How often should i service my car?
Your car is going to be one of your most prized possession over the time you decide to keep it so you want to ensure you take care of it and in return it will take care of you, like a gift that keeps on giving.
The simple answer to this question is to follow you owners /maintenance manual /repair guide/ manufacturer recommendations. While this is a useful bit of advice it does little for the person who buys a used car and is not in possession of such piece of document. In Jamaica and the wider Caribbean most of the vehicles on our roads are used vehicles imported from japan. in cases where owner manuals can be found they are in Japanese and can’t be read. so what do you do?.
Most manufactures recommend that you do a basic servicing every 10,000km. Please take into consideration that these are written from the perspective of a new car. For older car over 100,000km it’s recommended that you service more regularly every 5000-7000km.
As car gets older integral parts such as seals, pistons, cylinder walls, spark plugs, etc. wear more and are now more susceptible to failure
Because these parts are worn it means that your engine oil is now more likely to pick up soot deposits from your cylinder walls as a result of incomplete combustion. this impacts the quality of your engine oil and threatens lifespan of your engine. engine oil is not only for lubrication of the moving in your engine it also plays a major role in cooling engine parts, when your oil is not able to carry out these functions effectively your engine suffers as a result and we all know how costly an engine replacement can be in some cases it’s best to get a new car. with that said pay attention to your service intervals and keep a schedule so you don’t miss your appointment with mechanic.
As part of your servicing procedure your mechanic should check and inspect all moving parts of your vehicle these include; your brake drums and disk brakes where applicable. Brake drums are often neglected during servicing always check the drum cylinders for oil leaks and adjusted where necessary.
Here are some key items which should be address during your schedule car maintenance; Oil change, break check and adjustment, coolant drain, wiper fluid top-up, spark plug change, air filter, oil filter, ac filter, fuel filter.
AC filter and spark plugs are not necessary items which require changing during every servicing procedure however these item are relatively inexpensive and as such its advise to change them to be on the safe side.
until next time……..drive well!!