7 Mistakes You’re Shortening the Life of Your Car

Put the brakes on these common mistakes to help keep your car on the road and out of the shops.

The current economic climate has been tough for many of us. People are looking for good ways to stretch their rupees and cut back on spending. This extends to the cars we drive, too. It makes a lot more sense for us to keep our current vehicles running in good condition than to be forced to go out and buy a new one.

Most of us know that performing routine maintenance like oil changes and transmission services prevent mechanical failures in the long run and promote the car’s overall health.

But did you know that your driving habits also have a direct effect on the lifespan of your vehicle? The way you drive in different conditions can affect your engine’s fuel economy as well as its lifespan.

This is why we have devised gypsee drive, an one of a kind platform, driven by an Artificial Intelligent model which will guide you to make better driving choices using the voice assistant and alerts. Since a new engine can easily cost several lakhs of rupees, taking care of the one you’ve got will certainly pay off in the long run.

In this article, we’ll take a look at seven easy ways to modify your driving habits in order to make sure your engine will last a long time. Many of the tips we’ll discuss are low-impact in terms of how they affect your daily commute, but go a long way to save you money.

Driving through potholes

Your car’s suspension is great at soaking up imperfections in the road, but it has a breaking point. Sometimes it’s impossible to avoid potholes, but driving through them at any speed faster than a crawl can bend wheel rims and brake struts.

Not driving your vehicle enough

Too much time without exercise will kill your car’s battery, misshape its tires, and can leave it with a tank full of stale gasoline. If you want to store a car for a long period of time, be sure to find a suitable (and preferably indoor) location.

Then give it a good wash to protect the paint, overfill its tires to help keep them round, use some peppermint-oil-soaked mothballs to protect it from rodents, and hook the battery up to a trickle charger to keep it alive

Holding the shifter

This one’s for those few remaining manual-transmission drivers: Don’t rest your hand on the gear shifter! While it may feel natural to keep your hand on the stick shift, doing so will result in premature wear to the transmission’s components.

Using incorrect or discount parts and fluids

You might be keeping up with maintenance, but going cheap by using substandard or incorrect parts and fluids is bad. Regular oil changes require the use of the correct-viscosity oil, not just the least expensive stuff you can find in a big-box store. Spark plugs should have the correct heat range. Fuel and air filters should be name-brand, original-equipment-equivalent or better, not just the lowest-priced item you can find.

Driving your car cold

If you were about to go jogging on a 30-degree day, you would probably stretch first, right? So why drive your car on a cold day without letting it warm up first?Cold weather is tough on a car’s engine.

It takes more energy to start an engine when it’s frosty out because the battery carries a lower charge. The oil is cold and thick, which makes it harder for the moving parts to operate. In addition, gasoline is harder to burn when it’s cold.

A cold engine needs time to get up to temperature. Avoid full-throttle acceleration until the temperature gauge reads ‘normal.

Slamming the brakes too often

A heavy foot on the brake pedal creates abnormal wear to pads and rotors, resulting in more-frequent replacements.

Overspeed very often

Unleashing your inner Michael Schumacher on public roads is bad for many reasons. Driving too fast wastes gas, increases emissions, and of course, puts you at the risk of getting ticketed or being involved in a wreck.
But did you know excessive speed is also bad for your engine?

It forces your engine work harder by pumping and using more fuel, and forces the pistons and other moving parts to work at a higher speed than is optimal.

The ideal cruising speed for most cars and trucks is about 50 to 55 miles per hour (80.5 to 88.5 kilometers per hour). But to cruise at 60 miles per hour (96.6 kilometers per hour) requires about 73 percent more horsepower. And to cruise at 70 miles per hour (112.7 kilometers per hour), it requires nearly 160 percent more horsepower.

Think how much harder your engine has to work to put out that kind of power. Repeated brisk acceleration and braking is hard on suspensions and tires.