Car Maintenance Mistakes Owners Make

A good running vehicle requires preventive maintenance. While not all maintenance routine are scheduled at the same time, it requires owners to maintain their vehicle to ensure longevity. Signs of deterioration often shown by the vehicle and owners over look and ignore these signs. Eventually, your car will break down in the middle of nowhere and will cost you a lot more from repairs or even part replacement.

To avoid these kind of situation, we’ve compiled a list of owner mistakes when it comes to car or vehicle maintenance.

Ignoring the Engine Light

When the engine light in your dashboard suddenly turns on you might want to get the checked immediately. In some scenarios, owners tend to think that “it’s okay, the car seems to be running fine” but one day your car might breakdown. The longer you wait, the higher cost for repairs. So the best way to prevent that is to have it fixed immediately.

Neglecting Fluid Change

It’s a misconception that motor oil is the only fluid the car needs to be check and changed. But there are many fluids in the car that needs attention from time to time. Brake fluid, Transmission Fluid, Engine Coolant and power steering fluid should also be checked and serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommendation. Doing this will help your vehicle in good condition.

Doing Repairs to your Vehicle without Proper Knowledge

Modern cars are more complicated that you think. For example, automatic transmission has their own chip that can only be programmed in computers, computers are also used to regulate the sensors inside your car (spark plug, fuel injectors, etc.). Since your vehicle your vehicle is computerized, avoiding repairs without the necessary knowledge or tools to do it is recommended.

Not Changing your Filters

Filter needs to be clean as possible to keep your vehicle working. Filters keeps out contaminants and dirt particles from entering your vehicle’s fuel, engine or air conditioning system. Dirty filters can bring issues ranging from poor mileage, making your engine seize or wearing out components. Have your filter changed as recommended by the vehicle’s manufacturer.

Skipping Oil Change

Advancements on car engine technology and motor oil continues to grow and it may no longer necessary to get a change oil every 3000 miles. The average of oil change interval is around 7000 depending on how you use your vehicle (ex. Towing). This is great news because it means less time and money spent on taking you vehicle for an oil change. However, this doesn’t mean that you can skip changing your motor oil. Without proper motor oil change, you engine will seize up and eventually die. Oil motor oil will break down which can lead into deposits of sludge inside your engine. Instead of lubricating and cooling the engine parts, the oil sludge damage the parts which is something you want to avoid. Getting a change oil can help your vehicle running perfectly. 

Why Hire a Transmission Specialist?

Keeping your car running requires some maintenance and do-it-yourself task from time to time. But sometimes, things get out of hand. Transmission problems are one of the many problems vehicle owners encounter, some call in a specialist to handle the job, some repair it themselves and some ignores the problem which is bad.

The best choice when transmission problem arise is calling a transmission specialist and today, we’ll give you the reasons why. Modern transmission are a combination of gears and electronic devices, so if you’re not careful, it might cost you a lot.

1.       Automatic Transmission Is Complicated

Working with transmission is hard and vehicles today are more complicated than you think. It takes more than touching and connecting wires due to the computer chip factor. Since automatic transmission system are computerized, it becomes more difficult to understand unless an Automatic Transmission Specialist will do the repair. These specialist are knowledgeable and did a lot of training and experience to become a certified transmission mechanic.

2.       They Have the Right Specialty Tools

Having your own transmission shop requires you to invest on these specialty tools to get the job done. For example, transmission spring compressors and linkage removal are some of the basic tools you’ll find in transmission shops but not at home. Doing repairs on your own will cost you more. Again, saving your car and money is more important than doing things the wrong way.

3.       Warranty

Transmission repair shops offers warranty after service and helps you avoid unnecessary cost in the future. Think about it, if you do the repairs yourself, you’ll be missing on warranty which should be your number one priority when it comes to repairs or even part replacement.

Remember: If your car is still under manufacturer’s warranty, make sure that you don’t do the repairs yourself or your will be voiding the warranty given to you by the car manufacturer. This could be a loss on your part and will cost you a lot of money. 

The Importance of Automatic Transmission Maintenance

When it comes to ensuring your car is always in good running condition, regular maintenance is important. However, a lot of people seem to overlook the importance of automatic transmission maintenance and repair, at least up until they have no choice but to have it fixed.

Regular automatic transmission flushing is part of vehicle maintenance. To enable you to better appreciate its importance, we have listed a number of benefits:

Cost Savings

Save the cost of  automatic transmission repair and parts replacement. Changing your transmission fluid at the right time can help prevent these transmission problems from developing.

A new transmission will cost you more money than  changing your automatic transmission fluid from time to time to prevent problems from occurring. Let’s be practical about it, transmission fluid will cost you much less than replacing the whole automatic transmission.  

Fuel Efficiency

Regular automatic transmission flushing can help your car run better for a very long time, which  means less work and less fuel consumption.

Preventing Lock Ups

Wouldn’t it be inconvenient if your vehicle suddenly locked up and stopped in the middle of nowhere or when you’re in a rush on your way to work? Lock ups occur when the vehicle’s transmission gets extremely hot,  so the car simply shuts down. Changing your automatic transmission fluid at the right time will prevent this from happening.

Better Performance

Changing your transmission fluid and having the right transmission fluid can help your engine run cleaner and faster, like the day you bought it new.

If you need some help with your automatic transmission maintenance, repair or replacement, we at N & V Automatics can help you. We are located in Seaford, Victoria and we are the local experts when it comes to transmission repairs and services.