The majority of people routinely have their oil changed at a local garage and follow the mechanic’s recommendations regarding replacing air filters and wiper blades without question. Unfortunately, you happen to be spending unnecessary money when you allow them to replace these items for you. Read on to find out how you’re wasting money by letting the oil change center dictate when to replace filters and wiper blades and how you will be able to do it yourself for a lot less money.

Maybe you have no idea that in all likelihood, as outlined by your car manufacturer, you only need to change your air filter after every 20,000 miles. This is all your car needs in most circumstances. And you must not feel obligated to swap your air filter after 20,000 miles if it still appears to be fairly clean. Even so, anytime you have your oil changed at an oil change unit, they typically recommend that you replace your air filter at every other oil change. They make this recommendation because it is a lucrative moneymaker for them. You may even end up paying very near to $70 for a $10 air filter at some locations. Some fantastic car articles and other auto related information.

If you’re tired of spending too much at the retail oil change places, you could learn to replace your own air filter and save lots of money. Take a drive to your neighborhood auto parts store where you can purchase an air filter for less than $10. Should you be prepared to ask for help, employees at some auto parts stores will show you what to do. Although swapping an air filter is normally no more difficult than removing a wing nut or releasing 4 clamps that hold the cover on. Then you simply remove the old filter and put the new one in. By carrying out this yourself, you may spend up to $20 every few years rather than paying a garage to do it for you at a cost of over $200 every two years.

You should do the same thing when it comes to swapping your windshield wipers. Why on earth would you pay out $20 per side at the oil change places when you can pick up wiper blades for about $3 to $5 each? In any case, changing wiper blades is as straightforward as changing your air filter. Just so you know it is actually better to change the entire wiper blade unit than it is to just replace the blade itself. As a result, make an effort to buy the whole unit when you shop for blades. You typically only need to have a small screwdriver to help you change out the wiper blades. A good thing about wiper blades is that they tell you when they must be replaced by ceasing to work correctly. The oil change technicians are only using a computer recommendation and they don’t know whether your blades are working properly or not. Consequently, in the event that you haven’t replaced your blades with them, they will keep telling you that you need to have new wiper blades. This is for you if you would like classic car articles.

Just pursuing these two suggestions and carrying out the work yourself can save you quite a bit of money. Perhaps now you’ll want to change your own oil as well. Despite the fact that it’s a bit more of a challenge, it will save you all the more money in the long run.

We’ve had a very dry spring, as a result, drivers haven’t been using their windshield wipers. That means they don’t notice the fact that, unless they have fitted silicone wiper blades, their windshield wipers are degrading all the time. Rubber windshield wipers are attacked by the naturally occurring ozone and ultra violet light in our daily environment. Additionally, if you’ve been using a winter screen wash, the additives which prevent the screen-wash from freezing may well also cause your rubber windshield wipers to degrade. Other pollutants also degrade natural rubber windshield wipers, further accelerating their degradation, even if they aren’t being used!

That all means that, when the rain eventually gets here, you may wellfind that those new windshield wipers you put on not long ago will already be worn out, even though you have hardly used them. That can not only give you an unwelcome surprise when you eventually need to use your windshield wipers, but it can also be specially annoying, especially if you’ve paid a premium price for any of the famous wiper blade brands.

On the other hand, Silicone Wiper Blades have 2 useful advantages over rubber windshield wipers in terms of life expectancy:-

1) Silicone Wiper Blades will not degrade when they aren’t in use, because they are impervious to attack by ozone, ultra violet light, the chemicals used in screen wash and environmental pollution. Have you never noticed how your rubber windshield wipers have become stuck to the windshield after being left in the sun?

2) A 100% silicone wiper blade is much more durable in use than a rubber one. The typical life expectancy of a silicone wiper blade is in the region of 1.5 million cycles. That’s about three times the life of even the top rubber windshield wipers.

Finally, Silicone Wiper Blades offer useful performance benefits in comparison with rubber ones. They are able to handle extreme temperatures, both heat and cold. The silicone blade remains malleable right down to -60°C, and can equally handle the scorching sunshine of the desert. So, they won’t go rigid or crack in even the worst UK winter, or on your mountain ski holiday. What’s more, they don’t melt or stick to your windshield, even if you leave your vehicle in scorching sunshine for a couple of weeks.

You can now even buy Silicone Flat Wiper Blades in addition to the traditional metal framed ones. And the extra good news is that the best ones not only have a guarantee, but they cost around the same as a set of quality rubber windshield wipers from one of the global brands.

During the last several weeks in England, we have experienced perhaps the roughest winter weather for many years. Perhaps the worst feature of these winters is that they ar not severe enough. If my theory appears to be something of a nonsense, just consider it for a minute. A really severe winter for us in England is when the weather remains below consecutively.

As a result our troubles are twofold. First, we simply do not invest in equipment to overcome real winter weather. We have very few snow ploughs and gritters, and just about nobody, even the emergency services fits snow tyres. Additionally, when we do get for us very cold weather, the temperature very seldom goes lower than a few degrees below That in turn means that the moisture levels remain quite high, and this in turn gives rise to frozen wiper blades, windshields, door locks and door seals on our vehicles.

I first realised the peculiarity of our winter weather when I was visiting Iceland one year at the start of winter. Everybody complained of being very cold, and we had all those moist winter problems with the vehicles in the mornings. But, the locals surprised and dismayed me with their assurances that it would all improve as soon as the temperature tumbled another 10° or so. At that time, they insisted, the sea would freeze over and the humidity level would tumble.

When this comes about, there’s so little moisture in the atmosphere that there’s little or no condensation to settle and then freeze on your vehicle during the night. That means that the windscreen is clear and clean, the Wiper Blades aren’t frozen to the screen, the locks all work, the door seals aren’t frozen, and most importantly, the ignition system is nice and dry. You don’t even really need winter screen wash additive, because there’s no nasty wet spray being thrown up onto your windscreen by other traffic. In actual fact the only problem you could have is that your wiper blades, if you’re using rubber ones, may be frozen stiff.

Therefore, it looks like we British are victims of our own temperate weather. Once I realised this fact, I looked into what I could do to lessen the problem. Readying a vehicle for the Uk winter is nothing like the same as preparing it for a proper Nordic|Arctic|Alpine|Scandinavianrarely experience temperatures as low as eight below freezing, but we will often get moist weather during the day followed by night time freezing.

For those reasons, I always carry out the usual pre-winter checks on my car: anti-freeze, drive belts, lights, windscreen and wiper blades, battery, alternator and ignition system etc. Additionally, I make sure to lubricate my car’s locks with a quality water repellent lock lubricant, then I clean and polish the rubber door seals with silicone polish. Most “Cockpit Shine” type products are an excellent source of silicone. Apply enough to leave the rubber shiny black. Remember that a few vehicles have 2 door seals: one on the door frame and the other on the door itself.

Finally, so as to avoid the risk of ruining my windscreen wiper mechanism or motor, I’ve permanently moved over to Silicone Wiper Blades. These stay flexible down to minus sixty degrees centigrade so they ensure a clean wipe in even the toughest conditions, and they don’t crack or split with the cold. On top of that, silicone is more water repellent that rubber, so it offers a much lower risk of your wiper blades being frozen to your car’s windscreen. Silicone wiper blades also offer superb resistance to the chemicals used as winter screen wash antifreeze, UV and Ozone, making them an excellent choice for summer use also.

I discovered a brand called XOPC. These are designed for Russian winters. They are very competitively priced and come with a 12 month guarantee.