Tips for getting your car serviced

The purpose of this guide is to provide some tips to help you keep your car running at peak performance.  Car maintenance is required and you want to make sure you are doing it right,  I will mainly focus on when you are getting someone else to do it.

Just because you don't know anything about cars doesn't mean someone else does. I have seen a few women fall victim to this. Your boyfriend make look good banging on your engine with a wrench with no shirt on, but is your car's health really worth that. If you need your car to get you from point A to B, stick with the professionals.

You may not do the work but attempt to understand what is going on. If you don't know where your oil filter is, ask where it is and remember the color. When the work is done, pop the hood and check to see if it is different.

The oil filter is well... a filter. It collects dirty and dust, which is harmful to your engine. Putting new oil in a car and having a dirty oil filter is useless. The filter will not be able to do its job because it's already full.

Just because you brought tires that are rated at 60,000 miles doesn't mean they will last that long. You are probably going to have to get new tires every year or two. The best thing you can do after purchasing them is to look at the tread. You should see no wear. If you do, someone sold you old tires. Not only is this unethical, this is dangerous. Normally used tires are not the same quality as new ones. Most used tires have been plugged or the tread is worn. This is not what you paid for.

Most professionals will look around to make sure nothing else is broken or needs repair. This can uncover some problems. However, most of the time, they are looking for more work. Fixing cars are like playing with toys, its so much fun. Also, you can get paid to do this. Of course your car guy found something else. I am pretty sure he will always find something else.

You should try to gain insight into the problem. Ask questions related to how critical is the problem, how long do you have before it becomes critical, and why didn't my service engine soon light come on. After getting a response from these types of questions, you will get a better idea if this is a real problem. Cars have a lot of safety measures in place when it comes to alerting you to seek professional help. If a mechanic is saying its a critical problem and your service engine soon light is off be very skeptical and seek a second opinion.