Sri Lanka Auto

Throughout the rest of this website you'll find in-depth articles describing in intricate detail how everything automotive works. On this page, I've simplified all that knowledge into a series of basic car maintenance tips, subdivided by category. Some tips have simple explanations right here whilst others link back to the articles in the rest of the site.

Before we start, I thought it worth pointing out that if have the mechanical skill of a limp banana or otherwise have a car that you can't fix no matter how much maintenance advice you get, there is another option to just sending it to the breaker's yard. In America for example Junk-car.org is a car donation program that benefits underprivileged children. All proceeds from the junk cars are used to fund a vast array of services including mentoring, parent education, and summer camp placements. With this particular group, if you donate your car you even get free junk car removal and towing. Junk-car.org will also issue a tax-deductible receipt upon donation. It's a nice solution and better than having a redneck car-on-bricks parked outside your front door. If your car is perfectly servicable, then lets move on to the tips.

On front wheel drive cars, it is especially important to rotate your tires periodically because the front tires wear faster than the rear. Uneven tire tread thickness, front to rear, will give you uneven braking and poor handling, especially in the rain. If you don't rotate the tires, you'll wind up replacing them two at the time, which means you'll always have uneven tread thickness. Replacing tires in a matched set of four will keep the handling and braking traction of the car balanced. On certain cars, you may experience an additional problem when you do not rotate the tires: tire noise or humming on smooth roads. If you notice a humming noise, check the rear tires for a "saw-tooth" wear pattern on the inside and outside shoulder of the tire. You can detect this by running your hand back and forth along the edges of the tire tread. Be careful not to cut yourself on debris or exposed steel belt wire. If it feels smooth in one direction, but jagged in the other, you may have found some of your noise. This condition happens on some front wheel drive vehicles with tires that have tread blocks on the shoulder of the tire. Rotating this tire to the other side of the car should even out this type of wear and quiet down the humming. Check your owner's manual for the proper rotation method. Most front wheel drive cars require the following rotation method:

Brake dust contains all sorts of nasty stuff. If you leave it too long, the combination of road grime, moisture and heat from your brakes will bake it on to your wheels. Brake dust normally clings to wheels with static electricity so a damp sponge and clean cold water is the best way to get it off.

Check your tyre pressures regularly - once a week is ideal. Bad tyre pressures can affect fuel economy, handling and comfort. It's easy to do and there is no excuse not to.

Bald, slick tyres might be good for motor racing but they're no good on the road. Most tyres come with tread wear bars built into them now - find one, examine it and if your tread is too low, replace your tyres. Four new tyres might seem expensive but they're cheaper than a fine or an accident.

At the front of your engine there will be a series of rubber drive belts that loop around various pulleys, driving everything from the alternator to the a/c compressor. Rubber perishes, more so in extreme conditions like those found in an operating engine bay. Get your timing belt and accessory drive belt checked every 25,000 miles, preferably replacing it every 50,000 miles. See the Fuel and Engine bible for information on interference engines and why checking your timing belts is a necessity, not a luxury.

Check your tyre pressures regularly - once a week is ideal. Bad tyre pressures can affect fuel economy very noticeably. It's easy to do and there is no excuse not to.

This is something everyone can do - it's quick and easy and it'll tell you if your engine needs oil. If the oil is too high or too low, it can cause trouble for your engine. To check the oil, park on level ground and wait until the engine has cooled down after driving, then locate the dipstick. Pull it out and wipe it clean, then push it all the way back in until the top of it is seated properly in the dip tube again. Wait a moment then pull it out again. Check the level of the oil. If it's between the high and low marks, you're fine. (If it's too low, add a little.) The high and low marks can be denoted by two dots, an "H" and "L" or a shaded area on the dipstick. The photos below show a Honda dipstick which has the two dots. Why not just read the level first time around? The first time you pull the dipstick out, it will have oil all over it and it will be difficult to tell where the level is. That's why you need to wipe it on a rag to get a clean dipstick, then dip it back into the oil to get a good reading. More information on why you should check your oil level is here. How much do you value the engine in your car? Think about it, because the life of your engine depends in no small part on the quality of the oil you put in it - oil is the lifeblood of your car's engine. From the mid 80's for 8 or 9 years there was a veritable revolution in car engine oil. All oils were no longer the same thanks to the popularity of hot hatches, 16-valve engines and turbos as the tuner scene started to rise. Combined with the devastating problems of black death, the days of one oil catering for everyone were over.
                                 Take Castrol for example. They led the field for years with GTX. This was surpassed a few years back by semi-synthetic and fully synthetic oils, including GTX2 and GTX3 Lightec. Now, that's been surpassed by Formula SLX which can cost upwards of £50 ($75) for 5 litres. And most recently, Castrol GTX Magnatec which is muscling in on the hitherto separate world of friction reducers (and we'll deal with them later, on the

Again, something everyone can do. The coolant is the other thing your engine cannot go without. Every engine is different but if you check your handbook you should find where the coolant reservoir is. It will normally be bolted to one side of the engine bay or the other, and be a white semitransparent bottle. Wait until your engine is cool and take a look at it - the outside should have 'low' and 'high' markings on it and the level of coolant inside should be between the two. Do not take the radiator cap off to check coolant levels. If the coolant system is still hot then it is still under pressure and the pressure release will burn you.