Tips For Maintaining Your Car’s Performance

Happy male driver holding steering wheel and driving a car

It is important to maintain your car’s performance. Over the years you have probably heard the same tips for maintaining your vehicle. Some may be convinced that regular oil changes and tire rotations are enough to keep a vehicle in top condition. However, some driving tips won’t cost you a penny on maintenance. These driving tips from Reader’s Digest, however, will notably improve your car’s performance.

Avoid Revving Your Engine

You may have experienced it before. When you sit in your car and start the engine, you press down on the gas pedal even though the car is still in park. Maybe you think revving the engine will help you warm up your car faster. While hearing the engine roar under the hood can make you feel like Paul Walker or Vin Diesel in The Fast and the Furious, revving your engine can harm it. Repeatedly revving your engine can cause needless stress on its elements and potentially damage your vehicle. Instead, allow your engine to warm up gradually without revving it.

Slowly Accelerate

Just as you should not rev your engine when you start up your car, you also should avoid accelerating quickly. Swiftly accelerating can put pressure on your vehicle’s engine. Accelerating quickly and driving fast can cause your engine to work unnecessarily hard, resulting in wear and tear on your engine’s parts as well as escalated fuel consumption and a decline in fuel efficiency. Simply allow your car to gradually accelerate to the speed limit.

Don’t Idle for Too Long

It is also important for your car’s overall performance not to let your engine idle for too long. While it may sound good to let your car warm up on cold mornings, it is not wise to let your vehicle idle for long periods. This is because the engine is not working at its peak temperature when your car is idling, which can cause incomplete fuel combustion and other damage. Your car isn’t idling only when you are warming up the car. When you are stopped at a red light or stuck in traffic, your vehicle is also idling. You can help your car by turning it off if it is going to be still for more than 30 seconds. If you are caught at a long red light, you can also switch the vehicle to neutral.

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Combine Short Driving Trips

You know that your vehicle will gain gradual wear and tear. It happens over time as you take your vehicle out on the road, but maybe you do not have to take your vehicle out so much. Instead of running errands on different days, try doing multiple errands on one trip. It is also ideal to take these errand trips during times when there is less traffic.

As you can see, car maintenance is essential but does not have to cost you more. Merely, follow these simple driving tips that attend to the overall well-being of your car’s engine.

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