Service Tips
The reliability and life of your car can be greatly increased by doing regular maintenance. By following the recommended service tips outlined below, you can expect longer, more reliable service from your car.

Cooling System maintenance, why do it?
It’s never a nice feeling being stuck on the side of the road when you’re going on holiday. Keeping your cooling system in top condition will greatly reduce the likelihood of a breakdown, add years of life to your vehicle and save you money.
Anti-freeze, for example does more than stop the water in the radiator freezing in very cold weather. It stops harmful corrosion of your engine, lubricates the seals in the water pump and lowers the boiling point of the cooling system. Your engine will keep going stronger for longer.
Regular testing of your cars’ antifreeze to check it’s up to the task could be the difference between a fabulous holiday or an expensive engine repair.

Automatic Transmission Servicing
Most automatic transmissions fail due to overheating. This is usually a direct result of a lack of maintenance. By servicing your cars transmission at the specified intervals you will prolong the life of your automatic transmission. This is especially true if you have a four wheel drive and do a lot of towing. Another great way to extend the life of your auto transmission is to fit an external oil cooler. This will reduce the damaging effects of overheating and significantly add life to the transmission.

Brake Systems
To say that brakes are an extremely important safety consideration with your car is an understatement. There can be several braking systems on your car: normal and ABS. Today's systems are very complicated in that they are both electrically and pressure-operated within the same car. Many require special procedures and require more expertise than past systems. Today's friction coefficients are engineered so precisely that it is imperative to use the correct brake pads for the material in the rotors. Many cars' brake pads are equipped with wear indicators that squeal when it's time for replacement. This is not something to be ignored. The squeal will go away, that is true, but to continue driving with these worn pads typically results in costly damage to your brake system. Your car's brakes should be checked annually.

Brake fluid, why change it?
Brake fluid is often neglected during regular maintenance checks. Brake fluid attracts moisture out of the atmosphere (hygroscopic) every time you drive your vehicle. This means that over time arguably the most important part of you car’s safety system, the brakes, are operating partly on water. In time this will cause your brake cylinders, lines and ABS system to corrode and possibly fail when you need it to work the most!
By regularly flushing and renewing your brake fluid you prevent this from occurring. Mostly though, you will avoid a costly repair bill when your vehicle fails a WOF because your brakes don’t work properly. The cost to change your brake fluid could be as little as 10% of a repair bill.

More About Fluids
There have been many advances in today's autos in an effort to make them more reliable, energy-efficient, and environmentally sensitive. Some of these advances have increased the operating temperatures from 160 to 230 degrees, resulting in lower emissions and higher horsepower. These changes place greater demands from your car's lubrication and cooling systems. Following recommended service schedules and using quality parts will ensure the reliability and longevity of your car.

Tune Ups
The subject of tune-ups in today's cars can cause some confusion. We've all read claims of vehicles that are virtually maintenance free as far as tune-ups are concerned. While many advances have been made and the days of needing tune-ups every 20,000 km’s are gone, most cars do need this maintenance every 40,000 km’s. Some cars can go up to 100,000 km’s before having a tune-up but their performance decreases greatly after the 60,000 km mark.

Timing Belts
Many cars today utilize timing belts to reduce friction and to generate more horsepower. These belts should be changed every 100,000 km’s on average although some manufacturers advise of earlier replacement intervals which can often be reduced to 60,000km. The failure to replace the timing belt at the recommended intervals can result in its breaking, which can cause costly engine damage. For the driver who puts fewer km’s on their car it is still recommended that the timing belt be replaced every 5 years. The calendar ages them at a slightly lesser rate than actual km’s.