3 Out of the Ordinary Ways to Increase Your Car’s Longevity

Most drivers know that regular oil changes and keeping up with routine maintenance are steps in the right direction for car longevity. As long as you follow your service schedule, it’s a good bet that you can keep your car on the road for longer. But, if you’re the type of driver who really wants to keep that vehicle ticking for as long as possible, there are a few unordinary ways to improve your car’s longevity.

Clean It

This might not seem massively out of the ordinary, but you’d be surprised at how many people think washing their vehicle is just about making it look nice. Plenty of drivers neglect to wash their vehicles because it’s either a hassle to do it themselves or it costs too much to go through a commercial wash. Unfortunately, this is not the way to go if you want to keep your car together around that reliable and well-maintained engine. Washing your vehicle cleans away contaminants and abrasive material that can cause corrosion. The paint on your car does more than just make it look nice–it protects the important parts of your car’s body from the elements.

Warm Up

When we say warm up your car before driving, we don’t mean let it sit for five to ten minutes burning gas. However, letting your car warm up for about a minute before driving it can do a lot of good towards the car’s longevity. This is because it does take some time for the oil pump to warm up and distribute the oil throughout the engine. It takes a little bit more time for all the parts to get fully lubricated. If you jump in your car, turn the key, then start driving, it can increase the friction between engine components, which will wear them out faster. It’s also not a bad idea to take it slow for the first few miles while your engine gets up to operating temperature and all the fluids start circulating.

Drive Hard Occasionally

You’ve probably heard about how it saves on gas to accelerate slowly and maintain an even speed. In the name of efficiency, this is definitely true. However, when it comes to your car’s longevity, you might want to occasionally drive harder to help your engine clean out carbon deposits. These deposits can foul your valves, throttle body, and intake manifold, among other parts. Getting the RPMs up burns fuel faster and hotter, which helps clean out these deposits. So yes, you can floor it occasionally in the name of cleaning out the carbon. There are a few safety caveats to this, though. Don’t drive hard until your car is fully warmed up and make sure that you’re doing it in a safe place with plenty of open space in front of you.

Now that you know some unordinary ways to increase your car’s longevity, let’s not forget the ordinary ways, such as not ignoring maintenance issues and not skimping on important parts or professional work.