Perfect Tips to Extend Your Car’s Life

1. Make No Trips        
How to prevent your car’s breakdowns? Simply make no use of it. It seems to be copybook maxims nevertheless it should be taken into account.
The odds are that lately you have fairly often chosen trips by car instead of more eco-friendly, cheaper and healthier means of travel such as hiking, riding a bike, travelling by mass transport or sharing a car.  The principle is: The fewer trips by car you make, the less it will break.

2. Reduce the Number of Small Drives
Small drives can damage a car and cause abnormal wear and break.  Why? If you make trips of small duration, like 10 minutes and less, the engine of your car simply has no time to come to the complete running temperature.   

What’s the connection? Some waste products, like water, for instance, appear as a result of combustion. Upon reaching running temperature of the engine, water steams and evaporates either through a discharge leader or through the engine breather system. If you make trips of small duration, water doesn’t have enough time to come out of motor and exhaust system, and combining with oxygen and metal, results in rust, which, in its turn, damages your car and leads to breakdowns.
 But that is not all. Negative consequences also include watering of oil and, as a result, worse lubrication of the engine. If a large number of small drives is an urgent need, then you’d better make a short drain interval, for example, every 2000-3000 miles.

3. Be Careful While Purchasing a New Vehicle
Need a new car? Want it to run successfully till the Sasha Obama administration? Then choose a world-known company, famous for supply of both cars and spare parts to them.
Unfortunately, lots of drivers scrap their old cars because they simply can’t find spare parts to them. That’s why before purchasing a new one, consult an outside specialist or search the Internet to know which companies are good at supplying spare parts. To our mind, the most trustworthy ones are Volvo, Toyota and Saab, though exceptions are always possible. These companies are famous all over the world and associated with a high reputation and reliability, that’s why it is obvious that they do their best for the customers to be sure that they will be able to get spare parts for many years.

4. Have a Smooth Ride
Being ridden smoothly, your car will surely say thank you.
Handle your car like you would like to be treated yourselves. What do you think will be better for your body: calm strolls about the park or hard and fast rugby games? That's about all.
By proposing to have a smooth ride, we mean that you’d better avoid extreme speed-ups, when your head is tossed back.  Try to foresee the need of deacceleration, so that you could prevent sudden braking. In cold weather never give gas, at first let the engine warm up.    
At a sub-zero temperature, wait a couple of minutes for free circulation of the oil and then take off. Start smoothly, let the parts be lubricated.
Lastly, in the event that you have a new vehicle, we suggest you should study the engine break-in section in your user guide. In any case, it is strongly recommended to make the oil replacement when the sensor shows that you have driven initial 1, 000 miles.



5. Observe Reading of Engine Warning Lights     
If some warning signals are illuminated or indicators diverge from certain requirements, short trips by car will most probably not cause any serious consequences, but you should watch for the following ones: the oil warning light, the engine temperature gauge and the stop lamp. Even insignificant, to your mind, time of your favorite car’s work with an overheated engine or too low oil pressure may result in a serious breakdown and a sharp fall in its price, to the one of the food products in the back seat. Several kilometers with the stop lamp illuminated and the crash with the Cadillac Escalade in front, driven by Tony Soprano, in low spirits, is guaranteed.     
Make a practice of looking at the engine warning signs. As soon as you notice that the signals are illuminated, run the car off the road and turn the engine off. To a great sorrow of your serviceman, this simple rule will help prevent costly overhauls of your car’s engine.

6. Get Rid of Overload
Most likely nobody would want to have extra pounds around the waist, and it is not even because of the aesthetics. As you know, extra weight makes additional stress to our engine, creates problems while moving, braking and even exhausting. Hope you see the point.
The same situation is also typical for cars. Overload leads to early wear and, as a result, various breakdowns. Go and throw out of the car everything unnecessary, like the bowling balls, the dumbbells or the lead-lined box of plutonium fuel rods. Do not put off till tomorrow – look over the car right now.
It is also recommended to get rid of the stuff that is not actively used, but could add resistance. Similar to overload, wind resistance creates additional load on your vehicle’s engine, that’s why you’d better take away the big bug shield above the hood, roof bars and the cargo carrier from the top of the minivan. These details do not make you looking cool, but consume extra fuel and impede the engine running.

7. Have Constant Car Maintenance
If you don’t want to hasten your car’s appearance at a dumping site, regularly visit your serviceman to have necessary maintenance operations. Scheduled oil replacement, as well as change of fuel, oil and air filters, is extremely important for a smooth long-term running of your car. Clean fuel and air, uncontaminated oil, and there won’t be any fear of an early wear or break.
Moreover, regular visits to the serviceman enable him to find and eliminate minor breakdowns before they turn into major damages.
To know how often you should make maintenance, simply look through your user guide. Most probably it is in your glove compartment, still packed, since the majority of drivers don’t even open it. At the end there is your car’s maintenance schedule and services advised to be done within each interval. In case the user guide’s schedule stops at 120, 000 miles and you have a car with the mileage of 127,500 miles, simply start from the beginning and do the services you are recommended for 7,500 ones.
Should you be worried about extra expenses on your car’s regular maintenance, simply keep in mind that a miser pays twice.     




