Happy Earth Day everyone! Today is a very special day to spread awareness on what we can do to help the environment. More specifically, what you can do with your car to make it more efficient. There are a bunch of preventive steps that you can take to help your car and the environment, and some are easy enough to do yourself!
One of the most important things you can do is check your gas cap. Whenever you fill up your tank, make sure you or the attendant tightens your gas cap all the way. If it is lose, your gas can leak out in the form of vapor causing you to waste fuel and increase emissions. You can also make sure your gas cap is in good shape, if it is cracked or damaged in any way this also may cause the vapor to leak out.
Another thing you can do yourself is to clean out your car. Yes this may sound silly, but this will help. If you are lugging around a lot of heavy unnecessary things, this will weigh down your car causing it to exert more energy and use more gas. Of course keep your spare tire, jumper cables, and all those kinds of things in your car at all times, but just try to stay more organized.
There are many simple maintenance services that can be done to help be more environmentally friendly as well. These can be done in a service appointment. You might not think that there is much you can do, but you can. These are services that should be done regularly and now you can find out how they help the environment too.
The first one is routine tire checks. Make sure you always keep tabs on your tire pressure. Remember you might need more or less air in your tires as the temperature changes outside. If they are not as full as they should be, they should have air added to them. Having not enough air in your tires will make your engine work harder.
The second one is to get your air filters replaced. These should be checked every time you come in for an oil change. A clogged air filter filled with dirt, bugs, leaves, etc. becomes restricted and this causes your engine to lose power, therefor it drags and is not as productive as it should be. Having a new air filter will improve your acceleration causing you to go farther with less power.
And third is replacing your spark plugs as needed. During their lifetime, a spark plug creates a lot of heat which can cause electrical and chemical erosion. This wear and tear may cause your engine to misfire. A misfiring engine can use up unnecessary fuel and make your engine work harder to try to make up for that misfire. According to our technicians here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center, spark plugs should be changed every 6 years or 60,000 miles.
There are many things that can be done to help the environment and it all starts you. You can do your part by making routine service appointments and having your car checked regularly to make sure it is performing the best for you and our Earth.
