Proper car maintenance goes beyond the regular tune ups. It’s how you handle your car on the daily that will keep your car running longer and more efficiently. Make sure you avoid these 13 things that can eventually damage your car.
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Taking Short Trips
Short trips do not allow your car “to get up to operating temperature,” causing it to have “large amounts of carbon deposits in the intake valves.” Next thing you know, your car isn’t running properly.
Not Changing Your Oil Regularly
Do you follow your owner’s manual on when to change your oil? If not, you risk clogging and overheating the engine, wearing and tearing your engine’s parts, which then leads to engine failure.
Not Stopping When You Change From Reverse to Drive
If you don’t stop when you change from drive to reverse, you “will screw up your transmission.” Fortunately, newer car models now feature a failsafe that kills the engine when a driver changes from Drive to Reverse at high speeds.
Wrong Tire Pressures
Driving with the wrong tire pressure can increase braking distance, “cause uneven tire wear, and a lot of money in the long run.” Also, rotate your tires to inspect hidden damages, leaks, and defects and limit wear and tear.
Driving Through Deep Puddles After Hard Braking
While this may seem harmless, it “will warp your motors every time.” How so? “Braking hard causes your brake rotors to get hot. Driving into a deep puddle immediately after braking hard causes them to cool down too quickly, warping them,” explains a poster.
Riding the Clutch
Having your foot on the clutch pedal when you are not changing gears wears it out much faster.
Not Driving Your Car Hard Enough
If you love babying your car, it’s time you stopped. “Carbon buildup is a huge issue, particularly with direct injection,” so give your car “a harder acceleration than normal.”
Hanging Too Many Things on Your Keychain
Yes, the extra weight on the keychain “will eventually break the ignition.”
Not Getting Checked or Fixed Right Away
Ignoring small repairs also ends up doing more damage. One mechanic shares about a driver who neglected to repair a bad ball joint, only to have the car towed back minutes later to fix the ball joint “along with the CV axle and wheel bearing,” paying three times the initial amount.
Overfilling Your Tank
Also, topping up your tank further after the gas pump shuts off can ruin the EVAP purge valve that equalizes pressure in the tank when you slow down or stop the car. One driver explained he paid $350 to have the valve fixed.
Smashing Speed Bumps
Speed bumps are meant to break your speed. Therefore, smashing them is a “total murder to your shocks, bushings, and alignments.” Furthermore, you may crack a rim or increase the microscopic cracks in your windscreen. Do not smash into potholes or train tracks either.
Riding Your Brakes Down a Steep Hill
Doing this “can cause too much heat and crack the pads,” and you don’t want to be in a car without brakes when going down a hill.
Running Your Car Low on Fuel
Also, avoid running your car on empty and “try to keep at least half tank of gas.” One poster notes, “When you run your car on low fuel consistently, your fuel pump is not being cooled properly and has to work a bit harder to get the fuel and therefore wears much faster than if you had more fuel in the car consistently.”
Source: Reddit
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