Photo: Habits that speed up the end of your car (Vitaliy Nosach, RBC-Ukraine) Author: Konstantin Shirokun
When a car wears out naturally to the point that repairs are no longer profitable, it is taken to a landfill. This sad moment can be postponed for several years if you refuse to do certain harmful things to it.
Read about how we shorten the life of our cars with our habits in the RBC-Ukraine article.
Using a car daily (or weekly), some drivers do not even realize that they are doing something wrong or not quite right. Let's look at some of the most unexpected examples.
The habit of not looking at the instruments
Modern cars with their reliability and durability have spoiled us quite a bit. Every time the car is guaranteed to respond to the turn of the key or the press of a button and take us where we need to go. But the fact that the car does not break down for a long time does not mean that you can ignore the information screen, control devices and signal lights. After all, one or another emergency signal may suddenly appear on them – and if you miss it, continuing to drive can lead to an emergency breakdown of one of the expensive units or an accident on the road. For example, we are talking about engine overheating, loss of engine oil, brake fluid or engine cooling fluid.
The tradition of keeping the car under cover at all times
Yes, the cover reliably protects the car body from many troubles. But it can also speed up the approach of expensive repairs to this most important part of the car. If the car lives under the cover all the time, on damp (and especially warm) days its body will rust with particular intensity. And the driver will not guess about it for a long time. After all, most common covers retain moisture under themselves, which cannot dry out in the absence of ventilation. This means that rust will actively progress in the closed cavities of the body and on its surface. This habit will be especially harmful if the car is not new for a long time and already has at least minor problems with rust.
Incorrect installation of the jack
If you place the jack anyhow when replacing a flat tire or changing seasonal tires, it can and will lift the car. But the body will experience excessive loads. In the worst case, the jack support heel will press a hole in the body right now, and in the best case, it will crush the threshold or wing. In the most vulnerable models, choosing the wrong point for installing the lift leads to distortions of the body – up to a violation of the geometry of the door openings, weakening the connection points of parts, and the like. Let us remind you that in modern cars, parts can be fastened not by welding, but by glue or rivets. Therefore, always look for standard jack points on each side of the car, they are usually located on the threshold – one behind the front wheel and the second in front of the rear.
Leaving a car in a parking lot for a long time
Oddly enough, a car that sits idle for a long time ages faster than one that drives on the road from time to time. If you often leave the car idle for several months (and even more so, for several years), the body will rust intensively due to the lack of ventilation while driving. Also, many shafts and bearings in the units will be affected by corrosion due to the lack of lubrication and will be damaged the next time they are used. Rubber seals of windows, doors and other elastic elements located on the surface of the car also suffer in their own way.
Violation of service regulations
Scheduled TO-1 and TO-2, defined for each model by the car manufacturer, concern not only new cars, but also older models. Each violation of the service interval (replacement of oils, filters and consumables) shortens the life of the main systems and units. Moreover, for an old car, complex and expensive repairs, for example, of the engine or transmission, are impractical.
Installation of cheap spare parts
Cheap – and therefore low-quality and short-lived parts – themselves reduce the service life of the machine after installation. But in addition, they often interfere with the normal operation of other parts of the unit – for example, due to excessive play, deterioration of lubrication conditions, etc. Consequently, after some time, entire systems and units will need significant repairs – which, as mentioned above, is not always within the framework of rationality.
Materials from Autocentre and Motor were used in preparing this article .
Let us recall that RBC-Ukraine recently reported on how the wrong gasoline affects a car and how to fix the situation.