subject: Taking Care Of Your Older Vehicle [print this page] Introduction Introduction
Most people keep their cars longer than ever before. Trading day in a car after two years on what seems to be more to the growing population in the United States who have decided to keep their cars and driving them out before they fall. In today's economy many homeowners stick to the old cars because they can not afford a new one.
Old cars do more than provide the benefits of the new models. Financial terms, each of the initial depreciation has already taken place, so as not to lose the first value that you and if you pay to sell new cars. You can buy a Porsche five years for the same price as a brand new Honda Accord. The number of CNW Marketing Research also shows that bought a new car in 2008 cost about $ 25.500, with the same car now worth $ 13,000. If you were to buy it now, you would save about $ 12,000 over five years.
In addition to being cheaper, and old cars tend to have lower insurance costs and cost less to register. It can be the difference in the recording as much as $ 1000 depending on the case and if the car is less than three years. Old cars cost less to secure because they are cheaper to replace if stolen or destroyed.
Sometimes you can refer to the old cars, and sometimes we use "high mileage" of the term. The mileage is the highest average miles per year, and more than 15,000 kilometers per year. For our purposes here, we think of old cars that have accumulated high miles in total. How many miles? If you drive a car or truck with 75,000 miles or more on the odometer, to invest time and money to maintain properly can be your old car the right decision.
With that in mind, we offer you a directory keeping your old car. In this resource, and will address important priorities that should be considered in maintaining your old car, and maintenance of important points when you buy an old car new to you, and when finally you should consider replacing your old car to the latest model.
Important priorities
Preserve the works of old cars could well be a daunting task when you were not familiar with what to do. What should you do first? The past? What you can ignore it and ignore the things you risk (and car) of your own? There are a lot of thinking.
To simplify things, break it down into manageable chunks. Where possession of and maintain the old cars, there are three types of priority areas that must be taken into account.
Priority 1: Items that can cause unsafe operating conditions when driving your car. This includes the braking system of the car, tires, steering system, and what we call "vision system", which is to ensure clarity of all the windows and keeping windows and masks breaks free of cracks or anything else that would impede vision.
Priority 2: proper maintenance of things that can get carried away, or other components such as engine failure. This includes the hoses, radiator, fuel lines, constant speed joints (CV), fan clutch and timing belts.
Priority 3: regular maintenance such as changing engine oil, transmission fluid and engine coolant. This type of maintenance does not prevent the failure but it is necessary to keep your car from old works in its power for the longest possible period.
Maintenance procedures recommended
Be proactive in maintaining your old car and extend its life, and saves you money. Consider the following areas of the target.
Changes of oil - the lifeblood of the car
The oil change intervals recommended are the most important step you can take to keep your car in good health. Oil change is cheap insurance as it eliminates grain and combustion products that end up in the crankcase and premature may cause corrosion.
What do you do?
Change the oil every 5000-7000 miles, which is fine for most cars. If you drive under severe conditions of service (dusty, and a lot of short trips in cold weather), you must change it a little too often. Exactly how often is the best thing is dictated by the car owner's manual says.
Some places pay oil change mileage oil for older cars. It is assumed that these oils mileage to be formulated with high doses of additives to prevent burning off oil deposits. It is certainly not wrong to use high mileage oil like this or even use synthetic oil. But the frequency and regularity that you change the oil is the most important factor.
Brakes - leadership is not fun if you can not stop
Brakes are a feature of the security of your car the most important and should be replaced when the brake shoes wear out. How often you need to do this depends on your driving habits and where you drive. A lot of city driving with stops and starts brakes wear faster. Will pull trailers and transport fees. On average, runners can last 30,000 to 40,000 miles. Some chips can last twice as long as the most expensive.
Can you say that your pads are worn thin if you listen to the whining noise when participating in the brakes. When platelets are thinner, the brakes start to scream. This is due to an integrated wear indicator in contact with the rotors, thus producing the sound. Lowell is a kind of warning signal that you need to check your brakes. If you are still without service brakes, and will turn into a crisis. Grinding noise that is crushed behind the brakes and rotors wear indicators themselves, which means there is no damage involved in the engine when the brakes. What was the cheap labor to replace the pads just got more expensive when you have to resurface or replace rotors as well.
Discs and drums
It is also wise to pay attention to other parts of your system braking - rotors, drums and calipers. Must be all of these parties to work together to make the system work properly and effectively. With the passage of time, and can be worn rotors or brake drums down. Worn bearings, as shown above, can lead to the codification of the surface of the rotor. If you feel energetic when you stop, you know it's time for the engine is started.
Rotors appropriate care involving "transformation" or replace a mechanical appearance, which gives you a smooth surface for the brakes to grip. Renewal saves you money by keeping you from having to replace them completely. Of course, can turn rotors and drums many times, so it is possible with an old car that you have to replace these parts.
