A car is a complex mechanism that tends to wear out. To maintain its condition, regular maintenance is necessary. Read about what each driver needs to know about the maintenance of his car in order to extend its service life.

What are the types of maintenance

Daily maintenance – should be carried out by the owner of the car before each departure. It consists of an external inspection of the car, checking the tire pressure and the condition of the headlights. As a rule, drivers rarely conduct it.

TO – 0 – the so-called “zero TO” is carried out after 1,500 km of run (running in). During this maintenance, the oil in the engine and gearbox is changed, as well as the oil filter.

MOT – 1 – is carried out after 15,000 mileage or 1 year of operation. During the “first MOT”, work is carried out on broaching the suspension, monitoring the condition of the units, changing the oil in the engine, oil and air filters.

Maintenance – 2,3,4 … All subsequent maintenance are planned and carried out every 15 thousand kilometers.

Seasonal maintenance is carried out before the onset of the “winter” and “summer” season. His task is to prepare the car for the upcoming weather conditions.

Emergency MOT – is carried out in case of a malfunction, in order to detect and eliminate it.

MOT dates

As mentioned above, scheduled maintenance must be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the manufacturer, which are indicated in the service book.

However, if this book is not, for example, if we are talking about a used car, then you need to go through MOT every 15,000 km. During scheduled maintenance, it is necessary to carry out oil changes in the engine, the replacement of oil, air, and cabin filters, as well as spark plugs – this is a minimum program.

Also, during such services, the master must inspect the condition of the suspension parts and read errors in the engine control unit. Every 60,000 km, it is necessary to diagnose the condition of the timing belt, change the coolant and the power steering pump fluid. These are all general rules, again, more precisely, the replacement dates are indicated in the service book.

It’s important to know

At large branded service stations, there are a number of services that are not particularly needed. They will try to “palm off” them into the general list of procedures only to increase the price list. Therefore, you need to carefully read the list of works and discard all unnecessary services. These may be:

• cleaning the radiator – as a rule, this means washing the part from the outside. There is no sense from this, but it costs money;
• replacement of anthers – the task of anthers is to protect mechanisms from the ingress of dirt and dust. While the anther is whole, even if it is dirty three hundred times from the outside, it is able to perform its function;
• in-depth diagnosis of the suspension – it is not clear how in-depth diagnosis of the suspension differs from the usual one. And an ordinary master is obliged to do so. Therefore, such a tempting offer is nothing more than an attempt to rip off the extra money.

Such a list can be continued for a very long time, therefore the main advice: when going through MOT, you need to carefully follow the actions of the wizard and the list of proposed works, boldly abandoning everything unnecessary.

How can you save on maintenance

While the car is under warranty, the owner is required to undergo maintenance on a branded service. They carry out maintenance only using their spare parts, the cost of which is often very high.

If maintaining the warranty is not so important (or its term has already expired), then the right way to save money is to independently choose and purchase parts.

This way you can avoid extra charges, and you can also be sure of the quality of spare parts, because it is not uncommon for old well-washed parts to be given out for new ones on the service.