What does a minor car service include?

A minor car service doesn’t cost much money, but it is a necessary part of maintaining your vehicle and keeping everyone safe. Regular services are also a good way to pick up any problems early, before they end up costing you a lot of money to fix at your auto service centre.

Some people think that they can skip the minor car services and just have the major ones, but that doesn’t work, because by the time your major service is due, your car is already in trouble (because your skipped the minor services).

You really do need to book your car into your local auto service centre for regular services and to show the importance of them, let’s take a look at what one of these minor services involves.

• Your engine oil is drained and replaced with new, clean oil so that your car runs more efficiently.

• The oil filter is also replaced, so that your engine runs more smoothly.

• All of the fluids are flushed and changed – these include the clutch, transmission, power steering, brake and coolant fluids.

• Your battery is tested to make sure that it holds its charge and is unlikely to need replacing before your next service.

• Your car is given a full safety inspection, to pick up anything that needs replacing or fixing, either now or in the near future.

• A drive test is performed, to make sure that nothing has been missed that could endanger you, your family or anyone else on the road.

• All of the remaining filters (air, fuel and pollen) are inspected to make sure that they don’t need to be replaced.

• The gear box oil, transfer case and diff oil are checked as well.

• Your wiper blades are inspected to make sure that they don’t need to be replaced.

As you can see, a minor car service covers a lot of territory and helps to make sure that your car is always safe. It also helps to prevent unexpected problems occurring out of the blue, which might cost you a lot of money if they were simply ignored and left too long before being repaired.

So make sure to book your car into your local auto service centre for regular services and avoid costly repair jobs in the future.

What does a major car service involve?

Let’s face it, most of us dread having to book our vehicle in for a major car service because of the time involved and the money it is going to cost. So we keep postponing the inevitable and think that we will make the call next month or next payday.

The problem with this approach is that we can end up requiring a major car repair service instead of a major car service, which will cost us a lot more than the service. The answer is clearly that we need to keep up with our services to prevent something even more expensive happening with our car.

So what does a major car service actually include? Because your car doesn’t look any different after you have just spent a couple of hundred dollars on it! Well there are quite a few things that need to be changed, flushed or inspected when you book in for a major service.

• Engine oil: Your old, black dirty oil is replaced with new, clean oil, which makes your engine run more efficiently and smoothly.

• Filters: The oil, air, fuel and pollen filters are all replaced, making your car run more effectively.

• Spark plugs: Your spark plugs are replaced to maximise your fuel economy.

• Brakes: Your brakes are inspected, cleaned and adjusted if necessary.

• Flush and change: The transmission, clutch, brake, power steering and coolant fluids are all flushed and replaced, increasing the efficiency of your car.
    

• Road test: All major car services include a road test, to pick up any problems that can’t be detected easily just by inspecting the engine and which might need to be fixed now or at a later date.

• Safety inspection: A full safety inspection is performed so that you can have complete confidence in your car.

• Battery test: This makes sure that your battery is still charging correctly and that it shouldn’t need replacing any time soon.

• Checks: On top of all this, the gear box, transfer case and diff oil are all checked, as are the wiper blades and all of your bulbs.

As you can see, major car services prevent you from spending money on a major car repair service, so it really pays to make the effort and book your car into your local mechanic’s shop for regular services.