Love Your Car | Essential Maintenance Guide from Confused.com

Publication Date: Friday, February 01, 2008

If you really love your car, and want it to be a loyal companion through the good times and the bad, then it’s important to give it a little TLC. In this car maintenance article, we’ll touch on some of the basics of keeping it in good trim generally, looking after your tyres, checking your oil, and getting your car regularly serviced.

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General Car Maintenance Tips

• Cars don’t like the cold. It’s an idea to keep it in a garage if you can; not only because it is generally safer to do so, but also batteries and wiper blades aren’t too keen on the cold, and it will also stop damp getting into the electrics.
• Possibly more importantly, cars don’t like starting from cold - this is when the most damage is done to the engine. Once the engine is warmed up, it’s fine. So definitely avoid things like driving the car from cold for just a few yards. People normally do this to move their cars around in their drive or to move it to a better position to wash it. The worst thing you can do to the engine is to run it for just a few seconds from cold to move it. It doesn’t do it any good and you may find it flooded the next time you try to start it. It can take 10 minutes to warm an engine through properly.
• It’s a good idea to carry spare bulbs in your car, and have the manual in the car in case you suddenly need to learn how to fit them.
• And whilst we’re on the subject of spares, keeping a set of spare keys may well save you the embarrassment of calling someone for help on account of having locked your only set in your car.
• It’s sensible to keep a bag for rubbish in your car – not only to keep it tidy, but also it can make your car safer. For example, it is surprisingly common for discarded plastic bottles to roll into places where you really don’t want them to be – i.e. beneath the pedals.
• If you can’t already, learn how to change a tyre. It’s better to practice on your drive than at the side of a road in the dark.
• If you really can’t change a tyre – or don’t want to – then it’s essential to have breakdown cover. It is always advisable to have breakdown cover anyway. All you long-distance lovers travelling to see your Valentine’s dates don’t want to find yourself stuck on the side of the road for too long, as there’s no passion killer quite like not showing up.

Arrange breakdown cover through Confused.com by clicking here, and selecting 'Breakdown'.

Keep your Tyres in Check

It’s important to ensure that your tyres are in good nick, as if you are found to have illegal tyres when you have an incident, you will not be able to make a claim as your policy will be invalidated.

Pressure

Not only will keeping your tyres in order make your car safer, but you will also be more efficient on fuel if they’re properly pumped up. As a rule of thumb, you should check your tyre pressure every other time you refuel.

Be sure to check your tyre pressure whilst the tyres are cold. If you have been driving, even for a couple of minutes, then any pressure reading you take will be higher – thus you are likely to inflate the tyres more than required. Try not to drive any further than a mile when going to check your tyre pressure.

You can inflate your tyres at most garage forecourts; or alternatively you can buy electric pumps, or even foot pumps, so that you can inflate your tyres at home. Find your car’s optimum pressure (measured in psi – pounds per square inch) in your owner’s manual. Sometimes the pressure may be marked elsewhere for convenience, e.g. on a sticker inside the car door. And when you check the pressure, don’t forget to do the spare!

Tread

Other things to look for in a tyre include tread depth. On UK cars, treads must be at least 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the breadth, and around the entire circumference. Many tyres now have wear indicators, and the tyres should be replaced when they are revealed. If a tyre does not have such indicators, an easy way to check the depth is with a 10-pence piece. The distance between the edge and the inside of the rim of the coin is about 1.6mm. If the tread does not cover the edge of the rim, then the treads are too worn down.

Get your tracking checked every six months, or immediately after any heavy collision with a kerb or similar. If the tracking is out, then tyre wear will be uneven across the four tyres, and can be accelerated.

Also, try and remember the ages of your tyres, as they basically have a ‘best before’ date. Another rule of thumb… Don’t use a tyre that is more than six years old – even if it hasn’t been used.

If you need a new tyre or tyres, why not order tyres online through our partners. You may find a great deal, tyres can be delivered to your local contributing garage, and fitted with nothing extra to pay.

Be Well Oiled

It is critical to ensure that your engine has the right amount of oil, otherwise things can go pretty wonky. You should check this every couple of weeks. When you do so, make sure you’re on a level surface, and that the engine’s cold.

The dipstick which is used to check the oil level sticks out of the side of the engine, usually with a red, orange or yellow handle. Pull it out and use a rag to wipe it clean. Push the dipstick back in as far as it’ll go, pull it back out again, and check that the oil level mark is between the dipstick’s minimum and maximum marks.

You will need to top up the oil if the level is beneath the lower limit on the dipstick. You will need to ensure the oil that you’re using is the right kind, and at the same as the oil which is currently in the engine. The owner’s manual should tell you which type of oil to use. The oil filler cap is on top of the engine, and is usually conveniently marked ‘Oil’. Take off the cap, pour a small amount of oil into the reservoir, and recheck the level with the dipstick. You’re at the right level when the oil mark is halfway between the minimum and maximum levels.

Replacing Oil & Servicing

You need to entirely replace the oil on an annual basis, or every 10,000 miles travelled (max). The cost of a regular oil change is a lot less than the cost of damaging the engine and therefore shortening the life of the car. In fact, it is certainly wise to keep the car regularly serviced:

• Long term, regular servicing is cheaper than repairing engines that have not been properly serviced.
• A car with a full service history is much easier to sell on than one that does not. Many people won’t touch a car without a service history.
• It’s worth remembering that most of the time, the largest cost of owning a car is depreciation, i.e. the difference between the purchase price and the sale price. As such, getting the best price when selling it is key, so it needs a service history to attract the buyers

Did you know you can get your car serviced through Confused.com? Click here to visit out homepage, and select ‘Servicing and Repair’.

For the Confused.com guide to how to prevent breaking down in cold weather, and what to do in the event that you do, click here.

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