How To Look After Your Car Properly
Whenever you buy a new car, whether it’s a high end car from Lexus dealers or a cheaper Ford from a second hand garage, you feel naturally obliged to look after it at first.
Keeping it clean and tidy and spending a lot of hours taking care of it, the more you have the car, the more you begin to become lax with it’s care, until eventually the only care it receives is from it’s annual service.
Although this will often be enough to get the car through until its next service, it’s highly recommended that you take the time to look after your car on a regular basis. Generally speaking, it doesn’t take long to give it the care it needs and the time you spend on it will usually mean your car will not suffer from any major problems in the future that would have become apparent if you hadn’t maintained it.
One of the most important points in respect of car maintenance is changing the oil at regular intervals and ensuring that you use high quality oil.
A lot easier than you might think, changing the oil simply requires for you to unscrew the sump plug that is under the car, let the old oil drain out into an old container, screw the sump plug back into place and then top the engine up with new, high quality oil (you can change the oil filter in the process, which simply unscrews, but it’s not a necessity).
Depending on your car depends on how often you should change the oil, but generally speaking you should look at every 6 months as a base guide.
Further to changing your oil, you should ensure that your car’s tyres are correctly inflated by checking them once a month and inflating or deflating them to the manufacturer’s recommended level.
Aside from the fact that incorrect tyre pressure can mean a reduced level of fuel consumption, it can also result in your tyre tread wearing down at a faster and more uneven rate.
In terms of bodywork and aesthetics, it’s important that you clean your car regularly, especially in the winter months or if you park in such an area where a lot of waste and debris falls onto the car.
Things like road grit, salt and fallen leaves or berries may not seem like they will have a lot of effect on your car’s bodywork, but if left, they can scratch the paint and for some natural items such as berries, the acidity of them can stain and damage the paint permanently.
In addition, it is always strongly advised that you keep your car topped up with fuel. It may sound like a particularly simple, straightforward and obvious thing to do, but a lot of people wait until their fuel light comes on, letting their engine run dry.
Although this won’t have a substantially negative effect on your car if you only do it once or twice by mistake, if you do it regularly, you’ll receive a build up of unwanted particles in your engine from it having to run on so little petrol.
It doesn’t take long to fill up your car and it’s recommended that you get into a regular habit of doing so, whether it’s once a week or once a day, as alongside the other points mentioned, if you spend the time doing it and looking after your car, you can often look forward to a unproblematic and smooth running car.
Jardine Motors Group UK operates a large portfolio of specialist franchises of the world’s most prestigious marques, including Lexus dealers.
