a light pop up on your dash, it’s important to understand that this doesn’t mean that you should maybe just check things out when you get a chance, but that you need to immediately look into what’s wrong. Continuing to drive your car after the engine light or tire light has come on is a sure-fire way of confronting major issues and a hefty bill further down the road. More to the point, you’re putting yourself and your passengers in danger when you ignore these alerts, as ignoring a problem with your vehicle could lead to a serious accident.
Neglecting Tires:
It’s kind of easy to forget about them, but tires and their related components are extremely important when it comes to keeping your car in good condition. The top things that you need to keep in mind when taking care of your tires are: tire pressure, tread condition, tire rotation, and alignments. Tire pressure is important, because both too much and too little pressure can lead to serious problems. With too much tire pressure you run the risk of your tire exploding, while too little tire pressure can obviously be indicative of a breach but can also lead to serious damage to your rims and more.
Once the tread has worn down on your tires, this is the stage at which you definitely need to purchase a new set, as worn tires are certainly going to lead to accidents. Rotating your tires and having your car inspected to see if it needs an alignment are important because these practices help lengthen the life of your tires as well as ensure you don’t end up with much larger issues down the road.
Doing It Yourself:
Unless you have some serious knowledge regarding automotive mechanics, you need to leave the major maintenance jobs to professionals. More damage is probably done to vehicles than anything else through owners trying to take on more than they should. Changing tires and dealing with your car’s fluids are certainly jobs you can tackle on your own, but replacing engine parts and various components throughout your car needs to be done by someone who has had the proper training for the task.
Cheap Isn’t Always Best:
We all like a good deal, for sure, but buying a cheap set of tires, a battery, or any other car part isn’t necessarily going to be saying much for the quality of the purchased item. Take the time to research trustworthy brands, especially those that might aim their products specifically at your brand of vehicle. You might be surprised at how affordable some of the quality brands on the market are.
Vehicle Modifications:
Just because you saw something that looked cool in a movie or at a car show doesn’t mean that it’s a smart choice for your vehicle. Modifying the internal components of your car or going through a range of body modifications can cause some serious damage. While you may have seen something that didn’t cause any damage to another vehicle, your vehicle may not have been designed to deal with the sort of modifications you want to throw at it.
In many cases, drivers end up overwhelming their engines or exhaust systems by making changes that their vehicle was never designed to deal with. Whenever you’re altering the sort of stresses your vehicle is going to encounter, you definitely need to seek out professional advice in order to determine if what you’re about to do is going to ruin your car.
Did You Change It Yet?
If you haven’t bothered to have your oil or air filters changed in some time, then it’s definitely time to do so now. Oil that isn’t changed can create a sort of sludge in your engine that will end up causing extreme costly damage, and unchanged air filters can lead to similar issues. If your car’s internal components aren’t kept clean and running smoothly, then elements that are supposed to be filtered out will instead lead to things like blockages and corrosion.