Collaborative post¦ How can you make sure that your car stays in the best possible condition? This is an important question, and one that a lot of people end up asking when they have to take it to get checked out yet again. There are times where things go wrong with the vehicle and it has nothing to do with you or the way that you care for it. Sometimes things just go wrong, and that’s a part of life that you’re going to have to deal with.
However, there are also times where damage or problems occur with your car simply because you aren’t taking care of it properly. Like everything else, if you want your vehicle to go the distance and last as long as you would like it to, then you need to treat it well, taking care of it as best you can. In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the things that you should do to ensure that your car stays in the best condition possible. Want to know more? Feel free to read on.
Stop Riding Your Clutch
We’re going to kick things off by talking about your clutch control. If you are someone who has had to replace the clutch on your car more than once, that doesn’t seem as though it’s just something that happens. It’s likely that the way you are driving is causing you to burn your clutch out, which is why you need to keep replacing it.
Riding the clutch means that you’re not using the clutch the way you are supposed to. You’re either only putting a small amount of pressure on it and not pushing it all the way to the floor, or you’re not releasing it when you should, and instead you’re holding it at biting point. This is going to cause friction between the plates which then does lead to premature wear, or burnout over time.
So, you need to adapt the way that you are driving, and start using that clutch properly. You will see a world of difference here almost immediately, and hopefully that should help with any clutch issues in the future.
Get It Serviced Every Year
Ideally, you want to be taking your car in for a service once every year. Now, it’s not a legal requirement to do this like the MOT, but it will ensure that your car is in the best possible condition and safe for you to drive. A lot of the time, a service will pick up the smaller issues that could become issues soon, and give you the option to sort them out.
We understand that a service can be expensive which is what puts people off of getting one, but your car does need it. It helps you to identify problems that you need to be aware of going forward, and allows you to see problem areas that you should keep an eye on going forward. Or, if you have the money to get it all fixed, it means that once per year your car goes back to perfect working order, with no issues to speak of, which is fantastic for you.
When There’s A Problem
When there’s a problem with your vehicle, what should you do and what should you not do? Let’s start with what you shouldn’t do, you shouldn’t leave it and hope that the problem just magically gets better by itself. You shouldn’t continue to drive your vehicle when you have doubts about how safe it is, and you shouldn’t just assume that nothing bad is going to happen to you. Doing any of these things makes you a danger on the road, and that is not something that you want to be.
So, what should you do? You should take it to a professional as soon as you know that there’s a problem so that you can get this sorted. If you don’t want to take it to just anyone, you should look for the closest place that offers maintenance for your make of car. For example, you can search something like Jaguar Land Rover maintenance near me to find a company that offers maintenance services for these specific makes of vehicle. It might be tough to find, and you might have to travel a bit, but there’s always someone around that can do what you need.
Regularly Check Oil And Water Levels
Finally, the oil and the coolant (water) levels are essential in any vehicle. If you want your car to keep running smoothly, it needs enough oil circulating through the engine to make this happen, and ensure that nothing ends up scraping against anything else. The coolant is also essential for keeping the engine cool, avoiding overheating and the engine combusting. Yes, it can happen, and yes, it has happened in the past so you must be careful.
If you don’t know how to check this at the moment, you need to learn. Locate the dipstick in your engine, as this is where you will measure how much oil you have left in the engine. There are lines that indicate where the oil needs to be, and if it’s not between those lines then you need to add more until it is. The coolant you just look at and judge, if it’s not near the top, it probably needs some more.
Hopefully, you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you should be doing to keep your car in the best condition possible. It’s up to you to do this to the best of your ability, but sometimes just knowing what you should be doing is good enough to push you in the right direction. While it might not always be the easiest thing in the world to do, and sometimes it feels as though you don’t have the time to take care of it properly, you need to make time.
Cover photo by Tom Brunberg on Unsplash