Use Less Car And Drive Less Mileage? Car Maintenance Tips And Key Points Of Maintenance Of Engine Oil And Brake Fluid

Many drivers have this experience. The vehicle has been left in a parking space for a month or two without being driven. When they want to use it, they either cannot start the vehicle, or the braking feels strange, or even the engine malfunctions.

In fact, parking a vehicle for a long time is more likely to cause problems than driving it every day.

Many people know that the engine oil will deteriorate and the battery will lose power. However, many people are not clear about when exactly it should be replaced, how to judge it, and what misunderstandings exist.

Today we will start from the actual situation and talk about the subtleties of car maintenance that are easily overlooked to help you save unnecessary maintenance costs.

Engine oil doesn’t just depend on mileage, it also needs to be changed when the time comes.

Many people think that if the car is not driven much, the oil does not need to be changed.

This idea is actually very dangerous.

After opening, the engine oil will gradually come into contact with the oxygen in the air, causing an oxidation reaction. Even if the car is stationary, its lubrication performance will also decline significantly in about a year.

If you continue to use severely oxidized engine oil, the piston inside the engine will not be effectively lubricated, and the cylinder wall will not be effectively lubricated. At the same time, the heat dissipation capacity will become worse. If this continues for a long time, cylinder pullout or excessive wear may occur.

The maintenance intervals required by most automobile manufacturers are every 5,000 kilometers, or every 10,000 kilometers, and there is also a time condition, that is, half a year, or one year.

No matter whether you have run enough miles or not, as long as the time is up, Oil filter All must be replaced.

Especially for friends who don’t use their vehicles very frequently, it is recommended to arrange maintenance according to the time points, rather than just staring at the odometer.

The water content in brake fluid exceeds the standard and is an invisible killer that cannot stop the brakes.

When there is a problem with the car's braking system, in many cases it is not the brake pads that are worn, but the brake fluid that has deteriorated.

Brake fluid is highly water-absorbent. Even if the brake fluid bottle is designed to be sealed, moisture in the air will still slowly penetrate.

This process will not stop when the vehicle is parked for a long time.

When the water content in the brake fluid exceeds 4% , the problem arises.

When the car brakes, as the temperature gradually rises, the moisture in it turns into water vapor due to heat. As a result, a section of gas will appear inside the car's brake oil pipe.

Gas has the property of being compressed. When in this situation, if you step on the brakes again, the pedal will become soft, and you may even press the pedal to the bottom. However, the braking force cannot be transmitted to the wheels at all, which is extremely dangerous.

Under normal circumstances, brake fluid 2 years or 40,000 kilometers Needs to be replaced once.

If your car is often parked and not turned on, it is recommended that the maintenance technician use a test pen to measure the water content during each maintenance. Do not wait until the brakes become soft before handling it.

If the battery is running out of power, idling can solve the problem.

The most direct problem if the car has been stored for a long time is that it cannot start. The reason is battery Loss of power.

Even if all electrical devices are turned off, the battery itself will still discharge itself, and this process cannot be avoided at all.

The colder the weather, the faster the power loss.

Some old batteries that are more than three or four years old may have a voltage so low that they cannot start the engine after being parked for less than ten days.

Don't panic when encountering this situation. The easiest way is to find a friend's car, or use a power bank to start the vehicle, and then keep idling in place for about twenty minutes. In this way, the generator can charge a considerable amount of electricity into the battery.

If conditions permit, it is better to drive the vehicle around for a while. After the engine speed increases, the voltage and current used to charge the vehicle will be greater.

If the vehicle will not be used for a long time and you do not want to perform frequent power-on operations, you can remove the positive terminal of the battery in advance, so that the rate of self-discharge will be significantly reduced.

Furthermore, even if the tire is stationary, it will naturally age and develop tiny cracks. When checking the condition of the vehicle, don't forget to take a look at the sidewalls for cracks.

Don’t use high viscosity engine oil indiscriminately. The more viscous it is, the more protective it will be.

Some groups known as veteran drivers believe that increasing the viscosity of engine oil can better protect the engine, especially those car owners who are worried about cylinder failure.

This idea is actually a common misunderstanding.

When designing each engine, engineers have already determined the most suitable engine oil grade based on many factors such as the fitting clearance between parts and the operating temperature.

Many Japanese cars stipulate the use of 0W-20 because the internal processing precision of the engine is particularly high and the clearance is very small.

If you replace it with an engine oil with high viscosity characteristics such as 5W-40, the oil film will be too thick and will not flow into those small gaps, ultimately failing to provide lubrication.

At the same time, engine oil with high viscosity has poor fluidity. During cold start, the oil pump takes longer to deliver the oil to various parts. However, 75% of the engine's wear occurs precisely at this stage of cold start.

When the car is already burning oil, changing to high-viscosity oil can slow down the oil consumption in a short period of time. However, this is only a temporary means to solve the current problem. The fundamental solution is still to check the piston gas ring and oil ring.

The maintenance priorities for a vehicle that has been parked for a long time are different from those for a vehicle that is driven every day.

The engine oil needs to be changed according to time, the moisture content of the brake fluid must be measured regularly, and the battery must be prevented from losing power. If these three things are completed, most malfunctions caused by parking the vehicle can be avoided.

As for the engine oil label, follow the instructions honestly and don't increase the viscosity yourself.

When it comes to car maintenance, the biggest fear is taking things for granted.