10 bad driving habits that are damaging your car
Your car is one of your most prized possessions and certainly one you depend on heavily. So, you want it to last as long as possible. Even if you have proper vehicle maintenance measures in place, you may be overlooking important daily duties that negatively affect the life of your vehicle.
Here are the top 10 bad driving habits that can cause unintentional but significant damage to your vehicle:
Ignoring the parking brake: When you park on a slope, use the parking brake even if you don't feel it's necessary (read: your car has an automatic transmission). If you don't, you're putting pressure on the transmission, where there's just a small pin the size of your pinky, known as the parking pawl, holding the entire weight of your car in place.
Shifting into forward or reverse gear at a partial stop: In an automatic transmission vehicle, shifting to Drive or Reverse is not like shifting from first to second gear in a manual transmission. You're forcing your transmission to do something it wasn't designed to do, and that can damage driveshafts and suspension.
clutch driving: In manual transmission vehicles, drivers sometimes keep the clutch engaged when it is not the time to brake or shift gears. This can cause damage to the hydraulic system where the pressure plates meet the flywheel. Riding the clutch causes these plates to graze the flywheel willy-nilly, wearing out the entire system and potentially setting you up for sudden clutch failure in the future.
Regularly adding small amounts of fuel to the gas tank: While there may be times when you just can't afford to fill the tank completely or plan to wait for a better fuel deal, adding a few gallons of gasoline at a time and driving low on fuel regularly can actually hurt your car. . This is because your car fills up with gasoline from the bottom of the tank, where sediment accumulates. Doing so may clog the fuel filter or allow debris to enter the engine.
Driving on the brakes down the hill: Even though you feel like you're ready to stop in an emergency, riding on your brakes when going down a hill, or even in general, causes excessive wear on your brake system. Driving this way actually increases the risk of brake failure, so instead try to drive in a lower gear if you can.
Sudden stops and takeoffs: Regularly depressing the brake or accelerator pedal greatly affects gas mileage and can even wear parts such as brake pads and rotors.
Using the shift lever as a palm restA: Unless you're a professional racer, there's no reason for you to ride with your hand on the shift lever. The weight of your hand is actually putting stress on the sliders in your transmission, causing unnecessary wear.
Carrying heavy loads you don't need: It's one thing to load up a car while helping a friend move or delivering tools to work, but driving with a bunch of excess weight for no reason significantly reduces fuel consumption and puts additional stress on all vehicle components.
Wrong "warming up" of the car: Although it's okay to start the car and let it idle for a few minutes before leaving the house on a cold morning, starting the engine right away to "warm up" it is a bad idea. This causes sudden temperature changes that can harm your vehicle and causes the engine to run under load before the oil can fully circulate.
Ignoring what your machine is trying to "tell" you: It's not uncommon for your car to make unusual noises before mechanical problems manifest themselves in more obvious (read: serious) ways. You know how your machine should sound, so putting off learning a new rumble or rumble only allows the problem to get worse and worse. When something starts to sound wrong, contact us to book a mechanic who can diagnose the problem and fix things up.
If you are guilty of any of these common bad driving habits, use your newfound knowledge today. Do you have any "good driver" tips we missed? Send them to us at [email protected]
