Why Auto Maintenance is Important
What’s the Difference Between Preventative Maintenance and Emergency Repair?
Whether you are driving a performance Import vehicle or your car is just a means to get around town, as an owner, you will need to keep up with regular maintenance so your vehicle is always ready when you need it. Most manufacturers provide a recommended maintenance schedule in your owner’s manual, and this is a good example of the timeframe for necessary services. As your technician gets to know your vehicle and the way you drive it, they will be able to suggest services that will bring out exactly the performance you need from your car.
Preventative Maintenance: The manufacturer’s recommended schedule will probably discuss the age of your vehicle in terms of miles, and tell you at which intervals you need which services. Depending on how you drive your vehicle, some services may be required more frequently than others. Oil changes help remove impurities from your engine that prevent your oil from effectively cooling your engine. Checking your tires regularly will make sure your wheels are making solid contact with the road. Efficient tires mean you lose the least amount of energy through friction with the road, and for that, your tires need to be at the perfect inflation. Suspension checks, brake checks, and air filter changes will also be required at regular intervals.
Emergency Repairs: The services you won’t be able to anticipate will arise in the wake of an emergency, an accident, or any issue that comes out of the blue. If you run over a nail and have a blown tire while you’re on the highway, you need to replace the tire of course, but you’ll also want a technician to make sure your suspension and brake system are still intact and were not affected by the blow out. If you develop any smoke unexpectedly in your vehicle, your technician will need to look for an oil leak or a coolant leak and make sure they replace the faulty fluid line. Sometimes the only indication you’ll get that something is wrong is a new noise that you’ve never heard before. Clanging, grinding, or scraping noises could mean any number of issues from your transmission to the brakes. A factory-trained technician will be able to help you identify the issue and offer an idea of the services that will get your vehicle back to like-new condition.
In the end, you know your vehicle better than anyone and you’ll know when it’s not performing like it’s supposed to. Make sure when any problems do come up, you address them as soon as possible so they don’t affect any other areas of the engine.