It is best to consult your owner's manual. However, a general recommendation would be every 5,000 kilometres (3,000 miles) if the driving is stop-and-go style. If the majority of your driving is on the highway, a maximum maintenance interval of 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) is recommended. What's the secret of keeping a car in good enough shape to last a number of years? Do it by the book. Follow the recommendations in your car owner's manual. Good maintenance is the key to long vehicle life, and the owner's manual that comes with your car tells you what maintenance to do and when to do it. Many people ignore the owner's manual. Shell once asked more than 100 drivers and found that half of them had not even read their owner's manual all the way through. And about one in 10 had never read it at all. That can be awfully tough on a car. And some people read it, but then follow only part of it. They wouldn't miss an oil change, for instance, but they'll go for years without checking the transmission fluid. Every item in the owner's manual is there for a reason! Your service station mechanic can provide excellent advice about vehicle maintenance, and can do the various inspections required. However, it's also wise to do regular checks yourself, every few times you fill up with gasoline. If you feel uncomfortable about doing your own checks, one solution might be to go to a full-serve location every third or fourth time, and ask for a complete look under the hood. Air filters are sometimes simply tapped on the floor or workbench a few times and then put back in the car instead of being replaced. Why? Air filters are designed to stop dust from entering the engine. They also keep out bugs, buts of paper, grass, straw and other debris which could otherwise pass into the motor and plug things up. Most cars travel on paved city roads most of the time, so there is very little debris for filters to capture. if the filter is relatively clean, a mechanic may decide that it doesn't need replacing and will just tap it to remove loose dirt. However, the other thing the mechanic should check for is holes in the cardboard filter mesh. This is done by putting a light up to the air filter from the inside, and checking to see if light is shining through any pinhole-sized spaces in the mesh. If the mechanic can see any light, the filter needs replacing. If you check an air filter yourself, make sure you are careful if you tap it clean, making sure you don't damage it. And remember that filters are cheap insurance; if you have any doubts, they should always be replaced. My car has just had its fuel filter changed. Is this normal? Have I used dirty fuel? Gasoline is filtered many times before it reaches the engine. it is even filtered at the gas pump before it goes into the vehicle's tank. Still, with all this filtering there can be a few small particles of dirt in it. More importantly, there can also be bits of dirt and debris in the vehicle's gas tank, or on the bottom of the gas cap. There may also be faulty sealing gaskets, rust form the tank or fuel lines, and any number of other sources of dirt. To keep these potentially harmful specks out of the engine, a fuel filter is attached to the gas line as a last line of defence. These filters are usually quite small -- only a couple of centimetres (an inch or less) long. After many tanks of fuel, the tiny amounts of grit from all of these sources can finally plug the fuel filter sufficiently that your engine stumbles or misses. Unfortunately, it is often the last tank of gasoline purchased before the filter is checked that gets the blame. This is incorrect; the filter is there specifically to protect the engine from the tiny amounts of dirt that the vehicle manufacturers know cannot be avoided. The fuel filter makes a valuable contribution to the long life of your engine. What is the significance of excessive smoke occasionally emitted in the exhaust? Normally, a vehicle's exhaust is virtually colourless (except in winter when it looks white because it is mostly water vapour mixing with the cold air). However, under some conditions, exhaust may look black or blue, indicating engine or ignition problems. Blue smoke in most cases is an indication of excessive burning of engine oil. This isn't caused by poor-quality oil, but is instead more likely the result of oil blowing past the piston and entering the combustion chamber, causing it to burn simultaneously with the fuel/air mixture. This condition could be caused by faulty oil control piston rings, badly-worn cylinders, low viscosity oil or too high an oil level. Black smoke indicates too rich a fuel/air mixture. This may be caused by the air supply being restricted by a dirty air cleaner or a stuck carburetor choke. It may also be caused by a sticking carburetor float circuit, or it may simply indicate that the gasoline volatility isn't['t properly matched to the operating conditions (either too volatile or not volatile enough). What causes water to accumulate in a gas tank? What can be done about it? Water in a gasoline tank can come from many sources. People are sometimes careless about where they place the gas cap while filling their car, putting it in a rainy location, a damp surface or in snow. Air also contains water vapour, and gas tanks and fuel systems "breath" in moist air (particularly when the cap is off). In a similar fashion, the large storage tanks at refineries and service stations also breath, and trace quantities of moisture can collect and dissolve in the gasoline. Trace amounts of water can also collect from fuel pipelines, various distribution stages -- even from rain splashing off the gasoline pump nozzle. None of these alone is likely to cause problems, but over time these trace amounts can collect and grow large enough to cause concern. Refinery and service station tanks are checked frequently, and any excessive amounts of water in them is removed. The solution for the much smaller gas tank is to use gasline antifreeze. Gas tanks are designed to trap water at the bottom (look for the wavy, sort of corrugated bottom surface of the tank). But a moving car can temporarily mix the water into the fuel, creating potential problems. In winter, this water can flow into fuel lines and freeze, clogging the lines and reducing flow of gasoline into the engine. This problem is particularly common right around the freezing mark. One practical way of reducing the problem is to keep the fuel level above half, and to use gasline antifreeze to "dry out" the fuel tank. How can I tell if my car needs a wheel alignment? To determine whether your car needs a wheel alignment, test the steering and "feel" of the car when driving along a flat, straight section of road where there is no traffic or other potential hazard. If you can feel a slight pull to either side when you are moving at a steady speed on a flat road, or if there is a slight pull to either side when you gently apply the brakes, it's time for a wheel alignment. And remember, in addition to impairing steering safety, the need for a wheel alignment also means that if repairs are not done promptly, bad tire wear will be the next problem. How can I tell if my car needs a tune-up? First, keep a running check on your mileage. Figure your average mileage for every three tanks of fuel. When the average has dropped by 15 per cent or more, chances are your vehicle needs a tune-up or other work. Other symptoms include stalling, low power, rough idling, knocking, hard starting, and the engine continuing to run when you turn off the ignition. Do I need a bug screen over my vehicle's radiator? And if too many bugs get on my radiator, will my vehicle's engine get overheated? The decision on whether or not to use a bug screen is up to you, but usually it isn't necessary. If you do a lot of driving in the country or live where there are a lot of bugs, you might want to buy one. However, you should consider that it would take a very large bug buildup to cause overheating, and that this overheating would occur whether the bugs where on the radiator itself, or on a bug screen -- the flow of air would still be restricted. In either case, sufficient buildup of bug carcasses could prevent proper air flow to the radiator. You might want to consider an alternate solution for keeping your radiator bug free. Take the garden hose, put it behind the radiator and use the water pressure to "back flush" the radiator and wash the bugs out. But do not use a brush to scrub the radiator; you might damage it. Water pressure will be enough to clean it. Is there any way I can protect my car from the salt used on roads and highways in the winter? Road de-icing salt can certainly rust and corrode the body and underside of your vehicle. In preparing for the winter onslaught of road salt you should wash, wax and polish the body to provide a buffer zone between any salt or moisture and the painted surface. Waxing a car not only preserves a clean and shiny finish, but it also seals the pores on the painted surface against dust, salt, water vapour and rust. A hard or pasty type of was is better than the soft and liquid waxes, but any wax is better than none. Rustproofing the underside of your vehicle is also a good investment. But the simplest way to prevent salt eating away at your car is regular and frequent washing, paying careful attention to hosing off the chassis, wheel wells and other hard-to-reach areas.
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