How to save money on car repairs
Although owning a car gives you a lot of freedom and convenience in your day-to-day life, it’s not exactly cheap. Buying a decent car in the first place can cost an arm and a leg. After that, there are all kinds of repairs and maintenance which you’ll be paying for as long as you have the car. So, how do you save money on car repairs?
Keeping a car can be an extremely costly choice, but there are choices you can make which will help all of that. Here are some of the easy things you can do to make your car maintenance cheaper and save money on car repairs that may result from poor car maintenance.
Check Your Car Fluid Level
The first thing you can do is pay better attention to your car’s fluid levels. Every car has its own specific maintenance schedule. Sticking to this is a great way to start saving money. You may have been paying mechanics for every last bit of maintenance when a lot of procedures can be carried out yourself. If you check your car’s fluid levels regularly, you can steer yourself around a lot of mechanic’s bills.
Check your oil (see how to check the oil in the car), transmission fluid, antifreeze, wiper fluid, and so on as regularly as is recommended. This will end up saving you a huge amount of time and money. If you wait and wait until one of those dreaded lights starts flashing, you’ll end up having to splash out for a towing and repair service. There’s a far more important reason for regularly checking your fluid levels though. Neglecting mechanical issues in your car can put you and all of your passengers at serious risk!
Check Your Tires
The next area you should focus on to save money is your tires. Just think of all the things your tires come into contact with on the road. Rocks, grass, branches, and all kinds of other junk can really wear down the condition of your tires. One of the simplest things you can do to save on tires is to shop around more.
You might be used to the idea of expensive tires. However, there are a lot of places out there where you can have cheap tires fitted. Aside from this, there are easy steps you can take to prolong the life of your tires and save a bit of money from your fuel costs. You can start by checking your tire inflation more often. No matter what tires you have, they’ll naturally leak air over time.
Remember to check the air pressure when your tires are cool for the most reliable reading (see how to check tire pressure). Under-inflated tires can harm your fuel mileage significantly, and shorten the overall life of your tires. You should also aim to do a monthly visual inspection of your tires. Simply remembering to do this while pumping gas can save you from a catastrophic blow-out. Look for any cracks, excessive wear, bulges, or anything else that doesn’t look quite right.
Check Your Windshield Wiper
If you go long enough with your wiper blades working fine, it’s easy to take them for granted. When you get a thick layer of mud over your windscreen, you certainly don’t want them to be dysfunctional! Good windscreen wipers are an essential safety feature, and you should try to change them at least once a year. Even if you live in a particularly dry and arid area, exposure to the sun will damage them over time.
While wipers can vary in quality, there aren’t really any special requirements. The same thing goes for wiper fluid. No matter what the ads might tell you, you don’t really need to worry about the quality of wiper fluid. As long as it really is wiper fluid, you’ll be fine. Some people get tempted to use water instead of proper fluid, and completely eliminate the cost. Doing this just adds a huge safety hazard to your car. Water can freeze, and do all kinds of irreparable damage to your sprayer system.
Check Your Air Filter
Finally, change your air filter regularly. Again, this is something that requires no specialized knowledge. On most cars, you can change the filter without using a single tool. If your filter starts to get clogged up by debris and dirt, your fuel mileage can drop significantly. In most areas, you can do this once every three years or so. If you use your car in a particularly dirty or polluted area, then make it a little more frequent. The owner’s manual will give you all the necessary instructions and part numbers.
By keeping stricter standards of maintenance for your car, you’ll be able to save a lot of money in the long run. It’s better to guard yourself against mechanical problems than wait for them to happen!
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