Car Maintenance Schedule

When it comes to car maintenance, it almost seems that there are two distinct camps of motorists. There are people who just run the car into the ground without ever making an effort to take care of the vehicle. This lifestyle is largely supported by the manufacturer car warranties that become more and more lenient towards badly maintained cars.

At the other end of the scale there are the sworn DIYers who like nothing more than spending their time underneath the car, changing the oil or adjusting another bolt.

The latter will assert that the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule doesn’t provide the car with proper maintenance, and in many cases, they will be wrong. The modern cars are built to have as little maintenance as possible. What’s more, many of these cars are so sophisticated that you wouldn’t be able to change the engine oil yourself even if you wished to do so.

However, there are situations when hard-core car mechanics are right. The recommended schedule has to be adjusted if the ideal usage parameters aren’t met. The recommended upkeep works are calculated for ideal conditions when cars are driven infrequently over longer distances on flat surfaces and mild climate.

What happens if you drive up and down a hill, both in cold winter and hot summer, and for short distances like work commute or shopping runs? In other words, if you’re a real person living a real life? Well, your car may suffer unless you adjust the repair intervals accordingly. It is especially important if your car warranty has already expired.

Tuning up

Modern cars don’t require a lot of tuning. You don’t have to adjust the timing and fuel feed unless you’re driving a 1970s car. The little amount of tuning that is necessary is done by the mechanic during your 40K or 60K maintenance procedure.

Wipers

The simplest and one of the most important parts of car maintenance. Most importantly, dodgy old wipers will impact traffic safety. If you’ve abused the wipers and the rubber decides to go, it will leave ugly marks on your windscreen. Neither warranty nor insurance will cover this type of windscreen damage.

Timing belt

The maker’s manual usually says you should change the timing belt every 60,000 miles or thereabouts. Then we become centered on this figure and forget that if we travel low miles and it takes us 10 years to reach 60K miles, the old timing belt will already be a liability, even though it hasn’t covered its allowance. The truth is that a 4-year old timing belt needs replacing regardless of how many miles you’ve covered. It’s called material deterioration and it has to be accounted for.

Coolant

The coolant is changed around the 40 – 60K mark in modern cars. Older cars may require a coolant change once every 12 – 15K miles. In a similar fashion to the timing belt, you rather need to keep track of the time. It’s a bad idea to run coolant for more than 3 – 4 years because it gets old and less efficient.

Fluid change

With the oil change, the general recommendation is to change the engine oil every 7.5K miles or once a year whichever comes first. That’s again, the ideal world. In reality, if you suspect you’re running your car on less ideal conditions, change the oil more frequently. An old diesel, especially a turbo-diesel will need an oil change more frequently, whereas an ultra-modern car will have a recommended interval of up to 15,000 miles.