Did you know that April is National Car Care Month?

Continuing from last month’s column on how to save money at the gas pump, for this month, I will discuss on how important it is to have a maintenance plan for the vehicle you drive.

When was the last time you took out the new car handbook from your glove box? Let me guess… It’s the day you purchased your vehicle.

If this is true, now is the time to dig out the handbook from your glove box and look it over. You will find important information on how to properly maintain your vehicle. What they do not tell you is that you have options on where you can go to service it beside the dealer.

The handbook provides you with a maintenance schedule for you to go by. This maintenance schedule tells you when you should service your vehicle and what should be serviced. It is good idea to use this as your guide map to keep your vehicle in top condition.

“What does this have to do with increasing my gas mileage?”

It has a lot to do with it. The car manufacture provided you with this information to assist you in keeping the posted mileage per gallon as required by the government.

Let's pull out the service booklet from your glove box from under all that tissue paper and eye glass holders. Blow off the dust and turn to the page called monthly or yearly vehicle maintenance. In this page you will find a schedule of maintenance on what is recommend to be replaced or inspected. This service schedule is outlined by months or mileage. When the vehicle is brand new at 300 miles or three months whichever comes first, there’s not much service that needs to be preformed. But as the vehicle gets older and mileage is racked up, there is more service that is required. Why? As you rack up the mileage the mechanical moving parts naturally wear out. More service is needed to help maintain the engine.

It is believed that as the engine breaks in, your gas mileage should increase. I found it to be true in most cases because the engine needs time to break in and perform at its peak, providing that you maintain the service interval.

I have two recommendations that may be different from your stated service intervals. The first is to stick with our 3000 miles oil service interval. If you are using synthetic oil you could extend the service interval to 6000 miles. The theory is the cleaner the oil the more efficient the engine runs. 

The other recommend service that is not listed has to do with your fuel system. With today's vehicles there is no tune-up that is needed. In some cases, there are no spark plug wires to be replaced. But there are spark plugs that are needed to fire the fuel to keep the engine running. Today's spark plugs have a long life and replacement is not needed until 60,000 to 100,000 miles. What they do not tell you is that you need to service your fuel system. This, in my opinion, is the equivalent of the tune-up for today's vehicle. As mentioned in my previous article, servicing your fuel system requires flushing out your injectors and intake system from carbon. The E85 ethanol fuel that we use today is known to gum up the automotive fuel system. This is the reason you should flush it out at least once a year depending on your driving habits.

In order to perform this task I highly recommend for you to take it to a professional shop to pressure clean it and not by just using chemical additives in your gas tank.

Stick with the program that the car manufacture provided and you should be in good hands. Make sure that you keep all repair and maintenance records and file them away for future reference.

Lastly, do you know what time of the day you should fill your tank with gas?

It is known that gas expands when heated. This means you are able to put more gas in your tank in cool surroundings compared to warm surroundings. The ultimate time to fill your tank with fuel would be early morning or late evening.  Try out this theory and see if it works.