By Chris Ward, December 2, 2016
Keep the mechanics of the vehicle clean. While you can (hopefully) keep you car clean, if you do a lot of off-roading, you can get mud and dirt stuck to the car’s underside. Get a hose to get rid of grime or road salt.
Change out the transmission and the differential oils. These fluids don’t require frequent service, but must be modified in accordance with service intervals. Look at what viscosity gear oil or transmission fluid you need for your vehicle.
The cooling system and coolant should be changed once a year. Getting a 50/50 balance of coolant to distilled water keeps the system in good shape and prevents deposits building up.
Grease is the word. Anything in your car that has a moving part will need grease to do the distance. You don’t want any ball joints to pack in on you because of bad lubrication.
U-Joints will require lubricating. You may have to remove the driveline to do this, but if in doubt, ask for expert help, such as Elite Euro or a reputable local garage.
Do you park your car in the shade? This will protect the interior plastic. Also, be sure to use a window deflector screen and apply UV protection to stop the vinyl and plastic drying out.
Use wheel bearing grease on the wheels. In comparison to replacing the hubs and spindles it is a lot cheaper.
Replace your brake fluid and bleed the system once a year. As the fluid is very good at attracting moisture, this can cause much corrosion in your car components. The best thing is, brake fluid is cheap. So have some handy.
Wax your car. It will keep the paint protected and looking lovely. Make sure that you apply wax every six months at least.
Keeping your car safe and sound is one thing. Keeping your costs down is another. We all gasp audibly at our service bill, so if there are things you can do at home to keep the costs down, then surely it’s worth doing? Right?
