Tips That Could Help You Increase Your Car’s Lifespan

A car’s lifespan is affected by many factors. Many Colorado cars on the road today will last their owners many years or even decades with the help of frequent Greeley car maintenance, but with improper maintenance and care, those same cars could be off the road in less than five years. Maintenance and repairs can be costly, but they usually outweigh the cost of a broken-down car that won’t run.

Many car owners are unwittingly shortening their car’s lifespan with their maintenance habits, or lack thereof. Here’s how you can improve your car’s lifespan with responsible, everyday practices and habits, and how you could be shortening your car’s lifespan with detrimental habits:

Improve Your Car’s Lifespan with Car Maintenance

Regular check-ups are the key to maintaining things like oil levels and quality, transmission fluid, and brakes. Your oil will start to lose its effectiveness after a few thousand miles, so replacing it often is a part you can play to keep your car on the road.

Aside from regular maintenance check-ups, you should also consider below tips that could help you increase your car’s lifespan:

• Break in your new car and be gentle. Cars, just like shoes or baseball mitts, need to be broken in a bit before they reach their peak efficiency. If you bought a new car recently, keep the engine in the lower RPM range for the first 1,000 miles, if you can. This may sound oxymoronic, but you should also vary your speeds and gears to utilize your car’s full range of performance.
• Warm your cold engines. You probably already know that cold weather, i.e., below freezing, is not the best for your engine. Oil becomes thick and sluggish, battery charges aren’t as strong, and gasoline burns differently. Idling in your car until your cold engine light turns off isn’t the best way to warm your engine up. Idling warms your engine, but slowly, because it’s not working very hard. Instead, sit for a minute (or five if the temperature is below zero), and drive slowly for a few blocks to let your engine warm up efficiently.
• Watch your speed. Speeding may sometimes be necessary. When everyone around you is speeding, it’s actually safer to match their speed, even if it’s above the limit. However, egregiously speeding everywhere you go makes your engine work harder than normal by pumping and using that excess fuel, forcing the pistons and the many other moving parts in your car’s engine to work at faster-than-optimal speeds, which can lead to faster wear and tear on many engine components.

Mistakes that Shorten Your Car’s Lifespan

Looking at your car’s lifespan from the other direction, here are some common mistakes car-owners make that shorten the lifespan of their vehicles and send them to car mechanic experts more frequently:

• A messy interior or exterior. It’s usually what’s on the inside that counts for proper car maintenance, but excessive dirt and grime on the exterior or interior of your car can cause excessive wear and tear in your engine as all those dirt particles enter your system. You should also consider the psychological effects of keeping your car clean. If you put in the work to keep your car spiffy, you’ll be more likely to get regular tune-ups and maintenance.
• Not checking your levels. Regular maintenance is the key to avoiding most costly engine problems, but you can check your tire pressure, oil levels, and transmission fluids yourself. If you don’t have a tire gauge, you can usually find one at an air fill-up station for tires.
• Ignoring symptoms of engine damage. If you hear an unusual rattle in your engine or any other sound it’s not supposed to make, take it in for a check-up as soon as you can. Catching engine trouble early is the best way to avoid serious damage in the future, as the engine problem worsens.

It’s Up to You

Maintenance shops can help you make repairs and avoid even costlier work in the future, but there’s plenty you can do to help your car stay on the road longer.

Looking for reliable Greeley mechanics to provide the maintenance your car needs? Contact us today.