Eight Ways Real Men Take Care Of Their Cars

The holiday is over!

Only the best loved cars are the most excited today while others are waiting on the calendar checking for another long holiday. This means how well you take care of your car, so it responds to you.

Good masters are known from the appearance of their servants. From appearance to quality of work done to agility and instant bounce. Can you ‘categorically’ be called a good master, it does depend on these eight things.

Here are ways to take care of your car like a real adult giving every bit of TLC (tender, love and care);

1. At least once every month, you thoroughly give your car a good clean up

You don’t need to be told to wash your car but giving is a total make over once a month both inside and outside would do you a lots of good.

2. Change your oil regularly and only use reliable oil

If your car doesn't have fresh oil, dirt will build up and eventually kill your engine, which will cost thousands of dollars and your happiness.

So what’s the definition of regular, a school of thought suggest that you change your oil every 5,000 to 7,500 miles. And remember to use quality oil, preferably not dispensed oil you don’t know the brand nor are you sure of. A healthy car gives you less headache so don’t joke with this.

3. Check your tyre pressure monthly

Incorrect tyre pressure can lead to a ton of problems, including poor braking, instability, less gas mileage, and of course, a flat tire, so check your tyre pressure with a gauge. Also, rotate your tyres often to make sure that they wear evenly, making sure you get the most before replacing them.

4. Get your brake pads replaced regularly

Neglecting your brake pads will eventually lead to your brake rotors failing and you don’t want to deal with this. Before you feel this not your portion, the experts’ view is that you get your brake pads replaced every 25,000 miles.

5. Maintain your car's interior to keep its resale value high.

This doesn’t depend on how long you’ve been riding your car but rather on how well you’ve been. A dirty, unkept interior can lead to you losing money when you try to resell your car. There are car cleaning products that reinvigorates the outlook of your car all the time.

6. Change your air filters regularly

Your car isn't going to explode from a dirty air filter, but it's possible that leaving one can cause your engine to fail and damage your combustion chamber.

7. Prevent damage to your car by parking in the shade and using a window shade.

The same way you cannot roast yourself under a scorching sun so should your car be parked to experience the torturing heat? In addition to causing interior damage, UV rays from the sun can melt plastics, crack your dashboard, and cause fading on your paint job. It also isn't the most pleasant thing to sit in a scorching hot car, so for the sake of you and your butt, find some shade.

8. Ask an expert about car trouble when you're not sure yourself.

Every Wednesday is an opportunity for you to ask questions about your car and everything you need to know about automobiles.

Cars are just as complex as they are wonderful, and you shouldn't ever force your way into fixing a problem if you don't know exactly what's wrong. There are different brands of cars and different models, it’s an expert that can help guide you accurately.

If you need the right quality spare parts and accessories for your car, get it on www.autofactorng.com

Thank you for reading.

We hope you have a stress-less week!

Top 10 Bad Driving Habits That Damage Your Car

Even the best drivers are guilty of bad driving habits. Riding the brakes, not warming up the engine, and ignoring warning signs will damage your car.

Your vehicle is one of your most costly possessions, and it’s certainly one on which you heavily depend. So, you want it to last as long as possible. Even if you have the proper vehicle maintenance measures in place, there may be important day-to-day responsibilities you overlook that have a negative impact on the life of your car.

Here are the top 10 bad driving habits that can cause inadvertent but significant harm to your car:

• Ignoring the Parking Brake: When you park on an incline, use the parking brake even if you don’t think it’s necessary (read: your car has an automatic transmission). If you don’t, you put pressure on your transmission, where there’s just a small little pin the size of your pinky finger, known as the parking pawl, keeping the whole weight of your car in place.

• Shifting Into Drive or Reverse When Not Completely Stopped: In a car with an automatic transmission, making the shift into Drive or Reverse isn’t like switching from first gear to second in a manual. You force your transmission to do things it’s not intended to do, and that can cause damage to your drive shafts and suspension.

