Continued ..
Most vehicle manuals will recommend changing the air filter at certain designated mileage intervals. For people who drive in heavy stop-and-go traffic or frequent dirt roads, it's a good idea to cut those mileage recommendations in half.
· Stick to your oil-change schedule. Routinely going past the mileage recommendations for oil changes will eventually and inevitably lead you down a road no one wants to go down: the major repair road. Oil changes are inexpensive and typically take less than 30 minutes to do (if you don't do them yourself).
The standard mileage recommendations for oil changes are 3,000 miles. Whatever schedule you go by, keeping up with it is imperative. Thanks to the high operating temperature of a car's engine, oil's effectiveness as a lubricant lessens as the miles go by. If you continually neglect changing your oil, your engine's parts will rub against one another, leaving you with costly repairs and possibly in need of a new engine.
· Rotate your tires. For new-car buyers, a tire rotation is often a perk of buying a vehicle from a dealership. Most dealers will provide free tire rotations whenever necessary. For those who don't have such deals or prefer to go to their private mechanics, rotating your tires should be on the docket just like oil changes and changing the air filter.
· Change your transmission fluid. This is another commonly overlooked maintenance tip. Since the mileage recommendations for changing your transmission fluid can be up to every 100,000 miles (for automatic transmissions), it's no wonder this is overlooked. However, that doesn't mean it should be forgotten.
Transmission fluid needs to be replaced for much the same reason oil needs to be changed. Since it's a lubricant, transmission fluid gradually breaks down over time in an automatic transmission (which generates more heat in operation than a manual transmission). As the transmission then begins to wear down, worn down bits of the transmission get into the fluid, shortening the transmission's life span. The same contamination occurs in a manual transmission, though more quickly, which is why it's often recommended drivers with a manual transmission replace their transmission fluid every 30,000 to 60,000 miles |
