All drivers are well aware that vehicle maintenance is part of its operation. However, there is still a category of car owners who believe that no one needs a scheduled vehicle inspection with the replacement of spare parts recommended by the manufacturer and that it is simply a waste of money.
Is it really? What is scheduled maintenance? What is it like? What does it include and how often should it be done for different car brands? Is it necessary to do this at all? Experts answer questions, express their opinions and give advice.
So. Why carry out routine maintenance?
First of all, you need to understand that car maintenance itself is a preventive measure that is aimed at preventing possible problems in the early stages. Those who believe that waiting for a part to fail and then replacing it will be more economical than undergoing scheduled maintenance are deeply mistaken. Any car service center will confirm that car repairs are much more expensive. And even if you have a new car of a global brand, the laws of physics work on its units in the same way as on cars with high mileage, so even a small error in operation or a malfunction identified during diagnostics allows you to avoid serious breakdowns or even accidents.
Moreover, unlike cars of previous generations, a modern car is a complex of complex units controlled by electronics, so it cannot be done without computer diagnostics and other measures.
Useful tips
Tinting car windows, despite its apparent simplicity, is a rather serious task that requires a certain approach. First of all, the car must be properly prepared.
When drying after gluing, do not use a hair dryer. This is a common mistake when applying tint to a car. To speed up drying, drivers try to warm up the car glass as best as possible. At best, you will get a crumpled film that will quickly fail. It is much more dangerous to overheat the windshield and rear windows. They are tightly inserted into the body and can easily crack when heated.
Therefore, you should also not glue the film to the car if the windshield is chipped. When heated, the surface may crack. Of course, tinting glued to the inside will keep the material from further destruction, but over time the crack will still increase and can make the glass unusable.
In winter, you can speed up drying even in a cold garage. A heat gun is used for this. The temperature is set so that the air warms up, but is not dangerous for fuels and lubricants. Direct the air flow away from the machine, preferably onto an iron sheet. This way you can ensure uniform heating of the air in the garage. This way you can speed up drying to one or two days.
If immediately after gluing the tint on the car looks cloudy, you should not re-glue it. Over time, everything will return to normal. Once the moisture dries and the glue polymerizes, everything will look great. Cloudiness is normal for tinting that has just been applied to a car.
How much does maintenance cost and can you save money on it?
Obviously, a technically trained car owner can carry out some types of work independently. In this case, a maintenance schedule must still be drawn up and if necessary, for example, computer diagnostics of systems or other complex activities, you should contact a car service center.
All this is true for cars with high mileage. But if it is necessary to maintain the warranty of a showroom car, you cannot do without contacting authorized auto centers and undergoing maintenance there with the appropriate marks in the service books. You can save money only if the service allows you to undergo maintenance with its consumables.
In addition, you need to understand that prices for maintenance at authorized car services, even within the same official dealer, can vary greatly. This also applies to the materials they use. Practice shows that if you are not lazy, call different services and compare prices, you can save up to 20% on work and up to 50% on materials.
The conclusion is simple. Scheduled maintenance is necessary, you can try to save money on them, but you absolutely cannot risk your car and ignore them!
Zero maintenance for a car: a scam or a necessity?
The answer to this question partly lies in the area of financial interests of dealers, who most often sell the TO-0 service or sometimes offer it for free in order to have a formal reason to “lure” the client to the service and have the opportunity to sell him some additional services.
The recommended service interval for a vehicle is determined by its manufacturer. Regular maintenance at the dealership is one of the conditions for maintaining the warranty on the car. Depending on the model, TO-1 should be carried out after 10,000 km of travel, TO-2 should be carried out with a mileage of more than 30,000 km, and TO-3 is recommended to be carried out every 60,000 km.
It is proposed to carry out zero maintenance before maintenance-1, that is, at a mileage of 1000 to 3000 km. Just at this mileage, the new car has already passed its first run-in, and therefore the dealer recommends doing some work on the car. The TO-0 regulations usually include, for example, checking technical fluids, changing the oil and oil filter, checking the vehicle's chassis, tire pressure, battery condition, performance of lighting devices, and much more.
Dealers most often do not force their clients to do zero maintenance, but they strongly recommend this procedure. The dealer's statements that without TO-0 the client will be void of the warranty are deception and manipulation. Many realize this and act more sophisticatedly, inviting the motorist to a TO-0, motivating this by the fact that during the first kilometers of the run, the components and mechanisms of the car are run-in. For example, engine parts “grind” against each other, which can cause metal shavings to get into the oil. And it is better to drain this break-in oil and fill the engine with new oil, which will then need to be replaced at the first maintenance.
Automaker recommendations usually do not include zero maintenance. And although service mechanics sometimes observe the same shavings when they drain oil from the engines of new cars, automakers will insist to the last that their engines do not require break-in, since they are assembled with high quality and are designed for high mileage. And such an opinion seems plausible, especially given the fact that the components of modern power units are made from more efficient materials than before and are designed more precisely. This means that during break-in they give a minimum amount of those same chips.
A more common opinion among motorists is that you should only do zero maintenance if the dealer offers it for free. Otherwise, such maintenance is another trick of the dealership company, aimed at selling work imposed on the motorist. In any case, you can do zero maintenance; it won’t make the car any worse. However, it is unlikely that anything bad will happen to the engine and its oil if the owner does not come to TO-0, but brings his car to TO-1, following the automaker’s recommendations for car maintenance.