• Riding the Clutch: In cars with manual transmissions, drivers sometimes keep the clutch engaged when it’s not time to brake or shift gears. This can wreak havoc with the hydraulic system where the pressure plates meet the flywheel. Riding the clutch causes those plates to graze the flywheel willy-nilly, wearing down the system in general and potentially setting you up for sudden clutch failure in the future.

• Regularly Adding Small Amounts of Fuel to the Gas Tank: Although there may be times when you just can’t afford to fill the tank entirely or plan to wait for a better fuel deal, adding a few gallons of gas at a time and regularly running with low levels of fuel can actually hurt your car. That’s because it forces your car to take gas from the bottom of the tank, where there is sediment build-up. This can lead to a clogged fuel filter or debris passing into the engine.

• Riding the Brakes Downhill: Despite feeling like you’re poised to stop in an emergency, riding the brakes while going down hills, or even in general, causes undue wear and tear on your braking system. Driving in this manner actually sets you up for a higher risk of brake failure, so try driving in a lower gear instead, if you have the option.

• Sudden Stops and Take-Offs: Regularly slamming on the brake or gas pedal takes a large toll on your gas mileage and can even cause deterioration on parts like your brake pads and rotors.

• Using the Shift Lever as a Hand Rest: Unless you’re a professional racecar driver, there’s really no reason to drive around with your hand resting on your car’s shifter. The weight of your hand actually puts load on the sliders within your transmission, causing unnecessary wear.

• Carrying Heavy Loads You Don’t Need: It’s one thing to load your car down when helping a friend move or carrying tools to your job, but driving around with a bunch of extra weight for no reason decreases your gas mileage significantly and puts extra stress on all of your car’s components.

• Improperly “Warming Up” Your Car: While there’s nothing wrong with starting your car and letting it idle for a few minutes before you leave the house on a cold morning, revving the engine right off the bat to “warm it up” is a bad idea. This causes sudden temperature changes that can actually harm your car and forces the engine to work under load before the oil has a chance to fully circulate.

• Ignoring What Your Car Tries to “Tell” You: It’s not uncommon for your car to make unusual noises before mechanical issues make themselves known in more obvious (read: severe) ways. You know what your car should sound like, so putting off investigating a new rattle or hum only allows a problem to fester and get worse. When something starts to sound amiss, contact us to book a mechanic who can diagnose the issue and put things back in order.

Free Car Diagnostics for Automobile Owners

As a brand in love with customer satisfaction, AutoFactorNG is organizing Free Car-Care Diagnostic Saturdays for automobile owners in Lagos. The event is tagged AutoFactor Car-Care Saturday which will run every Saturday.

The Free Diagnostics is a one-month programme organized to promote car-care consciousness, ensuring fewer road accidents and mishaps due to mechanical and technical faults.

The car diagnosis will be performed by AutoFactorNG’s well trained and experienced technicians. It will take place every Saturday from 11:00am - 03:00pm till the Last Saturday in the month of October, 2016.

To Participate in this, kindly send the following information to info@autofactorng.com
- Name
- Phone Number
- Email
- Vehicle Make
- Vehicle Model
- Vehicle Year
- Location

Note: Its first come first serve, after registration and confirmation.

AUTOFACTORNG is committed to bridging the gap between our customers and quality assured auto- products and auto-repair services, with quality and customer satisfaction being our watchword. And as we continue to expand nationwide, our scale of services will upgrade in class, satisfactory and convenience.

TOP CAR SECURITY TIPS

This is actually a lengthy read and we advise you take your time to read and digest everything.

Lock the doors

This is the easiest thing to do, but a lot of people forget. When you park your car (even in your own driveway), lock the doors and roll up the windows. Thieves look for an easy opportunity and an unlocked car is one of the easiest. There was a rash of car “break-ins” in my area not long ago and the only vehicles that were affected were the unlocked ones. The thieves didn’t bother with the locked cars. Too much effort, time, and risk of detection is involved. So lock the doors.

