If you’re looking to save a few bucks and learn a bit more about your car at the same time, you can certainly do worse than learning to service your own car. If you’re serious about saving money, though, it’s important that you service your car in the right way – if you do something wrong, it can potentially cost you a whole lot more in the long term, after all. In this article, we take a look at some of the basics you’ll need to consider if you’re wanting to maintain your own car so that you can keep it in as good a condition as possible!
A few simple car maintenance pointers
Before we get stuck into the maintenance tips, do note that you can’t do everything for your car – if you’re experiencing some serious problems with your car, or it’s been a whole since a big service, taking it to a car mechanic in Perth first is your best bet. After this, you can feel confident to work your magic knowing that nothing too terrible is happening under the bonnet. The best way to ease into your own car maintenance is by applying your own car fluids. Transmission fluid is an often forgotten fluid, unlike radiator coolant and motor oil, but without regular top-ups of transmission fluid your vehicle might start hard shifting, slipping, or the gearbox might end up failing altogether. The occasional radiator coolant flush is also highly advised, as debris, sludge, and slime builds up over time and left to their own devices, it’ll cause some serious damage.
Invest a bit of time to save a lot of money
One of the best things about servicing and maintaining your own car is finding how some very common issues can be solved by some very quick adjustments. A great example of this is a quick brake fluid top-up – even something as simple as a bit more brake fluid can eliminate the sponginess you feel when braking (which is related to moisture build-up). Sparkplugs are another place where you can really feel a difference when they’re swapped out, and they’re quite an easy fix for most people as well. Because sparkplugs are the means of igniting the combination of fuel and air that propel your car, it’s not too difficult to see how faulty sparkplugs can make this process a little bit difficult. Although you won’t need to change your sparkplugs all of the time, keeping an eye out for dirty or old plugs can help you replace any that aren’t igniting properly. Sparkplugs that fire inefficiently can cause poor fuel economy alongside a detectable loss of power – both things you’re like not wanting.
Learn more about your car, but also know when to quit
Maintaining your own car can be a very rewarding experience, but tampering with it in the wrong way can quickly spell disaster. If you’re wanting to increase the longevity of your car, following maintenance practices that we’ve touched on is a good start – it’ll get you familiar with the basics of a car and will help you be more confident when you’re having a look under the bonnet. Whatever you do, though, make sure you use parts and oils that are of a high quality (skimping out will cost you in the long run) and make sure you hand your car over to a mechanic when it really needs it.
