A little extra TLC will keep your ride in its prime.
With winter right around the corner, your car, truck, minivan, SUV, or crossover is going to need a little extra TLC. So, we’ve put together our best expert auto care advice to keep your ride in its prime.
1. Drive with care everyday
Being kind to your car shouldn’t end after the honeymoon phase. Drive with care every day and your car will reward you with fewer trips to the mechanic.
Do not race your car’s engine during start-up. This is a quick way to add years of wear to your engine, especially if it’s cold outside.
Accelerate slowly when you begin your drive. The most wear to the engine and drive train occurs in the first ten to twenty minutes of operation.
Warming the engine by letting it idle in the driveway is not a smart idea. The engine doesn’t operate at its peak temperature, resulting in incomplete fuel combustion, soot deposits on cylinder walls, oil contamination, and ultimately damaged components.
Put less strain on your engine and automatic transmission by shifting to neutral at red lights. Otherwise, the engine is still working to push the car even while it’s stopped.
When turning your steering wheel, don’t hold it in an extreme right or left position for more than a few seconds. Doing so can damage the power-steering pump.
2. Know what goes into your gas tank
Ask whether the gas you buy is filtered at the pump and if the station has a policy about changing the pump filters regularly. Some stations don’t have pump filters, making you more vulnerable to dirty gasoline. Other stations may not mix alcohol and fuel properly — or worse, water down their product. Find a station you trust and stick to it!
If you happen to see a gasoline tanker filling the tanks at your local gas station, come back another day or go to a different station. As the station’s underground tanks are being filled, the turbulence can stir up sediment. Sediment in your gas can clog fuel filters and fuel injectors, causing poor performance and possibly necessitating repairs.
3. Lighten up your key chain
Does your car key share a ring with a key that has a key attatched to another key with five more keys that you’re not even really sure what they’re for? Well, that’s a pretty heavy load hanging off the car key when it’s in the ignition. The weight, combined with bouncing while you drive, can wear out the tumblers inside the ignition and eventually lead to ignition switch failure. To get better longevity out of your ignition switch, purchase a lightweight key chain that allows you to separate your ignition key from the others or better yet, drive with only the car key in your ignition. If your key “sticks” when you try to turn on the car, it’s a warning that your ignition switch is about to fail. Replace it before you get stranded.
4. Let floor mats take winter’s beating
Use floor mats to protect your carpeting. The best type of mat to help control salt, slush, and mud in the winter is a rubber “wafflestyle” mat. They stay in place, don’t allow the water to seep through, and are easy to wash clean. Carpet-style mats are helpful, too. Shake, vacuum, or wash as needed; replace them as they wear through.
When washing your car, drag out the rubber or carpet floor mats and blast them with the hose. This will dislodge dirt particles that, if allowed to build up, will grind holes in your mats. Let the mats dry thoroughly in the sun before reinstalling them.
After vacuuming floor mats or interior carpeting, apply foam rug cleaner to tough stains as directed by the maker. Work the foam into a few square feet at a time, using a wet sponge or brush. Vacuum when dry.
5. Preserve door and window seals
Wipe a rubber protectant (such as Armor-All) or silicone on door and window weather-stripping to keep it in good condition. Don’t use an oil based product, such as WD-40, because the oil will damage the rubber. Regular cleaning and treatment of your car’s weather-stripping will also lessen the likelihood of your door sticking to its rubber seal in cold weather, a common cause of damage to the rubber.
If the weather-stripping is letting rainwater leak into the interior of your car, take a look at it and decide if you can repair it or if it needs to be replaced. Small leaks can be handled with brush-on seam sealers. Re-secure loose sections, not otherwise damaged, with trim adhesive. Torn sections may be repaired with special caulking available at auto parts stores. You may also be able to extend the life of worn-but-intact sections by inserting foam rods, available at automotive stores, into the hollow section of the weather-stripping. If you decide to replace entire sections of gasket, don’t simply buy generic stuff such as you’d use around the house. Buy a product that matches your car’s original weather-stripping — it’s available in a wide variety of profiles from dealerships and automotive mail-order catalogues.
6. Fill with washer fluid only
Don’t add water to the windshield washer reservoir. It won’t clean as well as washer fluid, and it may freeze in cold weather and damage the system. Don’t try to run your windshield washer system once you suspect there’s no more fluid in the tank, or you may damage the washer fluid pump.
