As vehicle prices continue to rise, it’s important to keep your own vehicle in good working order for as long as possible. The difficulty of this goal varies depending on the model and age of a vehicle, but it’s important to know about these four car parts you shouldn’t ignore during routine maintenance.
Alternator
The alternator is responsible for producing the electricity necessary for all the utilities in your vehicle. These range from your lights to your radio, built-in GPS, and more. Ensuring that all of these remain functional is crucial. However, without a working alternator, your vehicle will rely on the battery to power these utilities and even to start the vehicle.
Tires
Components such as the suspension system and wheel bearings play a role in how well your tires perform, but the tires also suffer after enough time has passed. Ensuring that things such as tire pressure and tire wear stay within ideal parameters is important to prevent any accidents related to the tires and their condition.
Air Filter
A dirty air filter is capable of harming your engine and even lowering the quality of your drives in terms of health risks. As the main defense against dust and other unwanted air particles entering your engine, the air filter is also responsible for keeping the air that blows through your air conditioning system clean and flowing smoothly. For this reason, it’s necessary to take good care of your air filter and to replace it when necessary.
Brake Disc
Paired with the brake pads that push against them, brake discs are integral to making sure your vehicle can stop on command. These are among the first and most important accident prevention systems, and ensuring they stay fully operational will help you continue driving safely. Brake discs are built to last, but it’s important to know when it’s time to change them out. Assuming you have good brake discs, you should begin eyeing a new set every 50,000 to 70,000 miles.
Keeping track of every part of your vehicle can be a tricky feat. But by slowly learning about each important part one by one, you can come to grasp their roles in understandable chunks. As long as you don’t ignore these four car parts during routine maintenance, your drives will be that much safer and your vehicle will be in the best position to last you a long time.
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