There’s no doubt; today’s cars are better and tomorrow’s cars will be better yet. Still, even the best cars have to have the consumable parts renewed periodically to provide the best service for you and your family. The intervals are longer and the list of things requiring service is shorter but there are still things that are consumed with the passage of time and the accumulation of miles. What are they and what can you expect your service provider to talk to you about?


There are ten major areas of consumables on any car:

• Brakes
• Tires
• Batteries
• Filters
• Spark plugs
• Belts
• Wiper blades
• Hoses
• Fluids
• And PCV valves (where equipped)

Anyone who’s owned a car for any period of time know that filters plug and brakes, batteries, tires, spark plugs, belts and hoses wear out with time and miles and require replacement at some point in the life of a vehicle. Let’s talk about a couple of the other services you might expect to do every so often.


Fluids
Fluids lubricate, cool and provide corrosion protection. They contain additives that enhance lubrication, cooling, viscosity, pumping characteristics and corrosion protection and additives are sacrificial by design. Once the additive package is depleted the fluid is no longer capable of protecting the expensive parts with which it’s in contact.


The enemies of fluids are:

• High temperatures (volatilization – cooks off lighter components as vapor)
• High pressures (increases temperature and rates of oxidation)
• Contamination (from dirt, immersion, poor system sealing, combustion processes, oxidation)
• Oxidation (oxygen freely combines with other components in the fluids to make new, often corrosive compounds)
• Shear (gear sets and pre-loaded bearings “cut” the lube, changing its viscosity)
• Moisture (from condensation, combustion process and the environment. “Hydrolization” creates new corrosive compounds)

Hydrogen and oxygen make up water and part of our atmosphere. Both are very reactive elements, easily combining with any one or several other elements to form new compounds. We know the by-products of these reactions as rust or corrosion on steel and hydrolization or oxidation in fluids.


Why change engine oil?

• Contamination
• Oxidation
• Moisture (for every gallon of gas burned we make 1.25 gallons of water

Contamination, oxidation and moisture are all affected by trip length and the amount of time an engine spends at full operating temperature. Conservation of resources has driven the movement to extend oil change intervals but the “payback” assumes that a customer will not have to replace an engine prematurely. The environmental cost of an engine replacement – manufacture, installation, disposal of the old unit – exceeds the savings offered by extended drain intervals.


On a four-to-five quart sump if every trip (from startup to shutdown) is 30 minutes long or longer in the summer and 45 minutes long or longer in the winter then we can determine your best interval by oil sampling. To determine your optimum change interval several samples will be needed at a cost of about $50 each (including total acid and total base sampling which tells us true remaining oil life.) If every trip is not 30 minutes or longer then simply changing oil every 3000 – 4000 miles is a less expensive option. If you own a car with a large capacity oil pan you may be able to safely extend the drain interval beyond our 3000-4000 recommendation. Again, testing will provide the best interval for your application.


Why rotate tires?

In the battle between rubber and road the road always wins, but we can delay the inevitable.


Tires wear differently on drive axles compared to non-drive axles, left side tires compared to right side tires and steering axle versus non-steering axle.


Moving the tires at 6000 – 8000 mile intervals evens the wear and roughly doubles tire life. Our rotation includes a free brake inspection.


Why perform a rear drum brake service?


Drum systems are very nearly sealed and wear products from the consumable linings are trapped between the drum and backing plate. Backing plate lubes are absorbed by brake dust leaving critical pivot and wear points unprotected.


Servicing removes wear debris, allows us to adjust the service brake, parking brake and lubricate the ten contact points between the shoes and the drum brake mounting system.


Why change brake fluid?

• Moisture
• Contamination
• Oxidation

Brake fluid is designed to absorb moisture to prevent standing water from rusting the steel brake lines from the inside out. Brake fluids also pull copper from steel brake lines and free copper has been proven to be a contributor to ABS control unit failures.


Exchanging brake fluid removes absorbed moisture, increases the fluid boiling point and removes leached copper that damages ABS hydraulic systems.


Why service the transfer case?


Why service the front or rear drive axle?

• Oil shear
• Contamination
• Oxidation
• Temperature and pressure

Changing drive axle and transfer case lube on a routine basis stops premature bearing failure, extends gear set life and removes contaminants from the system.


Why change the power steering fluid?

• Temperature
• Pressure (some systems run as much as 2000 PSI)
• Contamination

High pressure and high temperature accelerates fluid depletion. Some power steering systems actually incorporate a cooler to keep temperatures under control.


Changing power steering fluid extends internal and external seal life, protects pump bearings and prevents premature power steering pump and rack and pinion repairs.


Why a Thottle body and upper intake system service?

• Contamination
• Carbon formation

Residual gases from the cylinders, injectors, PCV gases, EGR gases and fuel vapor are carried up into the intake on shut down to form hard carbon deposits that restricts air flow and plugs ports and openings. The intake flow in a fuel injected engine is dry and with no fuel to act as a solvent thick deposits form over time. Throttles often stick; EGR passages plug and minimum air flows that are used to calculate idle control are reduced or shut off. The result can be pinging, stuck throttles, reduced fuel economy, phantom stalls or rolling, surging idle conditions.


Why clean fuel injectors?

• Contamination
• Carbon formation

Modern gasolines are a chemical soup of over 150 carbon and hydrogen compounds, plus additives and detergents. Most fuel companies only blend in the government mandated minimums of detergents rather than the most effective amount needed for maximum deposit control.


The same residual gases that cause throttle bore sticking also deposit on fuel injectors. While there are several designs of injector, the fuel distribution plate of a typical injector has one or more laser-cut dispersion holes as small as twenty-thousandths of an inch that are susceptible to plugging. Newer engines with tightly managed tumble and swirl strategies are particularly intolerant of dirty injectors. Improperly atomized fuel that isn’t evenly distributed in the combustion chamber results in rough run complaints, lowered fuel economy, pinging and increased emissions.


Why change antifreeze?

• Oxidation
• Corrosion
• Contamination

Extended life formulations have taken what was once an annual service and made it into a service required only once every five years or so.


Controlling oxidation, additive depletion and corrosion in a water based system takes excellent chemistry and a nearly pure water supply and it’s the water that mixed with the antifreeze that’s the real problem. Unless your service provider is using a pure or premixed product, city water supplies are generally not pure enough to allow for on-site mixing. Radiator cores, heater cores, engine blocks, hoses and piping are rapidly destroyed by depleted or improperly mixed antifreeze.


Why change automatic transmission fluids?

• Shear
• Oxidation
• Temperature

Automatic transmission fluids are made from light weight oils, usually around a 5W or so. They are among the most heavily fortified oils made, with friction modifiers, stabilizers and anti-oxidants added in large concentration. The exact mix of each type of transmission oil is proprietary, but there are some nearly universal synthetic fluids now available at an affordable price. At our shop the filter will not normally be replaced unless we suspect major damage or a change interval that was grossly overextended. In truth the depth media filter used in automatic transmissions mainly functions to keep debris from re-circulating. I think that if you’ve got that much shrapnel in the pan the filter is the least of your worries. Transmission fluids can be rapidly depleted under some driving conditions. We recommend that you service the transmission based on a visual inspection of the fluid, rather than a fixed interval. We’ve changed some fluids in as little as 18,000 miles. We recommend a complete fluid exchange process rather than a “short change” of just a few quarts of fluid and a filter.


If you have any questions about servicing your car or keeping it in tip-top shape just email me at gmcconiga@odanielauto.com and I’ll be delighted to answer your questions. Make sure to check out our service specials at http://www.odanielmazda.com/Service-Specials.html