Cracked washer-deicer fluid tanks are fairly common once a car is of a certain age. A good remedy — until you can buy a new tank or find one at the junkyard — is to insert a plastic freezer bag into the tank and fill it with the washer fluid.
7. Don’t try to carry too much
Never exceed your car’s roof load specifications or weight limits.You can find them in your vehicle owner’s manual. Check the weight limitation of your roof rack as well. Typically the range is from 150 to 200 pounds (68 to 90 kg). That’s the equivalent of eighteen 8-foot 2 x 4s (2.4-meter 38 x 89s) or three sheets of 3/4-inch (17-mm) plywood. If you have to deliver a heavy load from the home or off to the ski slopes, consider having it delivered or getting a trailer. It will save wear and tear on you as well as your car.
Protect your car’s roof from scratches with an old blanket before tying lumber, bicycles, or luggage to your roof rack.
The beginning of the end for the finish on many cars and trucks — and for wagon and hatchback interiors for that matter — is an improperly stowed load. Invest in the appropriate racks for bicycles, cargo, and luggage. A good trick to keep tall objects from sliding around in a pick-up truck bed is to use a shower curtain rod (or two) as a brace. Just push the cargo against the front wall of the truck bed and install the rod behind it. Twist to secure. Cargo nets will also help keep objects from banging around and damaging a truck bed.
8. Wash in winter, too
If you rarely wash your car during messy winter weather, you are not alone. The cars you see on the road make it obvious that lots of folks figure, “why bother? The car is going to look awful the next time I drive it.” The problem with this is that washing is more important in the winter than other times of the year. All that sand, slush, and ice mixed with road salt is exactly what makes your car rust. The fastest corrosion occurs when the temperature repeatedly rises above and then falls below freezing. Especially during the messy months, be sure to rinse the undercarriage and hard-to-reach areas that are susceptible to rust, such as the bumpers and inside the wheel wells. If the temperature outside is going to stay above freezing long enough for your car and driveway to dry, fill a bucket with warm water and tackle the job at home. If not, pay a visit to your local car wash and be sure they dry the car thoroughly!
9. Tires, Keep the caps on
You step out into driveway ready to start your morning commute only to discover a flat tire. How in the heck did that happen overnight? If the tire valve is missing its cap, the culprit might be a leaky valve. Those little caps keep out dirt and moisture that can cause leaks, so be sure to keep caps on all your tire valves. Another tip: When you replace tires, remind the tire shop that you expect new valves with the tires.
Under-inflated tires are a tire salesman’s best friend. They create excessive heat and stress that can lead to tire failure. If you want to get every last mile out of your tires, get yourself a tire pressure gauge and use it at least once a month (more in hot weather) to keep your tires inflated to the recommendation in the vehicle’s owner’s manual. Check tires when they are cold (driven for less than one mile) for an accurate reading.
If you top off your tires at a service station, check to see if there’s moisture coming from the air pump. Simply depress the pin inside the inflator valve with your thumbnail. If your thumb gets wet, advise the station manager that his tanks need to be drained and go to a different station. Moisture, trapped inside a tire, can cause pressure variations and corrode rims.
Check tires for uneven wear. If you’ve maintained tire inflation properly, uneven wear may indicate the need for wheel realignment. It can also mean improperly operating brakes or shocks, a bent wheel, internal tire damage, or worn bushings.
10. Hang on to your hubcaps
Clang, clang, clang! There goes your hubcap, rolling off to destination unknown. Hubcaps, wheel covers, and center caps can pop off your car’s wheels as you’re driving if they were not reinstalled correctly, have loosened over time, or if they were damaged by being jammed against a curb while parking. Here are some things you can do to keep these expensive parts on the car:
If your older metal hubcap has loosened, remove it and pry the metal clips outward slightly. This should fix the problem.
Newer plastic-type hubcaps and some wheel covers are usually held in place by a retaining wire ring that snaps into tabs on the wheel. When installing such a cap or cover, take care that you do not bend or break the tabs.
One way to make sure your expensive hubcaps aren’t damaged by a repair shop is to remove them yourself before taking your car in for a repair that requires wheel removal, such as a brake job or new tires. When reinstalling hubcaps, rest the hubcap in place and then tap it gently with a rubber mallet. Don’t hit the hubcap hard, or you might break the clips underneath. If you prefer to have your repair person remove the covers, check to make sure they were reinstalled properly. They should look even and flush.
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