Delaying important car repairs will never be a good idea, no matter what system has experienced mechanical failure. When that repair needs to be performed on your car’s external engine, it is even more important to get started right away. Diagnosing which parts need replacement and getting them in place allows you to avoid even more costly repairs down the road, including repairs that might send you to a professional.
If you like taking care of your own vehicle, it’s a good idea to get on top of every repair early. When it comes to engine parts like the spark plugs or the fuel pump, injectors, and lines that feed them, delays are often costlier than expected. Keep that in mind if you are wondering whether it is time to order that new Spectra Premium.
Can Lead To Costly Repairs
It’s a general rule of maintenance that anything downstream from a failing part’s workflow can be affected by its malfunction. That includes other systems that interact with the work done by that part, like when contamination from the engine gets into the oil and starts causing problems for the filter.
When it comes to your engine, its fuel supply, and the exhaust system that takes care of combustion byproducts, there are a lot of downstream processes that could go wrong. Depending on the external engine component that is failing and how it malfunctions, you could wind up with costly repairs to everything from fuel injectors to the muffler under some worst-case scenarios. The longer you put off repair, the more likely those worst-case scenarios become.
Preserve Car Performance
Your vehicle is designed to work with clean fuel lines, well-timed spark plugs, and all its other parts intact as well. If you want to continue enjoying the feel of the way it drives just like you did the day you bought it, then you need to keep up with maintenance, replacing Denso spark plugs and other parts with limited life cycles as soon as their time comes up. If you wait until they totally fail, you have usually allowed them to cause some downstream damage on the way.
Preserving performance requires more than just replacement parts, though. You should also consider line cleaners and additives for all your major systems. Purple fuel helps with your fuel line quality and engine performance, but you will also find similar products designed to clean your oil pan and lubrication system, your transmission, and your car’s cooling system. Check your vehicle owner’s manual to find out when each of those systems should receive a tune-up.
OEM Replacement or Performance Upgrade?
OEM specs are not necessarily the best choice when you are refreshing a vehicle’s performance. They provide you with a part that is an almost perfect replacement for the original factory part, it is true. Often, though, technology has moved forward significantly between the time a vehicle rolls out of the factory and the time tune-ups come around.
In those cases, an upgrade to a more rugged performance part might be just a few dollars more. If it brings you better durability and efficiency, why not make the change? For those looking to maximize performance, the aftermarket offers a lot of options on the upper end, but you can make modest and useful gains for just a few dollars extra when you replace parts.
