Maintaining Your Vehicle In Florida

This blog is all about maintaining your vehicle in florida if you’ve just moved to florida welcome you’ll need to become accustomed to the climate the same is true for your car you’re going to have to change your thinking and adopt kind of some different care and maintenance schedules concerning your vehicle because of the climate in florida if you open your vehicle’s manual you’ll usually find two different maintenance schedules and one is for like normal driving conditions and the other for severe driving conditions many wouldn’t necessarily think of florida as a place with severe driving conditions we don’t have icy cold temperatures or the requirement for snow tires what we do have however is extreme heat and moisture and we have rain six months out of the year and an intense heat during the summer and spring and in the fall so it impacts your vehicle in many ways in less severe climates many vehicle owners will put off having vehicles maintained it’s just not important or i’ll take care of those things that are needed you know later and not right now however if you want to keep your car on the road in florida you need to make regular vehicle checks uh or maintenance a priority what’s affected like what can happen what of so which of your vehicle systems are affected in this climate the answer every one of them fluids oil many manufacturers recommend oil changes every ten thousand miles if an oil change does not perform regular leave moisture and heat conditions can cause more wear and tear on your engine transmission fluid when the temperature is a 110 and your transmission is operating in its full temperature your transmission fluid cannot cool the transmission fast enough to keep it at normal operating temperature transmission breakdowns um happened more quickly with heat before i came to florida i had an auto repair shop in new hampshire and i never saw the number of transmission failures and issues that i’ve seen here the cost of preventative maintenance for transmission such as like fluid replacement is undoubtedly worth it versus paying seven thousand to twelve thousand dollars for a new transmission we also have antifreeze and antifreeze breaks down in heat as well while uh you’re not worried here about freezing we are concerned about cooling and antifreeze also helps the cooling of the engine if it’s 110 out and if your engine is running at 180 degrees wow uh there’s a lot of stop-and-go driving and not a lot of air flowing through the radiator and having coolant antifreeze that has broken down and needs replaced can add premature wear and tear on the vehicle by not allowing the car to cool properly so then we’ve got brake fluid so that’s the fluid that you use to operate your brakes it’s hydroscopic which means it absorbs moisture when it does it can damage the automatic braking system it causes rust and corrosion within the automatic portion of your brakes and that can prevent adequate braking so that’s another thing that needs to be done on a regular basis in florida although brake fluid is usually replaced based on mileage in florida i would recommend that you have your fluid regularly tested a legendary automotive as part of our complementary inspection we not only look at the conditions of fluid but we actually test it with a test strip to make sure that it is good um typically a brake job is a great time also to do a brake fluid flush um in which unhealthy brake fluid is replaced with the fresh fluid so um usually it’s about every two years or so that the brake fluid should be flushed in this climate that’s what we have found so rubber items here in the heat well they also affect that affects the timing belts and other belts that are made of rubber your tires it’s been our experience that rubber tends to deteriorate faster in florida than in other climates and because of the extreme heat tires wear out much faster they can start to crack and rot similar to the belt or any other rubber component so then we have windshield wiper blades they take more punishment here because they bake in the sun they should be changed every three months instead of the usual six months required in other climates so then we have the battery so a battery could last seven years in a cooler climate that’s what i had seen before when i came down here it was like every two years three years i’m like it’s crazy um but the average battery life could be two years if you leave your car for six months out of the year it could be even shorter so the battery life becomes less and less so yes florida is a severe service climate if you live in florida you need to stop thinking about servicing your car in terms of regular service and start thinking of it as a severe service area that requires greater maintenance unfortunately many auto shops in florida think in terms of normal service they’re not looking at it in terms of the severe climate we’re living in and therefore they don’t make recommendations based on a severe climate and people think that they’re taking care of everything that they should be taken care of until suddenly they need a new transmission seven twelve thousand dollars right so a whole um section of the florida population is also only here seasonally but those cars need to need special maintenance too for vehicles driven at slow speeds or not driven much the engine needs to heat up to a level where you know moisture is baked out of different systems the belts and the fluids deteriorate faster so make sure you’re doing it right and really the easiest thing is like how can you ensure that you’re taking proper care of your vehicle in a severe service climate like we are in florida number one open up your vehicle’s manual and actually look at the severe maintenance schedule and follow the service maintenance schedule number two make sure to have your car serviced at an auto repair shop that conducts a full inspection and looks at the condition of all the fluids the battery the brakes the belts so that you can take a regular maintenance and get it taken care of instead of waiting for something to fail and require a costly repair number three so i would recommend a comprehensive digital inspection like the ones we provide here at legendary automotive where we’re testing many aspects of your vehicle’s performance as well as fluid samples and this way you can actually see what’s going on with your vehicle and make an informed decision today you hear a lot about preventative maintenance in healthcare taking measures that prevent illness it’s the same thing with our vehicles if we practice preventative maintenance with our cars we’ll avoid so many serious issues down the road and things are not getting cheaper these days so it makes sense especially if you’re in a place like this to maintain your vehicle according to the environment in which we live if you like this blog please check out our other blogs for more irresistible and valuable information on vehicles and on 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