Mar 7, 2012

When it comes to prolonging the life of your car, most people know to get an oil change, to have their tires rotated and to do other routine maintenance. What you may not be aware of are some of the other ways to help keep your car running longer. Here are some tips you may not have heard before from your Charlotte NC Toyota dealer.

 

Beware When Filling Up

If you are ready for a fill up and pull into your regular gas station and find it is tanker day you should drive back out of the parking lot and go elsewhere. When gas station tanks are filled sediments become stirred up. If these sediments were to make it into your vehicle’s gas tank your fuel filters and injectors might become clogged. This can cause your car to have performance issues and sometimes even cause enough damage that your filters and injectors will need to be replaced.

 

Check Your Tire Pressure

Many drivers don’t realize that their tire pressure should be monitored on a regular basis. When your tire pressure is off, your tires will wear prematurely. Additionally, your fuel efficiently will drop and your car may even be unsafe to drive.

 

Good Steering

Proper steering can add to the life of your power steering mechanics. For best results make sure you drive smoothly and don’t jerk or hold your wheel to one side or the other for more than a few seconds at any one time.

 

Don’t Weigh Down Your Key Chains

A final not so common tip is to be aware of heavy key chains. It seems that today everyone is adding items to their key chains. Between key chain cards for discounts at your favorite stores to small flashlights to use at night, mace to use on attackers to key ring pictures of your kids and more, key chains have never been heavier. The problem with this is that when your keys are in the ignition, all that weight can cause your ignition switch to become damaged and even stop working.

 

If you feel your vehicle is not running properly and may be in need of maintenance stop into your North Carolina Toyota dealer today.