Car Parts: How to Take Care of a Car

By Romy | May 13, 2020

On average, it costs about $8,500 a month to own a car, and that’s not including emergency maintenance or repairs that you need to make.

If you don’t take care of your car, you’ll end up paying more in repairs and maintenance costs later on down the road.

If you have a car there is certain maintenance that is beneficial for the life of the car. Here is how to take care of a car in the best way.

Clean Your Windshield

One important thing you should make sure you do is to clean your windshield.

Not only is a dirty windshield a safety hazard while you’re driving, but it can also damage the windshield.

At most gas stations, there should be a squeegee that you can use to soak your windshield with cleaning fluid. You can clean all of the bugs, dirt, and water spots off your windshield so that you can see clearly though it.

Make sure you remove the streaks from the squeegee as well. You can try using your windshield wipers and your car’s wiper fluid, but if it’s bugs stuck to your windshield, it may end up just smearing them instead.

Change Your Oil

Changing your oil is also important to do for your car.

This may be one of the easier maintenance tasks, but you need to do it on a regular basis. Changing your oil to have the proper amount in the engine will also increase the life of your vehicle.

Your car’s user manual should tell you how often you should change the oil. You may need to do it every 5,000, 7,500, or 10,000 miles. The oil is important because it helps to lubricate the parts of the engine. If your engine fails, you’ll have a higher cost to deal with than just a simple oil change.

Oil also helps to disperse heat in the engine. When the engine is heated though, it burns the oil off, so you need to make sure you add it back in when it drops below a certain level.

Without a good level of oil in your car, the engine will get hotter and it could overheat. Overheating also puts stress on the parts of the engine, which is also a really expensive replacement.

You can either learn how to replace the oil yourself or take it in to a mechanic who can do it for you in about an hour.

Replace Your Timing Belt

You should also make sure that you replace your timing belt between 50,000 and 110,000 miles on your car. If your car does have a timing belt, the user’s manual should tell you when it needs to be replaced.

The engine in your car will either have a rubber composite timing belt or chain. The device also connects the camshaft to the crankshaft. This is important for making sure the valves in your engine open and close.

Over time, the rubber on the timing belt will break down and snap. When this happens, the engine won’t work very well, and this will also be a very expensive replacement.

Replacing a timing belt isn’t cheap, but it could cost you thousands to replace the engine if your timing belt breaks.

To find parts to fix your car, see here.

Check Your Tire Pressure

You should also make sure that you check your tire pressure every now and then.

Your car may have an indicator on the dashboard alerting you if the tire pressure drops too low.

Driving with tires that have low pressure is dangerous but it could also blow your tire out, and you may have to spend more to fix the tire.

The tire pressure indicates how inflated (or not) the tire is. If the tires aren’t inflated to the proper PSI, then it can be harder to brake or handle the car.

Having tires with the correct tire pressure can also help to improve your fuel efficiency, so you’ll really be saving yourself a lot of money by taking five minutes to fill them up.

Replace Your Brake Pads

Replacing your brake pads is also important in order to make sure that you can stop your car.

Even if you don’t think there’s anything wrong with your brakes, you should still have them checked out by a professional every now and then. If you do hear a squeaking or a grinding noise, you shouldn’t drive your car in, but you should make sure that it’s checked out as soon as possible.

If you don’t replace your brake pads, you may end up having to deal with brake rotors failing. This could cost you up to $600 to deal with, and you may also end up in a car accident if the problem isn’t addressed.

Rotate Your Tires

After you check your tires’ pressure, you should also make sure that you rotate them.

You’ll need to rotate them and check the alignment to make sure that the car drives properly.

Rotating your tires will ensure that you get the most life out of your tires as possible.

Learn More About How to Take Care of a Car

These are only a few tips to learn about how to take care of a car; there are many more maintenance tips out there.

If you aren’t confident enough to fix the car on your own, make sure you take it into a trusted mechanic.

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