You have just bought a great new car. The salesman has assured you that you will enjoy it for years to come as long as you get regular servicing. But there are things you can do other than regular service checks...

The first thing you can do is look through the owner's manual for the manufacturer's recommendations for all the parts of your vehicle. There are a few items that may be affected, for various reasons, beyond what the manual recommends. The reason for this is simple; individual drivers drive individually.

A clutch should last the life of a vehicle. However, if you ride it, pop it, pull heavy loads or keep it engaged needlessly, it wears the clutch out prematurely. Is there an easy way to tell if your clutch is wearing out? Yes, if there is a lot of play in your pedal, it is very likely your clutch is worn. It can be adjusted, but eventually it will have to be replaced. You could always re-learn to use you clutch so you don't have this problem.

Most fuel injectors should last the life of your car and most spark plugs, if your car has them rather than injectors, should last at last until the 100,000 km maintenance check-up. Both fuel injectors and spark plugs can be fouled up by the petrol from your car. To protect the injectors, you should use high octane petrol. Adding an injection cleaner into the fuel tank every third or fourth fill with also prolong the proper functioning of the injectors. Spark plugs have to manually adjusted is they have been fouled up. It is quite easy to determine when spark plugs are working inefficiently. You can hear the motor hiccoughing and stuttering. A trip to the service centre is the only way to repair fouled plugs.

Tyres are trickier to maintain. There are many variances to tyre wear. You should always make certain that you tyres are properly inflated. This will improve your vehicle's handling and petrol use. You will need a pressure gauge. Check your owner's manual or the side of the tyre for the recommendation tyre pressure. You also have to remember to check for tyre wear. If you place a penny, head down into the groove in a tyre tread and can see the face, you need to replace the tyre. Tyres life can vary greatly as some tyres, designed for urban driving are made to last only 45,000 kms. Other tyres have ratings for 90,000 kms or more.

Brake pads on your new car should last about 15,000 kms if you do mostly urban driving and approximately double that if you do mostly road trips. This means that every third or sixth oil change should be done where you can also get your brakes checked and possibly replaced.

Wiper blades also need to be replaced regularly if you are to see in poor weather conditions. Wiper blades need to be replaced when the sweep of the blade across your windscreen leaves streaks or blemishes. They are relatively easy to replace, but extremely hard on your manicure.

Lights are the other things that should last you a lifetime. They should--provided that no one throws a rock into a headlamp as they overtake you too quickly, crashes into your front of rear as they are trying to get in or out of a tight space, or you accidentally do the same.

Enjoy your new vehicle and be aware of the little things so they don't turn into big things.

Tyre Pressure Check

http://www.ehow.com/video_112746_check-tire-pressure.html

Tyre Wear Check

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-check-your-cars-tyre-wear

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