Is your car about to hit 100,000 miles? Do you want to keep it going and sail on to 200,000 miles on the odometer? In this article we’re going to give you some basic top tips for keeping high mileage vehicles on the road. After all you don’t need to buy a new car, just because your current vehicle is getting old.
These four simple car care tips you will see your car cruise up to and beyond the 200,000 mile marker.
Top Tips To Keep High Mileage Vehicles on the Road
Change your Engine Oil regularly
This one is self-explanatory, but is a very important factor in keeping high mileage vehicles on the road, whether it’s a salesman’s saloon or a family 4X4.
Engine oil is a very important part of your car’s engine, without it the metal components would grind together and tear themselves apart. The oil helps to not only lubricate all the vital components, but also acts as a coolant within the engine.
To keep the engine in its best possible condition you should change your oil every 5,000 miles or every 6 months. If you use synthetic engine oil this can be extended to 8,000 miles, but I wouldn’t recommend letting it go any further than that. The more mileage your engine does the higher the chance of wear within the engine itself.
Not changing your engine oil regularly will lead to a build-up of sludge in the engine, which can seriously damage your engine, and shorten your vehicles lifespan.
Check Your Fluid Levels
On top of changing your oil, you should also check your cars other essential fluids regularly, usually once a month. These include; brake fluid, coolant, screen wash as well as tyre air pressures.
Every two weeks you should be checking your Engine Oil level, and if necessary topping it up from the bottle of oil you should keep if the boot.
Annual Inspections
As with all high mileage vehicles it is essential that you keep up to date with your annual service schedule. Each model of car has parts which are known to wear and fail at certain intervals, it’s worth knowing which parts on your vehicle are likely to need replacing and when. Researching this on the internet can help prepare you for the inevitable if anything shows up during your annual service.
Make sure you take your car to a reputable and reliable mechanic that you can trust, as they are likely to tell you other parts on your high mileage vehicle are nearing the end of their life.
Don’t ignore the small things!
You may have just serviced it, but if something on the car feels or sounds funny whilst you’re driving along I suggest you get a mechanic to look at it. It may only be something small, but the small things hold big things together and the last thing you need is to have a major part go wrong. Especially on an old or high mileage car.
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For more maintenance and repairs advice continue to come back to the Car Parts 4 Less blog and feel free to browse our full collection of car parts on our website.