Minor servicing of your car is a critical aspect of its maintenance. It involves replacing engine oil, air and oil filters plus a mechanical inspection of key components like braking, fuel and cooling systems. Some people think that they can skip the minor car services and just have the major ones, but that doesn’t work. Reason being by the time your major service is due, your car is already in trouble because of skipping the minor services.
You really do need book an appointment with your mechanic or local car dealership for regular services after the specified period. This should be between 5000-8000 kilometres. Let’s take a look at what some of these minor services involves.
- Your engine oil is drained and replaced with new, clean oil so that your car runs more efficiently. The oil filter is also replaced, so that your engine runs more smoothly.
- All of the fluids are flushed and changed, these include the clutch, transmission, power steering, brake and coolant fluids.
- Your battery is tested to make sure that it holds its charge and is unlikely to need replacing before your next service.
- Your car is given a full safety inspection, to pick up anything that needs replacing or fixing, either now or in the near future.
- A drive test is performed, to make sure that nothing has been missed that could endanger you, your family or anyone else on the road.
- All of the remaining filters (air, fuel and pollen) are inspected to make sure that they don’t need to be replaced.
- The gearbox oil, transfer case and diff oil are checked as well.
- Your wiper blades are inspected to make sure that they don’t need to be replaced.
In general, minor car service covers a lot of territories and helps to make sure that your car is always safe. It also helps to prevent unexpected problems occurring out of the blue, which might cost you a lot of money if they were simply ignored and left too long before being repaired.
A lot of times car dealerships will have special offers on parts and service especially during the festive seasons like Christmas, Easter and holidays. Use this opportunity to visit the authorized dealers who will check the health of your car for free, and identify some issues that were previously ignored. Get more tips on how to maintain your car here.