Top
tips to save you money and aggro
Here are a few
useful tips for making your old car last longer, be more reliable and
use less fuel, so that you can spend all your cash on holidays instead:
1. Many
drivers, when they are waiting to exit from a side road which faces
uphill, will put the car in first gear and slip the clutch to prevent
them from rolling backwards. This is a bad idea as it wears the
clutch plates faster than anything else. Applying the handbrake
is free; a new clutch costs £100-£200.
2. If
your car has a manual choke, use it as sparingly as possible.
Once the engine is running, push the choke control in as soon as you
can (without stopping the engine of course). Too much choke not
only wastes fuel, it also wears out the engine.
3. So does
thrashing the engine mercilessly from cold. Give it a chance to
warm up before you use high revs and full throttle.
4. If your car
is difficult to start from cold, but the battery is OK, try replacing
spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor arm (also points and condensor
if the car is old enough to have them). This should cost you
around £20-£25, and will eliminate 95% of starting problems.
5. Modern car
batteries only last about 3 years. If yours is older than this,
it may be worth replacing it before it dies, rather than crossing
your fingers and hoping it lasts. It probably won't, and you
are better off changing it at a time which is convenient to you.
6. If your car
will not start, and you run the battery flat trying to start it, do
not leave it in this condition. A battery left discharged for
any length of time will die completely.
7. A loud
squealing sound from the engine probably means the fan belt is
loose. Tightening it will take about 30 seconds, and prevents
the battery from going flat when you drive with the lights on.
8. Antifreeze
is not an optional extra, even in the summer. It prevents rust
forming in your engine and blocking up the radiator. A 2 litre
can of antifreeze is much cheaper than a new radiator.
9. If your car
pulls to one side, the front tracking is probably out of adjustment,
which means the tyres will be wearing away on one side. Having
the tracking adjusted by a garage is cheaper than two new tyres.
10. Clean your
car regularly, and make sure you hose away the mud and rubbish under
the wheelarches, around the suspension mounts and especially round
the inside of the wheelarch lip. Otherwise your car will soon
resemble a string vest.
11. Unleaded
petrol - you will be amazed how many old cars will run on it.
If you are still using LRP, ring up the local dealer (or the AA) and
ask whether your car is suited to the cheaper fuel.
12. If your
windscreen wipers smear and don't clean the screen properly, try
taking the wiper blades out of their holders, turning them round
through 180 degrees and refitting them. Don't ask me why this
works, but it does.
13. If a
warning light comes on, or one of the gauges indicates trouble, stop
and investigate. My mate Graham carried on driving, and became
the only person I know who has blown up a VW Golf.
14. Hole in
the radiator? Clean up the area as best you can, then cover it
in Araldite. This usually works, and costs next to nothing.
15. Worn
brakes are hardly ever expensive to have fixed. Major accidents
are always expensive. If your brakes frighten you, get them
looked at.
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