Tips for knowing when to take your car to the dealership for service
Friday, April 27, 2012
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Source: Helium.com
It is important to keep your car up to date for recommended service in order to keep it running at its peak and avoid any small problems with the potential to turn into large problems. Different cars have different schedules of recommended service so there is no one time or mileage that every car should go into the dealership for service. There are different things that you will want to look at when deciding upon when to go in. The following are some tips for knowing when to take your car to the dealership for service.
If the car is acting poorly or if a light (such as a brake light) comes on
Obviously if your car is not running as it should, making a funny noise, breaking down or so forth you will want to bring it into the shop for service. Many times people ignore small things, thinking they’ll go away but oftentimes they are the sign of a problem. Sometimes something can be fixed easily at the beginning but then if you let it go it gets much worse and becomes a much bigger problem. You will want to be careful about ignoring it if you think that there is a chance of something really being wrong. Of course, you also don’t want to end up in a dangerous situation such as your brakes failing while you are driving. In addition to knowing based on something wrong with the performance, you might know something is wrong if an indicator light comes on.
Look at your owner’s manual for recommended scheduled service
Many car owner’s manuals will give the recommended times of the different service procedures. You will want to use that as your guide. Some of it is by age of the car, some by mileage and some by both. Again, this will not be the same for every car, so don’t assume that it is what your last car was.
The dealership will contact you
You can check if this is the case with your particular dealership, but a lot of times dealerships will contact the car owners when it is time for a scheduled maintenance. You may be able to ask to be on this mailing list (or be taken off if you do not want to be on it).
A service light goes on in your car
Some cars actually have a light or some other indicator for a scheduled service. The Honda Odyssey, for instance, has an oil life indicator and indicates when it is recommended that you get an oil change. Refer to your owner’s manual to see if your car has any such features.
Source: Helium.com