What You Get Wrong About Car Service For Your Honda In Los Angeles

All vehicle owners have heard plenty of advice on the best methods to take to keep their Honda Odyssey in Los Angeles working at its best. While it’s always nice to get help, there are a lot of different sources out there providing help, some not as credible as the others. Complicating things is the fact that there is a lot of information on how to save money when it comes to car service, and sometimes, one piece of advice contradicts others. However, taking care of your car based on bad advice can lead to a lot of issues down the line. Here are some service myths you may hear after leaving a Honda dealership in Los Angeles, that you should just ignore.

 

Handling Fuel and Oil

 

One thing you may hear a lot when it comes to purchases from a dealer is the idea that you need to change your oil after every 3,000 miles. To be fair, there was a time where this was very much needed. However, a lot of things have changed here, at least, as long as your car model was made in the last decade. Based on manufacturer advice, you can generally go between 5,000 and 7,500 miles without needing an oil change. However, you can reference your manual as well. Why has this changed? Newer synthetic oils don’t break down as fast, for one. Also, modern engines have a stronger design by nature.

 

With transmission fluid, you’re in a similar situation. One piece of common information you may hear is getting a transmission flush after 50,000 miles. However, for newer models, a lot of the time, transmission fluid is designed to last longer. This can go from 100,000 miles to potentially the entire lifespan of a car. Look and see what your manual says.

 

One myth that may end up costing you more than you think is the idea of relying on premium fuel when not needed. In some situations, it isn’t necessary, but those aren’t as frequent as drivers think. A lot of the time, the only cars that really need this fuel are high-performance engines. These engines run hotter and need oil to compensate. However, for a general car, going cheaper won’t do anything to the engine. In general, the more the car costs to buy, the better chance of needing premium fuel.

 

On the topic of car service, many drivers get confused about where they are allowed to go to get service. As an example, if you buy a car off a lot, you may think you need to go to the same lot to avoid voiding the warranty. And to be fair, this isn’t a bad thing. The people working there already know you and the vehicle, and this is a net positive. However, in some cases, it may not be feasible. Many people travel long distances to purchase a car to get the best deal, and while that’s fine doing once, it’s not every time you need service. Any service that’s under your warranty can be done at local shops. However, you want to have all the receipts and documents.

 

When the weather gets cool again, you’re likely going to hear a lot of talk about warming your car up in the driveway before you get on the road. This is more of a half-truth. Yes, your engine needs to warm up to work properly. However, this isn’t accomplished by letting the car idle in the driveway. Regular usage is key here, especially for certain components like wheel bearings and transmission.

 

Another potential issue is the question of swapping out 4 tires at a time. As long as the tires are the same brand, size, and model, you can swap one at a time. However, if you do this, you want to keep up with your tire rotations with each oil change. This will help make sure that everything lasts longer.

 

Myths To Avoid

 

Chances are that a lot of car owners have heard different takes on the myths discussed at some point in the past. There are other, more obscure misconceptions out there, though, and some of these can cause a lot of issues for your vehicle. For one thing, many people decide to skip out on buying car wash liquid and clean their vehicles with laundry and dish soap instead. In theory, this helps them save money, but in reality, it opens things up to a whole bunch of other issues. The chemicals here, for example, can actually alter the wax finish on your car.

 

Sometimes, especially since many people aren’t driving as much right now, your batter may end up dealing with some issues. Sometimes, these go to the extent that your car won’t start. Many people think that they can fix this issue by just driving around a bit, letting the car reach full charge. However, this isn’t nearly as easy to pull off in practice. A lot of the time, you need to drive for hours at a time in order to see the proper full charge on a battery. This may not always be feasible, so be sure to understand that you need to drive around more than a minute post-jump to stay safe.

 

With many places getting into summer weather, a common myth you might hear is that you can save money on gas by just opening the windows rather than running your AC system. This isn’t nearly as useful as you might think it is, though. What is true is that using the AC constantly will use more fuel. However, if you open the windows all the time, your car is going to end up having greater wind resistance. This means it burns more fuel to go to the same distances it did before.

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