It doesn’t matter how long you are planning to drive your car. If you have bought new and you plan to sell it in a few years, you will want to keep it in good condition. It will make your driving safer and peril-free and it’ll also increase the price of your car at resale. If you’ve bought a used car, these points are still valid and even to a higher degree. So, here is how to make your car cover more miles.

Lubrication

The parts inside the engine suffer from lots of friction and very high temperatures. This is why it is incredibly important to help those parts deal with the destructive forces inside the engine and the best way is to use high-quality engine oil. The best and the most expensive option would be synthetic engine oil. Moreover it is very important to follow the viscosity recommendations from the manufacturer, and very often even the kind of oil. Another very important thing is not to skip the oil change intervals.

Using the right fuel

We hope there is no need to explain why using petrol in a diesel car or vice versa is bad. Even if you didn’t know this for some reason, this should be the only thing you need to know – DON’T DO IT! With this section we were thinking about the octane rating. This often escapes people, since the car will usually run more of less normally with the wrong fuel octane rating inside. Moreover, most people think that the octane rating is the most important for the proper performance and it is, but this is due to its stability. The fuel is more stable as the octane rating increases. This means that this determines the amount of compression that the fuel can take before ignition occurs. This means that the compression inside your engine and the ignition timing are set so as to suit a certain octane rating. Using a different one can cause bad operation, rough idling or even detonations which can cause serious issues with the engine. Either way, using the wrong fuel can only be detrimental to the engine and fixing the engine is anything but cheap.

Cooling system

We’ve already talked about the high temperatures inside the engine, so the importance of cooling system should be clear. The best way to keep this perfect is to flush and refill fresh coolant every two years. There are also coolants which are non-aqueous. There is no need to change these ever, but this means that you need to check the other parts of the cooling system regularly. Anyway, a badly maintained cooling system can result in serious issues including engine damage that is beyond repair.

Serpentine belt replacement

Even though this does depend on a particular car, these usually last about 50,000 miles. These are used to power loads of things in your car, including water pump, aircon, alternator and power steering. Waiting for it to break before replacing is not an option, since it can leave you stranded and it can also cause serious damage, especially if it powers the water pump.

Be gentle

Generally speaking, each and every part of the car needs care and maintenance. However, aside from the regular maintenance which is paramount, your driving style plays a big role in the longevity of your car. Changing everything in time is extremely important, but don’t expect that this will save your car if you put it under loads of unnecessary stress on a daily basis. This can go as far as damaging your chassis. There is a reason why sports cars are sports cars and it is not the power rating.