10 good habits to TRIPLE your car’s life

Modern cars are quite expensive and they are built to last a lifetime. If any modern car gets proper care, it can easily last for lakhs of kilometres and there are many vehicles that have crossed that mark. But what proper care should you give to your vehicles so that they can last for years? Well, here are a few tips that can be useful to you.

Warm-up

Warming up any modern vehicle is not rocket science. Unlike older-generation cars, especially the diesel ones that required to be on idling for minutes, modern cars require only one minute of idling. Warming up is important because all the important fluids that save the vehicle from damage settle down when cold. Giving a minute to warm up ensures that the fluids like engine oil, transmission oil properly coats and lubricates all the metallic surfaces properly. After idling, you can start driving the car under 2,000 rpm for diesel and 3,000 rpm for petrol for a couple of kilometres before showing all your enthusiasm.

Never miss a scheduled service

The service interval is carefully advised by the manufacturers to ensure proper care for the important parts of your vehicle. There are thousands of moving parts in your car and keeping them in top condition ensures a long life to the vehicle. Servicing involves a lot of things like tightening the bolts, aligning the parts, lubricating and replacing the consumables. Not following the service schedule can shorten the life of the car drastically.

Coasting for longer life and fuel efficiency

There is a sweet spot in every car’s rpm range where the car requires minimal power to move forward and cruise. Coasting is a way of using the vehicle’s momentum and provide minimal power to maintain the speed limit. This also ensures that vehicle consumes minimal fuel. Not revving the engine to the higher RPMs also ensures that the life of the engine increases by multiple folds.

Alignment and balancing

Most road surfaces in India are not smooth and over a short time, the wheels can go out of the alignment. In order to keep the tyres in top condition and also maintain the vehicle’s comfort, you should get the vehicle alignment and balancing checked every few thousand kilometres. Alignment ensures that you get maximum fuel efficiency and also maximum life out of your tyres. Balancing ensures smooth and bump-free rides.

Be kind to suspension

The suspension works the most in a car and smoothens outs all the uneven surfaces. You will be surprised to know that the suspension even works continuously on the smooth roads. Always be gentle on the suspension and brake well in advance when you spot a bad road or a speed breaker. Driving at high speed on such surfaces can make the suspension go bad prematurely and can also affect the alignment of the chassis.

Walk for shorter trips

If you need to go only a km or two away from home, prefer walking than taking the car out. During such short distances, the vehicle does not get enough time to warm-up properly and it causes more harm to the engine. It is also advised to avoid slow-moving traffic as much as possible. Start-stop traffic can kill your car silently and causes the most wear-tear.

Find a good fuel station

Find a fuel station that you trust and provides pure fuel. You will get to know the quality of the fuel by noticing the smoothness in the engine. Find the best one in your area and stick to it. Low-quality fuel can damage the vehicle. On the highways, fill the fuel from places where you can see a lot of truckers. It is an indication of good fuel and probably restrooms.

Be smooth

Be smooth when you drive the vehicle. While it is easy to follow in the automatic vehicles by ensuring no sudden movements of your right leg, it may take some time to get used to the clutch-accelerator-brake system of a manual transmission. Try as smooth as you can by not slamming the brakes suddenly and accelerating hard on the road. It causes high wear and tear and puts the components under great stress.

Make it lighter

Overloading can be very dangerous and even some amount of unwanted weight can be damaging over a long period of time. Extra weight puts extra pressure on the tyres, suspension, brakes and many other parts. Always clean your car in a fortnight and get rid of the things that you do not want and should not be in your car.

Rust can kill your car

If you spot small rust, don’t overlook. Rust can kill your car faster than you think. It creates irreparable damages to the vehicle. Always check the body of the vehicle, the underbody regions to ensure that the vehicle is not rusting. Also, if you live near a sea, make sure that you wash the car properly at least once a week. This gets rids of the saline water and keeps your car in the best possible condition.