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“CARRYING OUT PREVENTATIVE maintenance on a car can save you a fortune over time.”
This is according to motor expert Bob Flavin, who recommends giving your car some time and attention on a regular basis in order to get ahead of costly problems down the line.
“Getting used to doing stuff for your car will save you money because you’ll be able to predict things going wrong in advance,” he says.
But what are the tasks that can be carried out by a regular car owner, and which should be left to the experts? We spoke to Bob about the tasks any car owner can carry out – and how they can save you money in the long run.
If you tend to leave your car as is until a light pops up on your dashboard, this tip is for you. Bob recommends carrying out regular checks of things like your windshield wipers and tyres instead of waiting until they cause an issue.
“These things are often left on the long finger until you have to do an NCT, and then they become ‘stress purchases,’” he says. “At that stage, you’re going to be forking out for all of these things at once. It’s a huge expense.
“Doing a weekly check yourself is a good way to help prevent this. It’s making sure the oil is always topped up, checking your windscreen washer fluid, checking the wiper condition and checking the tyres. These are things you can do without needing a mechanic’s license. Then, when it comes to needing a service, you’ll just be paying for the normal stuff.”
Although it’s a bigger task and will likely require a mechanic, rotating your tyres is well worth doing, says Bob. “Rotating your tyres will get you an extra 1,000km from them. What happens is the front tyres go at the back of the car and the back tyres go at the front of the car. This is because the front tyres do all the gripping and tend to wear out first.”
This can mean that you get “much longer” from one set of tyres, says Bob, and means all four tyres can be replaced at once, rather than one at a time. In general, it’s recommended that you rotate your tyres every 8,000km – 12,000km or so, while Bob recommends checking their quality every three months.
“A tyre is the only contact you have with the surface of the road,” says Bob – so it’s no surprise that keeping an eye on tyre pressure is another important task to carry out.
Problems like slow punctures can easily go unnoticed without regular checks, and if left unrepaired, they can be dangerous, says Bob: “If the tyre is not in good condition and you hit those brakes to stop yourself in the event of a collision, one thing that can happen is that the tyre won’t brake properly.”
Checking the tyre pressure is something that should be done weekly, he says. To know what your tyre pressure should be, Bob recommends looking inside the door on the driver’s side or under the fuel filler cap for a panel with different numbers on it.
“This panel tells you what pressure to put in each tyre on the car depending on the load. So if you regularly carry five people, the pressure is different than regularly just carrying one person or two people in the car,” he explains. “You should put the pressure to that every week and that way you’re getting not only the best grip, you’re getting the best performance and you’re getting the best fuel economy as well.”
If the only time your bonnet is lifted is when your car is at the mechanic’s, you (and your wallet) may benefit from taking a look under the hood once in a while. “So many people leave the bonnet down for a couple of years, then a light comes on and they’ve to go to a dealership and there’s a few thousand euro worth of work that needs to be done,” says Bob.
“At that point, so much has gone wrong with the car it’s now going to be in the garage for two weeks, you’re going to have to rent a car and there’s lots going on. Everybody should lift the bonnet on their car and have a look at what’s happening under there. Most things are laid out in a way that’s quite easy to look at, like checking your brake fluid and checking your brake pads. Those kind of things can all be done by a home user.
“It’s really just a visual inspection – you’re just looking to see if everything is topped up and it’s there. The more familiar you become, the more money you save over time and you start to learn how easy it is to look after your own car.”
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