Your car can be one of the most expensive and important investments you’ll ever make, but many of us don’t give our vehicles the kind of maintenance attention they need. Mechanics and technicians would know: As the doctors of cars, they see it all.
“I cut those oil change intervals in half most of the time,” she said. “The longest I would go is 8,000 miles on a full synthetic oil change on a European car with high-quality oil.”in Conyers, Georgia, said she would never rely on the oil change reminder sticker to determine when her oil should actually get changed.
Claudio gave the example of an aftermarket battery that the car does not register, so the car still thinks it has a faulty battery and will not operate correctly as a result.“I’ve had it where things come apart, and it makes it worse than it already was,” Claudio said. “And then it’s more of an expensive repair.”Cars are programmed to work with certain types of fluids, and Lateiner said car owners should always stick to the ones the manufacturer advises.
“The floor mat on the driver’s side will get stuck on the accelerator and then you can’t stop the car, or it will get stuck behind the brake and then it’s hard for you to brake the car,” she noted.Instead, Claudio recommends taking out the carpet floor mat and picking a floor mat that fits correctly around the accelerator and brake pedal.A car's warning light can be the last alert you get before things reach a point where a bigger repair is needed.
She’s seen used-tire sellers give customers a tire that’s not the correct size, or one with a bubble in the sidewall. To give more helpful details, Lateiner recommends keeping track of when you hear the “weird noise.” If you’re having trouble describing the sound, Lateiner recommends taking an audio or video recording that you can show your technician, or taking someone on a test drive with you so they can hear it too.