Proper auto maintenance makes better gas mileage

Not that you needed a reason to perform regular maintenance on your vehicle, but this is one area you don’t want to cut out of your budget if you can keep from it.

Did you know that regular maintenance on your vehicle can get you better gas mileage?  It’s true.  And with gas running near $4 per gallon, you want to get the most miles possible from your automobile.

The top things to have done to get more bang for your energy buck are:

1)     Tire Inflation: check the air pressure in your tires, and check the tire rims for the minimum and maximum you are supposed to have in them – over and under inflation can cause havoc with your mileage.

2)     Oil Changes: when you don’t get your oil changed, the oil becomes sludge like, thick, and hard for your engine to cut through for maximum results – keep your engine running smoothly and your wallet will thank you for it.

3)     Air Filters: changing your oil filter every other oil change will keep air flowing easily throughout your car, the dirtier it gets, the harder your engine has to work to keep cool, taking the focus off of your MPH.

4)     Spark Plugs: similar to the other things you must change, if you don’t keep your spark plugs firing correctly, your engine will slow down, sputter, and consume more gasoline as you try to get from place to place.

5)     Belts: the belts on your car (although most only have one major serpentine belt these days) are important to the performance of your engine – if it starts to fray, or worse break, your engine will not work at top performance, requiring more fuel to stay running.

No matter how small the maintenance seems to be to you at this moment, when these things sit too long they become larger problems, causing bad fuel consumption, bad engine performance, and ultimately bad automobile functionality – it can die!

Before this happens to you, get your car checked, tuned, and fuels changed so you can stay on the road and stay safe!