How to Budget for Car Maintenance & 7 Maintenance Tips

It’s no secret that owning a vehicle is a big expense. While most people make room in their budget for monthly insurance fees and the ever-increasing price of gas, regular maintenance is often forgotten about. Budgeting for preventative vehicle care means you’ll be able to catch issues early and save yourself some money in the long run.

Regular car maintenance could be the difference between a car that starts in the morning and one that doesn’t. But what exactly does car maintenance entail? To learn more about what it is and how you can implement it into your existing routine, you’re in the right place.

The car maintenance guide will cover:

• Car Maintenance Basics

• Car Maintenance Checklist, Schedule and Costs

• Car Maintenance Costs by Brand

• Car Maintenance Tips and Myths Busted

  Road Trip Ready Tips

Car Maintenance Basics

Look, car maintenance isn’t glamorous, but it is absolutely essential to the longevity of your vehicle. You can’t just purchase a car and hope it’ll run like a charm for the rest of your time with it. A dependable, long lasting and well-maintained car takes intentional effort and a little bit of cash.

Our car maintenance guide can help illustrate your car’s needs and what you need to do to make it happy. By knowing where to focus your attention when, maintaining your vehicle can and will be a cake-walk that saves you a bit of money down the line. Not only that, but it’ll also make it a safer ride for you and anyone else traveling in your vehicle.

SO WHERE DO I START?

There are plenty of myths out there when it comes to servicing your car. We’ll bust the big ones a little later on in this article, but the easiest way to know what your car needs is to go straight to the source.

Pick up your owner’s manual and skim through it. Our car maintenance guide will provide you with some general car maintenance tips. But for your vehicle’s specific needs, the manufacturer has you covered.

WHAT GOES INTO MAINTAINING YOUR VEHICLE?

Well, a lot of things. Your vehicle has a lot of moving parts, and they all need to be looked after in one way or another. Some more often than others. However, in the car maintenance world, “how often?” isn’t necessarily a question of time – it’s usually one of distance travelled.

Vehicle maintenance is often a result of wear-and-tear, among other things. In your car’s case, the more you use it, the more you lose it. The more you drive your car, the harder it works and the faster the materials inevitably start to break down. That’s why we speak in terms of kilometers or miles driven when considering what sort of maintenance needs to be performed on your vehicle. People who don’t drive their car very far or very often probably won’t have to keep it maintained as frequently as someone who does.

HOW MUCH SHOULD I BUDGET FOR CAR MAINTENANCE PER MONTH?

You probably won’t have to use it as often, but it may be a good idea to set aside a fixed amount of cash every month so that when maintenance costs do come up, you’re prepared for it. According to CAA, maintenance costs can run you between $500 and $700 per year. Broken down, you may want to put away anywhere from around $42 to $58 per month. Of course, the more you have set aside, the more prepared you’ll be.

But don’t forget that vehicle maintenance costs do vary. They really depend on what your car needs in the moment and the kind of car your drive.

Car Maintenance Checklist, Schedule and Costs

So here it is – a checklist of the major parts of your vehicle that need maintaining. Our car maintenance guide will also provide you with approximate costs and service timelines for these items, but again, you’re going to see a lot of “it depends” and “check your owner’s manual.”

Nothing is cut-and-dried when it comes to your vehicle. Every car is different, meaning they all have their own specific needs. We wants to give you the resources to help put you and your vehicle in a position to thrive. It’s up to you to implement these changes, but with our checklist, we’ll do everything we can to help you understand the ins-and-outs of general car maintenance.

MAINTENANCE BEFORE 10,000 KM

This is basically everything my dad never shut up about. The stuff you’ll need to take care of before every 10,000 km-or-so. For some maintenance under this category, you’ll probably have to take care of it even more often. Don’t worry, we’ll give you more specific timelines for each.

These are all fairly basic tasks, but skipping out on them can have a major impact on your car’s performance.

Change Oil and Oil Filter

Your vehicle literally needs to be a well-oiled machine, or else its not. There’s a lot of metal under the hood and a lot of friction going on to keep the thing running. Without any lubrication, the gears, pistons and cylinders operating your engine can heat up, meld together and seize up.

Plus, dirty oil is thick, erosive and can do more harm to your vehicle than it’s worth. The longer you wait to change the oil, the dirtier it will get. Your oil filter will help keep it clean for a little while, but it can only filter out so much.

Topping your engine up with fresh oil and changing out the filter every 6,000 kilometres will ensure a smoother ride and a healthy, longer lasting engine.

How much will it cost?

Oil and oil filter changes can run you anywhere from around $27 up to around $87. The lower end of the spectrum will land you the run-of-the-mill stuff. However, as it gets more expensive, you’ll be paying for higher quality synthetic oil.

Rotate Tires

The process of rotating your tires involves moving them from one position to another, ensuring that they wear down evenly. Different mechanics follow different position rotation patterns, but generally they’ll move the rear tires to the front and the front tires to the rear.

Try doing this between every 5,000 to 7,500 km. However, it’s even more important to stay as consistent as possible with it. If your goal is to keep your tires as evenly worn as they can be, consistency will only help you in the long run.

Aligning your tires doesn’t necessarily have to happen as often as a rotation, but occasionally it can be beneficial to get both done at the same time.

How much will it cost?

Rotating your tires alone can cost you anywhere from around $24 to $120. However, an alignment will typically cost between $75 and $200, and they’ll usually throw in a rotation for free.

Wash Your Car

For heaven’s sake, please wash your car on a regular basis. I owned a Volkswagen Rabbit for nearly 9 years, and I can probably count the number of times I washed it on two hands. The salt and dirt it accumulated caused it to rust and it spread like a virus. Once I decided to sell it, I had to drop the price down nearly 20 per cent from its market value at the time and even then I had a hard time getting rid of it.