Scheduled maintenance
Many car maintenance jobs can be done yourself. The simpler the car, the more components and parts you can replace in it yourself. If there is a lot of electronics or you don’t know which side to even approach the engine from, it’s better to study it or go to a service station.
It is advised to check tire pressure once a month, but few people do this. Visually check tire wear; wheel alignment may need to be adjusted. Check the levels of operating fluids: oils, antifreeze or antifreeze.
The leader in the production of spark plugs is the Japanese company NGK. NGK spark plugs are reliable if they are original.
Checking the timing belt or chain
According to the general standards for cars with internal combustion engines with a timing belt drive, the belt should be changed after 100,000 km, and the alternator belt after 60,000. But you should not rely on this information. For each car, the manufacturer sets its own standards.
In addition, some engine designs allow you to easily replace the belt even after it breaks, but in most engines the valves bend when the belt breaks. There is a special article on our website called: “Do valves bend at:”. It contains a table with brands and models of cars and engine modifications, which indicates what will happen if the timing belt breaks.
Checking the timing belt tension will show whether it needs to be tightened or loosened, and will also show whether there is wear, scuffing, or delamination on the belt.
Checking the engine oil level
Some internal combustion engine designs of modern passenger cars do not have a dipstick for determining the oil level in the power unit. In this case, there is a special symbol on the instrument panel that receives the necessary information from the oil level sensor.
There are also general standards for changing engine oil and gearbox oil. There is a lot of different data on the Internet, some write to change it after 10,000 km, others after 15 thousand km.
Replacing windshield wiper blades
It would seem, why change them, they do not affect the operation of the engine, but worn-out windshield wiper blades begin to damage the glass, creating scratches. Therefore, if you see that the elastic band of the brush is cracked and has become “wooden,” you should replace them and install new soft brushes.
Changing brushes is easy. If it doesn’t work out, it won’t damage any structurally important component of the machine.
Replacing the cabin filter
The cabin filter is a very important element that filters the air entering the car interior.
In different car models, the cabin filter is located in different places. To replace it, you will have to find where it is located, buy a new one and replace it. In the store, just tell the make and model of the car to purchase a suitable filter. A VIN number is not required, although some people write on the Internet to provide the seller with a VIN number.
Replacing the air filter
Many people also neglect replacing the air filter, although it is not expensive and it performs a very important function - filtering the air entering the engine. The instructions will also indicate how many kilometers to change it.
Replacing engine spark plugs
Typically, spark plugs are changed when any problems arise during the operation of the car, for example, the tripping effect.
Practice shows that usually spark plugs work properly up to 45,000 km of vehicle mileage. Some modern spark plugs last three times longer and can be changed after 150,000 km.
A complete list of parts and components of the vehicle to be changed and checked is indicated in the corresponding book. The items listed above are just a small list. You also need to check the brakes, chassis parts, wheels, electronics, etc.
Video: Maintenance expert advice
A vehicle diagnostic card is issued by any accredited service center of the PCA after the vehicle has passed the vehicle inspection. The diagnostic card is a failure-extract in A4 format, which contains tabular values of all information about the car. The result of the inspection is a conclusion about the possibility/impossibility of operating the vehicle for its intended purpose.
The frequency of vehicle inspection depends on the category of the vehicle and the age of the vehicle.
When to undergo inspection on a new car
An important question remains when to undergo technical inspection on a new car.
According to the law, trucks weighing up to 3.5 tons, cars, motorcycles and other motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers not older than three years do not need to undergo technical inspection.
After a three-year period has passed from the year of their manufacture, the technical inspection procedure will become mandatory. The only exceptions are trailers weighing no more than 3.5 tons, when their owners are individuals.
Thus, technical inspection for a new car only needs to be done three years from the date of release of the car. If the car is from 3 to 7 years old, then it needs to undergo maintenance every two years. After 7 years - once a year.
List of documents required to undergo technical inspection
What the operator needs to provide to be able to pass the technical inspection:
- Identity document of a citizen of the Russian Federation.
- Certificates of registration of PTS and vehicles.
- Driving licence.
- If the application is submitted by a person who is not the owner of the car, then the procedure is carried out with a general power of attorney.
All faults discovered by an expert during a vehicle inspection have their own time limits for elimination. You can get acquainted with them from the same specialist, and it is advisable to undergo repeated maintenance with him too. If an accident occurs due to a malfunction that was not previously detected by an expert, the owner of the car, through the insurance company, can demand from the operator the entire amount of damage caused/caused.
Owners of vehicles that are registered outside the Russian Federation and are the property of a foreign state can drive them within the territory of our country only if they have a current Green Card policy. If there is no such thing, then OSAGO insurance is purchased. To purchase, they must present a valid international type certificate (TO), and in its absence, they undergo inspection like everyone else, on a general basis.
Video: What is necessary when passing a technical inspection
A technical inspection of a car is necessary to check its serviceability and technical condition. Depending on the year of manufacture and category of the vehicle, the law provides for different options.
The new rules came into force at the beginning of 2012. The question of what is the timing of inspection for new cars is of great importance for many car owners who have recently purchased a new car.
Despite significant changes made to the current rules, the technical examination procedure is relevant for all categories of cars. However, some of them may not undergo maintenance for a certain time.
This process makes it possible to identify all breakdowns and technical malfunctions and evaluates the performance of the vehicle using an extensive list of parameters.