Rotors machinist
Troubleshooting braking system
There is more to assess the brakes just to listen to strange sounds. You can get some hard evidence on the health of the braking system of the vehicle (and you have to do to get healthy again) by pointing to one of these symptoms are unusual.
Grab or pull to one side: this can happen for many reasons, none of them good. Can brake failure, there may be leakage of grease, oil or can be frozen brakes, brakes or cables.
Loss on the brake pedal: What happens when you lose brake fluid to leak. Leaks can be the result of leakage of the brake line, errors, or even bad master cylinder. Any good mechanic can diagnose the problem quite easily.
Of vibration on the brake pedal: This is the result of deformation the surfaces of the brake system. Excessive heat to the side chains of excessive wear of the surface of the drum or rotor and results in the vibration signature. Unfortunately, when the wear and so on, and will probably need to replace the brake parts instead of being able to float on the surface.
Clicking noise during braking: you is simply the result of faulty hardware or broken on the brakes that are supposed to stop the movement of the brake pad. If broken, the pad is loose and rattle during braking.
Excessive drag during acceleration: If you do not use the brakes in emergency situations, in many cases, it can become corrosive cable and can be frozen.
What's lost about braking performance?
Brake failure as something to avoid. But that does not happen overnight, and some of the following factors may contribute:
1. Or the brake shoes and crystallized: one brake when insulating materials are able to understand and to continue on the surface of the rotor or drum. As heat is generated and braking functions in this way. When it became exaggerated brake to stop too quickly or too often to ride the brakes, and the Declaration of the surface material crystallizes and becomes hard. This makes the brake pad surface and is unable to understand the surface of the rotor and is unable to stop the car effectively.
Hot brake under pressure
2. Brake fluid or grease soaked. One important reason that you must fix the broken shoes (rubber sleeve that fits over the end of the axis), and across the axis. If broken in some way, it can leak oil and grease on the brakes and reduce the effectiveness of arrest.
3. Have "hot spots" in the brake drums or rotors of the development of excessive heat in the same way that crystallized and brake pad. These hot spots are the areas that were really hard-liners "cooked" by the excessive heat. Can not enter the brake on the surface of these areas effectively, and reduce the ability to stop.
What do you do?
Do not let the brakes on your old car to get to this point. If you can not check the brakes and rotors to wear them yourself examined by a mechanic every six months, as part of the record the car as if you changed the oil. It will save you money and headaches in the long run.
Belts and hoses
Battery, air conditioning and refrigeration systems in the car all belts and hoses used in the performance of its core functions. You have a timing belt, which keeps the crankshaft and camshaft sync to keep the engine stall, and transmits power to the front of the engine to the power-hungry systems such as air conditioners and fan. Radiator cooling pipes for the distribution of spare parts for the engine to prevent overheating. These belts, hoses, and made of rubber, and will wear out over time. If one breaks, it can leave you stranded.
Treatment? Replaced before they have a chance for failure. But how often to do this?
A serpentine belt, and there are V-belts. V-belts last about 3 years or 36,000 kilometers. In the second half for a period of three years is important to note that research shows that the failure rate of these belts when entering high four years.
Serpentine belts last for a longer period of about five years or 50,000 kilometers. But more expensive to replace so that there is a compromise there. This is true for both types that you do not want to be there when they break, so be careful about their lives and plan accordingly.
Of rubber tubing as is the case in the cooling system, and these small cracks that develop develop into large cracks, cracks and holes. And accelerate this process by oil pollution, and exposure to the ozone layer in the atmosphere (urban driving), and engine vibration which can cause additional hose to rub against something, not its purpose.
What do you do?
You can make visual inspections of the pipes, and pinching, and looking for signs of cracks and brittleness. But he goes further because the coolant pipes in sleepwear should be within the conductivity of the coolant circulating inside of it.
Therefore, the only real way to make sure to bite the bullet and replace the pipe in the guidelines recommended life.
Automotive fluids: coolant
Cooling fluid is a fluid basic think most people in the car. Radiator has a limited useful life and need to change from time to time. The number of times depends on what the owner's manual says. Some cars have long life coolant that is supposed to last 100,000 miles. If you have an old car, and this may not be the case.
You need to change the coolant because it breaks down over time. Such as oil, coolant and have certain types of content, including inhibitors of corrosion / rust additives. When the coolant is getting old, they wear out and rust in the cooling system from the inside. The engine block itself help a lot of rust to the situation. Chilled acid are also taking place over time due to chemical reactions with the metal in the cooling system. This speeds up the process of erosion. If you let this go too long, and rust clogs passages in the radiator, causing it to fail over time, and the engine from overheating. Now, you talk a lot of money is spent.
Radiator corrosion
For some reason, drivers in states such as Florida in the cooling hot to ignore their longer than you expect. Speak with mechanics in the state of Florida and many will tell you that overheating is the # 1 repair they have to deal. High temperature of the car even once can destroy an engine of engine parts such as gaskets warping the cylinder and rings. This is particularly the case if it has an aluminum engine parts, which are more sensitive to the vagaries of high-temperature cast of older models. Since we were talking about old cars in this directory of resources, it is not certain if your engine has aluminum in it or not.
