Car Maintenance 101

As the gears whirl and turn, the cogs and sprockets revolve, the pistons pump up and down, the chains run their course, all at  thousands of a times a minute.  Pieces of metal shear off in this process.  If they are left in the engine oil they go on to cut into piston surfaces and wear things out incredibly faster.

 

If that weren't enough, the oil is constantly being mixed with air, water vapor and so on, which causes the oil to loose it's slippyness and performance is reduced to protect the vital internal workings from friction damage.

 

Oil filters become clogged, magnetic sump plugs too loaded with metal debri to magnetise any more of the metal fragments out of the oil.

 

All this neglect will definitely lead to highly costly repairs, break downs and even complete engine failure, automatic transmission failure, gear box failure and steering failure.

 

This is the "why we change our cars oily lubricants class 101".

 

Further, "brake oil class 101" stipulates that failure to look after the brake oil, replacing it at the allotted intervals, checking it's fluid levels on a very regular basis, will lead to brake failure and possible death of car occupants and other motorists and pedestarians.  If caught in time, expensive brake replacement parts, such as brake cylinders, may still need to be undertaken.

 

In "grease class 101" we learn that very embarrassing high pitched wheel screaming may be due to ball joints and roller bearings that have not been lubricated.  Immediate replacement of the parts will be required to avoid imminent road side break down.  Further, such breakdown may involve the collapse of the wheel area that the part was associated with.  Genrally speaking, if it moves and aint lubricated, it breaks off.

 

In "Coolant system 101", we learn that our engine dies very fast if it has no water.  We also learn that engine performance can be significantly impaired, as lack of water can also cause cylinder heads to over heat and buckle very quickly - which also releases a constant flow of water into the engine and engine oil.

 

Please advise your instructor of any further classes you may need to take in order to understand our undergraduate degree in  "No maintenance, is a very bad thing."

 

Said jokingly in repsonse to your quip on "What's car maintenance?"

 

Seriously though, you can jump your running costs to around $2 or $3 a km if you don't do all the regular maintenance at the allotted times.

Clara Natoli graciously provided the photo above on car maintenance.  Thank you.

Anyway, I forgot to explain about the engine oil filter.

 

It's suppose to be replaced at the alotted intervals - normally every 10,000 km I think or 6 months, which ever comes first.

 

The engine oil filter does remove metal fragments broken off by the normal working of the engine.

 

However, the filter does eventually choke up with all that regualr debri.  When that happens, you normally wont know, but a bypass valve then comes into play to allow the engine oil to bypass the filter - remain unfiltered.  If the bypasss valve wasn't there, the engine would be destroyed by not having oil running through it anymore.

 

What this means, is that the metal filings are circulating in the oil and are cutting into the surfaces that the oil is suppose to be protecting.

 

The engine runs, but eventually the damage bill becomes quite significant.

 

Such cars are often reffered to as lemons. They may look good, but they cost more than they are worth to fix.

 

So that's "Supplement to oils and filters 101"