Don’t leave valuables in plain view

Don’t leave GPS’s, cell phones, purses, laptops, or shopping purchases in plain view, even if you’re parked at home. Secure them in the trunk, but make sure no one is looking when you do. And if you do put your items in the trunk, lock the doors since the trunk can be popped from inside the car. Better yet, take valuables out of the car entirely. Thieves can see a GPS holder, laptop stand or charger, etc. and may take the chance that the item is still in the car.

Park in the garage if possible

If you have a garage at home, use it. It’s more secure than your driveway. If your garage is too full of junk to get the car in, clean out the garage. If you live in a more urban area and you have the option of parking in a monitored, gated garage, take it if you can afford it. The harder it is to get to your car, the less likely it is to be stolen.

Park wisely

When you park your car, try to park under lights, near security cameras, or in a well-traveled area. These make it more likely that someone will see a thief messing with your car and call the police. Thieves don’t like to be watched.

Don’t buy a car that’s a target

You can save yourself a lot of trouble if you don’t buy a car that’s a target in the first place. Some are targeted because of their style, such as luxury or sports cars, while others are targeted because their parts are in demand. Your insurance company likely has a list of most frequently stolen cars that they will share with you so you can avoid those models.

Buy a locking gas cap

While a cap won’t keep your car from being stolen, it does make it so that if your car is stolen the thieves will have a harder time filling up. This increases the chance that they won’t get far and may be caught by police. It also helps prevent thieves from siphoning gas out of your tank — a crime that always seems to spike when gas prices rise.

Always take your keys with you

Never leave the keys in the ignition or in the car. That’s just making it way too easy for the thieves.
Never leave the car running unattended

It’s tempting to leave the car running while you run in to the coffee shop or up to the ATM. People also leave cars running to warm them up in the winter. Don’t do it. Thieves watch for these opportunities and it only takes them a second to get in that car and take off.

Protect personal information

Don’t keep your registration in the car, and don’t keep any paperwork with personal or financial information in the car. If a thief steals your car, they may not stop at that. Identity theft is easy with a registration and if they get banking information, it’s easy to clean out your account. Also, with your home address, they know where you live and may decide to rob that, too (particularly if they got your keys).
 
Don’t use a hide-a-key
Even if you think it’s impossible to find, it isn’t. Thieves know where to look. Give someone you trust a spare key and call them if you have a problem.

Don’t leave your car keys in an obvious place in your home
If thieves break into your home, they often look for car keys. You car will make an ideal get away vehicle and cap off their robbery of your home. Don’t leave the keys on the table, or on a hook by the door. Put them somewhere less obvious.

Mark your car

You can inscribe the VIN number on the engine, on the hood, in the trunk, and on the windows. This makes a car unattractive to thieves because it is now much more difficult to change the car’s identity. It’s also easier for the police to find if they raid a shop or catch the criminals joyriding in your car.

Avoid long-term parking
Thieves know the owners aren’t likely to come back soon and long-term lots are often poorly policed. Get someone to give you a ride or take a taxi to the airport. If you do park in long-term, you can take some simple steps to disable your car such as disconnecting a battery cable, or disconnecting the distributor cap. Thieves often won’t try to figure out what’s wrong with the car, they’ll just move on. It takes too much time and is obvious if they go poking around under the hood.

Don’t create a target
It’s fun to “pimp your ride,” but it also makes it a target. Custom rims, expensive stereo systems, built-in navigation systems, and other additions scream, “Steal me!” Keep your car basic to make it unattractive to thieves.

Use the features you already have

Read the owner’s manual to find out what might already be included with your car. Many newer cars come with alarms, combination locks, and other security features. Figure out what you already have, then use it.

Securing a car doesn’t have to be expensive. Most of it is just common sense. Start with simply locking your doors and parking in secure locations. Those two things alone will go a long way toward making sure your car stays with you.