Of course, it is necessary to take care of your car. But without fanaticism! Excessive care can be not only useful, but also harmful. You buy only qualitative spare parts, pass checkup regularly, use some “tricks”, but the engine suddenly broke down and needed an overhaul. Why could it happen? Let’s listen to an opinion of experts.
Is it necessary to buy consumables for maintenance by yourself?
Firstly, let’s see, is it necessary to buy consumables independently and come with them to service. This question concerns those car owners, who don’t trust dealers, but at the same time don’t want to lose warranty. Consumables include:
- engine oil;
- fluid for the brake system;
- cooling system fluid;
- alternator filter;
- fuel, air, oil, cabin filters.
Filters of secondary mechanisms are subject to replacement after 15 thousand km of run – i.e., on each service. In the majority of situations it is not necessary to buy expendables by yourself. And here is why.
Firstly, car service loses profit from sale of oils and filters with its mark-up. Naturally, employees will not be happy if you bring your own supplies. This will probably affect the quality of their work.
Secondly, even if your consumables are of good quality and the service staff will install them in good faith, you will lose your warranty anyway. Dealers refer to the “Limitation of Warranty Coverage” section in the service book. There it is said, that the damage, provoked by installation of the spare parts, not approved by the firm, or failure of adjacent elements of the car, occurred as a result of use of spare parts not approved by the firm, is not covered by the guarantee of the car manufacturer.
So carefully study the warranty conditions at the stage of car purchase. If the dealer performs the technical maintenance of the car using the consumables, bought and brought by the client, there will be a mark “customer’s parts” in the order book and in the service book. You will have to sign this document, and it means that if something happens with the car, the dealer will not be responsible.
In addition, many official dealers have a practice to give good discounts for maintenance, if you buy consumables from them. In this case you will save more than buying consumables on the side. This is firstly.
Secondly, you will be assured that your car will be serviced with original parts and original materials. And third, you will keep your warranty.
Some dealers have special Internet portals, where you can see the list of original parts and make an appointment for maintenance. Thus, you will have the car maintenance service “turnkey” at a favorable price and with a quality guarantee.
Questionable “tricks”
We’ve already talked about the importance of not overdoing it when caring for your vehicle. For example, some experienced motorists attach a neodymium magnet from a PC hard drive to the oil filter body. They attribute this to the more efficient operation of the proprietary full-flow part – it becomes capable of picking up metal wear products. There’s no denying that, but you can’t overlook the disadvantages.
It can happen that too much swarf will accumulate in the housing, and the magnet will break off and fall out on the road as a result of shaking. Then the slag will immediately spread over the whole oil system, resulting in scoring on the cylinder walls. Therefore it is better to mount neodymium magnet more reliably under the crankcase and not on the oil filter body.
We recommend you to be more attentive to low-viscosity oils. The oil passages in today’s engines are fairly narrow. The 0W20 oil is ideal for them. But if you pour such lubricant into an old engine with big clearances, then the oil pump can’t provide the necessary pressure. Because of this, an oil film will not appear between the rubbing components, which will significantly accelerate the wear of the power unit. At continuous use of too viscous grease in motors the oil pump, its reduction valve, phasor regulators are strongly worn out.
That is why when choosing oil pay attention to everything, what is written on the label. Let’s not buy 0W20 lubricant if we have a vehicle with Euro3 or lower engines. If higher, then such a product can safely be used.
Some motorists make adjustment of spark gap on spark plugs: bend or on the contrary bend off external contacts. And even in that case, if they are original spark plugs of leading manufacturers.
If one really wants to do it, one should do it correctly, otherwise even original spark plugs will not work properly. If the gaps turn out to be too small, the spark intensity will decrease, and if they are too big, there will be skipping flashes in the engine. This will be indicated by a change in the color of the spark. In this case, there will be malfunctions in the power plant.
Now what about the fuel. As you know, the most common types of gasoline are octane 92 and 95. The 92 is cheaper, while the 95 is more expensive. But even if the manufacturer allows using 92 gasoline, modern cars don’t like it. Their engine reacts to regular use of such fuel with detonation, which in turn can provoke serious problems. So you should not skimp on fuel.
What to pay attention to when buying consumables on your own
Yet the reliability and high service life of the car, along with timely maintenance, also depend on the quality of consumables. Use of technologically unsuitable or low-quality consumable materials leads to malfunction of nodes and units of the car and their quick breakdown.
The abundance of poor quality consumables on the car market is not due to unfairness of manufacturers. Unfortunately, nowadays is again a fertile ground for fakes, as it was in 1990s. Fraudsters skillfully disguise fakes as products of famous brands. Naturally, they do not care about the quality, and some people are “fooled” by the low cost.
If you still prefer to buy consumables yourself, then you need to do it wisely, so as not to get a low-quality technological products or outright fake.
Let’s say you need to buy Nissan motor oil. What should you pay attention to?
Undoubtedly, the technical requirements for engine oil are important, but only the original manufacturer can provide them to the proper extent. In the manufacture of this consumable, all parameters of the power unit are taken into account, including the specifics of its design.
Balanced viscosity reduces the friction force. This guarantees high quality of the material itself and long-lasting, trouble-free operation of the “heart” of the car, even at low temperatures and under severe loads. As a result all engine components are reliably protected and their characteristics are preserved for a sufficiently long time.
The manufacturer of the original Nissan engine oil produces a high quality product with clear compliance with all parameters. In addition, the product has a unique protection against counterfeiting. How to check the authenticity of Nissan engine oil?
The most popular types of oils have the following indices:
- 0W20;
- 0W30;
- 5W30;
- 5W40;
- 10W40.
They are packaged in 1-liter or 5-liter cans. There is a special protective sticker with a unique code on the back of the canister – it is hidden under a layer of a special coating. It can be removed with a coin or any other metal object. The hidden digital code will be a guarantee against counterfeiting.
What to do next with this information? Go to the official site of the manufacturer, go to a special section and there enter the numerical code in the form, and then run the test. There may be several answers:
- authenticity confirmed – you can safely use the oil;
- The number is not in the database – there is a high probability of falsification;
- the number is in the database, but it has already been used – the validation date will appear on the form.
In the third option is also a great risk of falsification, since the same number cannot be on different canisters.