In spite of the lubrication that engine oil provides, friction between the moving parts inside the engine results in tiny metal particles shearing off and circulating with the oil.  These metal particles become part of the oil film that exists between the moving parts and grind into these parts, ruining the precision clearances between them. Over time, the result is that the engine operates more noisily and less efficiently.  These clearances range from about 5 to 25 microns where one micron is equal to one thousandth of a millimetre.  (The clearance between the piston rings and the cylinder walls is one example of a very fine clearance of about 5 microns.)  While conventional oil filtration filters out the overwhelming majority of metal particles of 40 microns or larger in size, it doesn't filter out all of the metal particles that are smaller than 30 microns.  Conventional oil filtration allows a large proportion of these damaging metal particles smaller than 30 microns to circulate with the oil.  When they get stuck between moving parts separated by a precision clearance which is smaller than the size of the particles (eg. 5 microns between the piston rings and the cylinder walls), they grind damage into these parts.  This is the wear and tear in an engine that makes it feel loose and rough to drive, rather than tight and smooth like a new engine.

The transmission, whether manual or automatic, is much the same story, with metal particles that have been deposited into the transmission fluid (as a result of friction between moving parts) threatening to accelerate wear and reduce the working life of the transmission.  Most manual transmissions do not employ any filtration whatsoever to remove these wear particles.  Although automatic transmissions have a filter inside them, it is usually woefully inadequate to protect this extremely expensive, precision component from the wear and tear caused by these metal particles.

Conventional car maintenance routines see us running on a treadmill of constant fluid changes to remove and replace fluids in the vehicle such as engine oil and transmission fluid that have become contaminated with these damaging wear particles.  However, conventional car maintenance routines of constant fluid changes are helpless to trap a large proportion of these metal wear particles once they have entered the fluid.  Rather, they are allowed to circulate with the fluid and cause damage to the components that the fluid is meant to be protecting.  The fluids are replaced in intervals of some multiple of months but these metal particles are entering the fluids every day that the car is driven.  Even with the regular fluid changes involved in conventional car maintenance routines, the vehicle still suffers a steady onslaught of wear and tear over time until it requires major repairs such as an automatic transmission rebuild or the reconditioning of the engine.

Motor vehicles are made up of expensive components that take time, effort and an extremely high level of accumulated skill to manufacture.  As a result, new vehicles sell for high prices at car dealerships.  It simply doesn't make any sense to allow the expensive components inside motor vehicles such as the engine and transmission to be subjected to the damage that these metal wear particles cause if it can be avoided.  The truth is that conventional car maintenance routines are not sophisticated enough to prevent this damage from occurring.

Have you ever thought that there must be a better way than letting the oil in your expensive engine become degraded with abrasive contaminants like metal particles, causing the engine to run less smoothly, more noisily and more laboriously?  Have you ever wondered if there are methods of car maintenance which could make it dramatically easier for you to maintain your vehicle, saving you time and money, by preventing the contamination of engine oil altogether?  The reality is that certain methods of car maintenance are now available that are vastly superior to the conventional wisdom of yesteryear which revolves around the endless engine oil changes and "pulling things apart to find out what's causing the problem" after the damage has already been done.  The old adage still applies today: "Prevention is better than cure."  A vehicle that is maintained from the inside out using the latest innovative techniques that prevent contaminants from circulating in the fluids will rarely break down and have to be dismantled.  This entirely different way of approaching car maintenance based on the most sophisticated and proven techniques available allows the vehicle owner to save time and save money because all of the problems that ordinarily require expensive repairs are avoided altogether.  This is the way life is meant to be.  In addition, the service interval for the replacement of engine oil can be extended dramatically from 4 months to five years with the result that the engine oil is cleaner all of the time.  No metal particles that cause damage are allowed to remain in the engine oil.  As a result, the engine is constantly running on immaculately clean oil.

I'm not spinning some automotive fairy tale here.  I'm talking bedrock fact.  The latest techniques of car maintenance available have allowed me to set up my fuel-injected, two-litre, 1986 Camry hatch-back so that it runs better than the majority of vehicles on the road today.  It's simply no longer necessary to accept that one's vehicle will eventually wear out and require an expensive financial outlay on a replacement vehicle.  By using car maintenance techniques that do justice to the high level of sophistication involved in manufacturing the vehicle in the first place and that protect the complicated and expensive components in the vehicle day-in, day-out, you can keep your vehicle on the road for as many years as you please.  It's much less expensive to keep an existing vehicle on the road by maintaining it well than replacing it every five to ten years.  There are literally thousands and thousands of dollars waiting to be saved.  I know, because I'm saving them.  My car has a market value of less than $3,000 but it runs better than other cars on the road that are worth many multiples of that.  These cars are suffering under the burden of inferior conventional car maintenance routines.

I started performing my own car maintenance and repairs fifteen years ago because I had a burning desire to take control of my vehicle's mechanical condition.  I was tired of having to rely on mechanics to maintain my car and I wanted to be self-reliant.  When I started, I didn’t realise how much there was to learn.  By asking a lot of questions and getting my hands dirty, I began to learn what's really happening on the insides of a motor vehicle and what the real causes of the biggest problems are.  I came to the inescapable conclusion that the design of motor vehicles is generally woefully inadequate to prevent the wear and tear that occurs during the normal course of the vehicles' use.  They're actually really vulnerable to mechanical failure without fastidious, time-consuming maintenance or the use of little-known, innovative, time-saving techniques.

