How to Maintain A Basic Car Maintenance Schedule

Chances are if you own a car, any car you will have to eventually maintain some type of basic car maintenance schedule in order to improve the longevity of your vehicle. Most people think that car maintenance is just changing your oil every 3000 miles however there are other things to consider if you want your car to go the extra mile. Trust me if you take care of your car in the short run, it will take care of you in the long run.

Instructions

1. 

   I am pretty sure that we all know our cars need an oil change every 3000 to 4000 miles, so I'm not going to delve into that topic. What I am going to say is the first thing you need to check on your car monthly is the tires. Your car door panel should tell you how much air pressure you should run in your tires, in addition look at the tread on your tires as this is an indicator if you are either in need of a new set of tires or an alignment. When Your tires wear out from the edge that means you are in need of an alignment. If you neglect to do this you could prematurely wear out your tires and have to buy a new set early, which means more money out of your pocket more often. The picture on the left shows you a tire that had premature alignment wear. Rule of thumb also is to check your tires monthly and have them rotated and balance every 15000 miles. This will make sure you get every ounce of rubber out of that tire you paid for.

2. 

   The next thing to check in any car maintenance schedule is your tune up schedule. Generally your tune up will consist of changing the spark plugs, spark plug cables, oil, fuel, and air filter change. Depending on the make model and year of your car will also determine if there are extras such as changing a distributor cap or some type of sensor or relay. You have to consult your owners manual to see if that is the case. Rule of thumb for tune ups roughly every 60000 miles just to be safe.

3. 

   If your car is over the 100000 mark or almost there. It is smart to get the belts and tubes checked for cracks breaks or leaks. In addition when you get this done have the water pump changed and the timing belt checked or re adjusted. These are integral parts to making sure your car runs in unison with all its other parts. You only have to do this every 100000 miles so take care of it and have it checked other wise you will pay so much more when it breaks on you.

4. Generally these are the things that are universal between any make model car. Obviously there is much more however, if you take care of these general things, I can definitely promise you that your car will reach the 300000 mile mark, my commuter car did when I was in college. Remember what you don't take care of today you will have to take care of later on when you don't have the time or additional money. When you take care of your car you invest in your own security.

Resources

• HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT YOUR CAR'S "CHECK ENGINE" LIGHT
• HOW TO FIND RECALLS ON YOUR CAR
• HOW TO PURCHASE TIRES FOR YOUR CAR