Are you taking too much care of your car? Normally, mechanics tend to complain about the opposite: specially about those drivers who bring their cars in when they are practically ready for the scrap heap. However, taking excessive care of your vehicle also has its downside. According to experts who work in garages, there are products and services that you should never buy. They are pure marketing.
Premium petrol—when it’s not necessary
Regardless of popular belief, higher octane petrol does not give your engine more power. Nor does it take better care of it or make your car consume less fuel. If that were the case, Toretto would put 100 octane petrol in his cars, not nitrous oxide. And of course, he would save a fortune and have no excuse for going around hijacking lorries.
Octane rating is just a number that tells us how much compression a fuel can withstand before it pre-ignites on its own. In other words, it ignites before the spark plug fires.
Normally, premium petrol is only necessary in high-end vehicles with engines that exert high compression. But you don’t need an engineering degree to check this for yourself. Simply use the petrol with the octane rating recommended by your manufacturer. No more, no less.
Changing all your tyres unnecessarily at the mechanic
You go to your garage, since your front tyres are completely bald. And while you’re there, you decide to change the rear ones too… otherwise, you’ll have to come back next year. That’s a mistake.
Tyres rarely wear evenly. Those mounted on the drive axle tend to last less. The sensible thing to do is to change each axle when it’s time. Another option is to rotate the tyres halfway through each cycle, so that they all wear out at the same time.
Incidentally, the latter is a phenomenon that not all mechanics agree on. Some professionals believe that rotating tyres is unnecessary, as long as the suspension is aligned every time the tyres are replaced with a new set.
Power chips
A car is not your old PlayStation 2. That’s why most mechanics raise an eyebrow every time they hear that you’ve put a power chip in your car.
These chips, which usually cost $20, connect to the car’s control unit via the OBD2 port. The vast majority of those sold on the market are outright scams. What they do is trick the ECU into injecting more fuel or changing the sensitivity of the accelerator.
In this vein, mechanical experts believe that there are more decent alternatives to chips. If you want to increase your car’s power, a much more sensible way is to have a Stage 1 reprogramming done on the ECU. However, interesting results are usually only achieved in vehicles with turbocharged engines.
VIN engraving at the dealership
One way to prevent car theft is to engrave the vehicle’s VIN number on each window and other important parts.
This measure acts as a deterrent and it works. We can’t fault it. The problem is that dealerships charge too much for this service. Is there an alternative? Of course. Look on Amazon for a do-it-yourself kit. It will only cost you about $20.
Metal “luxury” tire valve caps
The generation that grew up customizing their cars in Need for Speed’s “Autosculpt” pays attention to details as insignificant as wheel caps. No, we’re not kidding.
That’s why it’s become fashionable to buy them in different colors, with Super Mario designs, fluorescent, with LEDs… or metal. It’s not usually a good idea in any case. If the caps emit light, in certain states you can be fined. People may also discover that you have bad taste. But the worst thing that can happen is that a metal cap rusts and fuses with the tire valve.
If that happens, get your wallet ready. When removing the cap, it is very common for the TPMS sensor on the wheels (the one that warns you when your tire pressure is low) to be damaged as well. In short, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble if you stick with your hideous plastic caps. After all, no one is going to look at them.