Do your maintenance!!! For Fuck Sake!!!! So in addition to teaching at the collegiate level I also work part time as a mechanic (I worked for several years for GM and will probably go back to work for them part-time soon). The number one problem (all years, makes, and models) is not doing your maintenance. Change your oil when it says to. Use decent oil and filters!!! Rotate your tires. Change your air filter. Service your transmission. Most of these procedures are easy enough that anyone can do them especially after some YouTube learning!
Things to avoid: 1) don’t lift your truck, it kills mpg and handling. I have ZERO sympathy for all these cry babies and their lifted trucks and the never ending list of problems it creates. It will also prematurely wear everything else out on your truck. Avoid this like the plague! 2) stay off dirt roads if possible. Dirt flies up from the roads adds debris to your engine, the dirt will beat your ball joints to death. Dirt takes its toll on almost every competent on your car, avoid if possible. 3) Find a trustworthy mechanic and listen to them! If I had a nickel for every time I recommended something to be fixed (customer declined) and then customer comes in crying when it’s 3x as much to fix. E.G. replace ball join (customer thinks I’m scamming them) vehicle becomes out of alignment and now has to have at least 2 tires replaced with the ball joint that still needs fixed. Bonus points the harsh angle has put strain on the wheel bearing. Now your car needs tires, bearing, ball joint, and aligned ***CRY CRY CRY**** I shrug my shoulders, shake my head and say to myself “told ya so” 4) don’t modify your car unless you know what you are doing, modifications can void warranties and they can also put all kinds of stress on your vehicle. As much as I cuss engineers at times, usually if they put it on the car it needs to be there. 5) Don’t wash your car too often, it will create rust issues. Try to keep your car inside or parked in a shady area, crack your windows or there is a good chance your dash will crack in the summer. Never ever lease a car!!! Biggest scam ever!!! 6) Properly inflate your tires, it says how much inside the drivers door. (a few psi over this usually won’t hurt anything and can net you a few extra mpg if you don’t drive like an ass hat). Under inflated tires are the number 1 cause of blow outs, increase wear on your tires, and hurt MPGs. (I feel like I’m forgetting an awful lot of stuff right now so feel free to comment and chime in) I’ll update as more things occur to me, you have my apologies.