What must be done to file?
It is clear that you have to keep your coolant levels of completion of the recommended levels. But you will not need to clean your cooling system periodically. There is hot coolant available to neutralize the acid buildup in the system, and can be a good idea to use one of these.
Auto Fluids: Transmission Fluid
Cars with automatic transmissions use ATF fluid to lubricate the parts of the transition, as a coolant, and help transfer the power of the engine to the transmission. Manual transmissions are not as complex as an automatic, but still require some type of oil to the performance of these duties. We must change these fluids 2 according to the guidelines recommended (the owner's manual). ATF fluid breaks down over time due to exposure to heat. Manual transmission oil gradually transformed into a set of metal particles in the (liquid ATF to do so). Without being cleaned and changed, it can shorten your life transition. You do not want to soften the special transport with metal shavings. If you kept your old car as long as you have, it would be a shame for her to die because of a problem of transmission.
How can the transmission fluid?
See Owner's Manual for more details, as usual. May change the recommendations of the fluids vary, so it is important to follow the recommendations of the guide.
In general, the change is a manual transmission oil every 30,000 miles to 60,000. Automatic transmission fluid requires changing every kilometer 30,000 to 100,000 (60 100K is more common). Between climate, you should always check the fluid level in your. Automatic transmissions have tapes (such as housing standard) so you can check the level. Manual transmissions are more rarely tapes, but because you have an old car, it is possible. If not, you can ask a mechanic to check the oil level when they are looking for other things.
May or not to change the automatic transmission fluid is a sensitive issue, however. It can if you put in the transmission of 1 ATF has a new old "dirt" and the work of detergent molecules from the liquid to expel the new things you do not want her jaw, and it can cause more damage to transport you from the good. If you are unsure whether or not to do so, you could feel the default fluid. Automatic transmission fluid, which "goes wrong" will have a smell of fire to it. Examination of the liquid you have a gauge and the smell of the liquid. If you see this kind of burning smell, it's a good indication that you do not have only to look at the transmission fluid service, but effective. Burnt transmission fluid is a sign that the parts inside the bottom, so to speak.
One last thing ... You should always check the transmission fluid levels, if you notice a leak. Transmission fluid is different from the motor oil in that it does not burn. So if you check the fluid level is low, and you have a leak, no doubt about that. You need to get fixed.
Methods of leadership and power steering
If you can not run, you can not go to any place to go (unless it is in a straight line). Components such as directing the ball joints and tie rod ends wear out over time and can cause failure. If you start hearing voices when going over bumps and turning the steering wheel, is a sure sign of these pieces can be ported, and we must consider this issue. However, if you have a large number of tools, you'll want to take it to a professional.
Power steering fluid is hydraulic fluid that transmits power through a "direct." He worked in the guidance system led by the pump piston on each side of the rack command, which allows you to turn the wheels. Like all liquids, it does not last forever. The ages of the cars, direction and components such as O-rings wear out, break, and the pollution of the liquid. This causes the pump power steering to work harder and faster wear. Power Steering fluid replacement is cheaper than replacement of pump power steering. These two items are cheaper than replacing the damaged rack directing power, which is the words of the men NPR Talk of the car, and will require you to take a home equity loan to replace the small. If you have an old car (and since you're reading this, you have most likely), you will probably numbered car.
How do the management?
Ask the manager looked at by a professional when you start hearing strange noises. If you hear the groaning of the complaint or move the wheel, it is a sign of your pump can be ready to go. You have changed the Power Steering fluid according to the manufacturer's instructions. And check the fluid level, because short of the liquid will ruin your pump fast enough.
All aboard the electric train
Force of the train of the car parts that reflect the work and energy from the engine and gearbox in the movement of the car.
By the drivetrain that the owners of old cars have to worry about most is the CV joints or boots to the axis of the drive. If you look under the car near the wheels, and you'll see the paint and rubber on the axis, which is to resume the "boot", and that protects the joint biography that have the pressure of the lubricating grease and bearing the moving parts, which include the relationship between the drive shaft and wheel hubs. CV stands for "constant speed", which is an important element for the transfer of engine power to the wheels.
CV boots are often on the old cars and front wheel drive four wheels. It is important that you replace them before they fail because they link the drive shaft to the axles of the wheels. There are warning signs you can pick up in the case of pay attention. The most common is the cracking noise, you can hear when you play the wheel. If you look under your car from time to time, you can see with the naked eye the case of the boot rubber, and determine whether there were cracks in the trunk. If this is the case, and this reform is easy and cheap. But if left, could grease to escape through the cracks and the CV joint may fail. Now you're looking at hundreds of dollars instead of a few.
How CV joints?
Just check your CV boots every so often, for example when changing the oil. Once the cracks are detected, and the replac