8. Make Replacement of Oil and Other Important Liquids
As a rule, constant car maintenance supposes checking of your car’s liquids and, if needed, their replacement. But since it’s a serious aspect, we’ve decided to devote a separate section to it. So, you should know that even if the car is not used, its liquids degrade in any way.
Since all the liquids are necessary for your car’s smooth running, this matter should be treated seriously, and a simple top off is not a way out. With time the liquids lose the ability to cool and lubricate, to protect from freezing and rust.
What liquids do we mean? Oil, antifreeze, hydraulic-brake, power-steering, transmission and differential ones are really important. Washer liquid is not so vital.
Replacement of transmission and differential liquids is sometimes forgotten or at all ignored. But since they are vital, it is strongly recommended to make their replacement every 60,000 miles, even if your user guide does not give such an instruction. Fresh transmission liquid will keep the drivetrain cool and clean. Since there are some cars with two separate differentials, speak with your serviceman on this to be sure that both sets of differential oil are replaced. Negligence in this matter can result in loss of thousands of dollars spent on the repair of an overheated differential. You can’t but agree that constant maintenance of your car will cost you less: just $150 for wash and change of transmission liquid and $ 100 for both differentials.
Speaking of oil replacement, we should mention that in case your serviceman offers you to purchase new blinker liquid, you’d better do a bunk as soon as possible.         

9. Eliminate Minor Breakdowns In Time
Even a child knows that a cold must be treated from the beginning, before it turns to pneumonia. Follow the same principle in relation to your car. Should there be even a minor breakdown, eliminate it as fast as you can.
Even such a simple failure as a torn CV boot should be treated carefully, checked and fixed, because there’s a high risk that one day you will simply not be able to continue the ride and have to run a car off the road and stump up for a tow and a new axle.
Actually, this is just one of many examples. In fact, any breakdown of the car, even the most insignificant to your mind, should be considered seriously, since eventually it will lead to major damages and require significant investments. Even the secretary of the Treasury Department will confirm this.

And, in general, before getting behind the wheel, make sure of the safety of your car. Should there be any hesitations on the braking system, tie rods, safety belts and bags or the work of the car as a whole, do not risk. No matter how hard you would like to extend your car’s life, it’s obvious that you yourselves want to live longer.

10. Look For a Reliable Serviceman
First of all, search for a qualified specialist, you like intuitively and think you could rely on.  Consider the process of servicing your car as the cooperation between partners, i.e. you and your serviceman. Or even between two banks, the one you have an account at and the one your serviceman gives money back under the credit for his yacht. You pay money and in return get a car which works properly.
If you maintain good relations with your serviceman, no hesitations about whether you are cheated or not will arise. Since trust is an important component, we’ve prepared some recommendations on how to get on well with your mechanic .
Don’t know how to find a serviceman you can rely on? Study reviews about the man, who you think is a technically competent person. Speak with his regular customers or make use of our list of professional and qualified servicemen, the Mechanics Files  .



11. Tell Your Serviceman About Your Ideas and Wishes
Not all drivers would like their vehicles to run 200 000 miles. In this case mechanics don’t consider such people as potentially regular customers and are not so much eager to think about their cars’ long-term maintenance.
But if you let your serviceman know that you are extremely worried about your car’s smooth running and would like to extend its life and that’s why you are going to use his services for a long time, he will surely devote much more time to your car.
Don’t forget to remind your serviceman that you want your car to last long. Ask him to be extremely attentive while checking your car and pay attention to all the breakdowns, even the minor ones.  

12. If Your Car Suffers From Salt, Have Frequent Washes
If snow is a typical thing in winter for the place you live at, then your car most probably suffers from road salt.
What is the way out? There are not many options. Simply try to be patient and in snowy winter wash your car’s suspension system as frequently as you can. Doing this, you will take away a great part of the salt and significantly reduce its severe damage to your car’s body and its other components.

13. Say No To Heated Garages
Vehicle sheds and garages are really worthy places. They help save us time every morning on scraping the ice and snow off.
Thanks to them you can forget about that daily hassle and significantly reduce harmful influence of the sun and storm on your car’s interior and exterior and as a result decelerate the steady deterioration.   
But avoid heated garages, unless you would like to shorten your car’s life. Oxidation, or in other words corrosion, is speeded by heat. In winter, when you come from a sub-zero temperature to the heated garage, snow and ice on your car melt, mix with salt making a wonderful blend which is slowly killing your car.  

14. Take Pride!
Even if you are the owner of an older car, take pride of it. There is nothing to be shame of. Quite the opposite, it means you are not chasing after a fashion, but able to keep your car working properly. This simple sense could be rather attractive for the opposite sex and maybe even will lead to a date. Moreover, nobody wants his partner giving a stare at the latest model all the time.
Besides, possessing an older car also has its benefits, such as absence of worries about scuffing, ridging or bird droppings.
Nobody cares about your neighbors’ thoughts. That’s why give them a broad, complacent smile the next time they glance at your old crate dragging along the road.