Over the last three years, I've been committed to understanding in detail what the methods for car maintenance are which require the least time and money but which result in the best performance and highest level of reliability.  I've been particularly interested in setting my own car up to absolutely minimise wear and tear to the greatest extent possible on all of its systems and components (eg. body, engine, cooling system, fuel system, transmission, differential, brake system et cetera), so that no problems ever materialise.  I wanted to prevent problems from occurring, rather than waiting for them to develop and then fixing them when they become more urgent.  I was surprised to discover that the methods of car maintenance that lead to better performance, better reliability and minimal wear and tear don't cost a lot of money.  I'm saving a small fortune just by preventing a range of problems from occurring that would otherwise eat away at my car.

After documenting a lot of what I'd learnt to make my own car easier to maintain, I realised I was on to something and that not many people are aware of this information.  So I decided to compile everything I'd discovered into a book, which is titled How to Make Your Car Run Like a Swiss Clock to Save Time & Save Money.  The principles I discovered can be applied to any vehicle, whether it's a small hatch-back, a motorhome or anything in between.  This book represents best practice in car maintenance.  It represents countless hours I've spent researching, testing, fine-tuning and documenting methods to enable my own car to perform at its absolute best with a minimum outlay of time and money.  It contains the following sections:

...................1  Strategy......................................................................3

...................2  Safety.........................................................................8
...................3  General car maintenance tips........................................13
...................4  Driving habits.............................................................28
...................5  Fuel economy.............................................................34

...................6  Vehicle body...............................................................39

...................7  Engine.......................................................................49
.......................7.1  Engine oil............................................................49
.......................7.2  Cooling system.....................................................64
.......................7.3  Fuel system.........................................................74
.......................7.4  Ignition system....................................................77

...................8  Automatic transmission................................................80
...................9  Manual transmission....................................................88
.................10  Differential.................................................................89

.................11  Braking system............................................................90
.................12  Suspension & steering system.......................................95
.................13  Wheels & tyres............................................................96
.................14  Power steering system................................................106

.................15  Battery.....................................................................107

• If you use the paradigm-shifting method outlined on pages 53 to 59 of sub-section 7.1 about engine oil, you can keep the engine oil in your car so immaculately clean on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month and year-to-year basis, that you will only have to drain and replace the oil every 60 months or 50,000 kilometres (30,000 miles), whichever comes first.  Although this sounds like an outrageous and fanciful claim, it has already been proven beyond any doubt to be true.  If you’re tired of the endless treadmill of engine oil changes and you want your car to run as smoothly and responsively as it does on freshly-changed oil, all of the time, then this method is for you.  Why risk wrecking your vehicle's engine with dirty engine oil when you can clean it as you drive?
  
  The engine oil companies don't want you to know about this method because it cuts deeply into their sales revenue.  Most mechanics don't know about this method because they've never been taught about it.  The same goes for other people in the automotive industry such as most spare parts store attendants or most car dealership employees.  For the few who do know, none of them, mechanics included, are likely to tell you about it because it would cut deeply into the money they make from selling you engine oil, oil filters and labour every oil change.  The treadmill of regular engine oil changes is the bread and butter of the entire automotive industry.  That is not something that the industry is going to give up easily.

• If you use the revolutionary method for corrosion protection outlined on pages 39 to 43 of section 6 about the vehicle's body, you can virtually guarantee that your vehicle will not corrode any further (even if you live near the ocean), saving you from hundreds of dollars in rust repairs and the accompanying inconvenience of your car being tied up in the repair shop.
  
  This method of corrosion protection requires little time to set up and no time to maintain.  It doesn't involve messy coatings or treatments which detract from the appearance and value of your vehicle.  Unlike other methods of corrosion protection, it even protects the metal parts of the vehicle that are connected to the body from unsightly corrosion such as the engine, suspension and accessories like towbars.  The irritating problem of nuts and bolts seizing from corrosion and becoming difficult to loosen is also greatly reduced.

• If you use the precautionary method outlined on pages 28 to 29 of section 4 about driving habits on a day-to-day basis, you can eliminate the risk of ever blowing a cylinder head gasket, which is expensive to replace and requires your car being off the road and in the repair shop for several days.

• If you use the innovative method outlined on pages 82 to 83 of section 8 about the automatic transmission you can dramatically reduce the wear and tear in this precision-engineered component (which is one of the hardest working components of the vehicle), so that you never have any problems with it.  While many find themselves suddenly faced with an exorbitant repair bill for their worn-out automatic transmission when they least expect it, you can avoid this trap altogether.

This 107-page book can be read like a reference book by choosing which section to read depending on what you need to know at the time.  The main points in each section are highlighted so that you can skim-read until you find what you're looking for.  For more detail, you can continue reading the surrounding text which is not highlighted.  These main points save you time in obtaining the information you need.  The meanings of the three colours used to highlight the main points are:

How to Make Your Car Run Like a Swiss Clock to Save Time & Save Money is jam-packed with methods for streamlining the maintenance associated with the different systems on the vehicle and improving the overall performance and reliability of the vehicle.  I’ve also included a wide range of general tips for working on the vehicle that I’ve learned from experience over the years in the third section on general car maintenance tips.

This book contains the most progressive and proven information all in one place, ready to be utilised.  It’s priced inexpensively at just $7 to make it as affordable as possible in spite of the current, difficult, economic climate.  If you want to minimise the drudgery and expense associated with car maintenance and you aspire to your vehicle performing as well as the day it came out of the factory, all of the time, this book contains the information you need.

By clicking on the following PayLoadz button, you can purchase How to Make Your Car Run Like a Swiss Clock to Save Time & Save Money in Adobe pdf file format using PayPal for $7.  Immediately after your payment is processed, you'll be sent an email automatically providing a link to the PayLoadz webpage where you can download this book.

Sincerely

Andrew Mackinnon
andymack AT easy DOT com DOT au

Copyright 2008 - 2009.  All rights reserved.