When should cars be serviced?
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
05 December 2010
All motorists know this: cars are serviced after every 5,000km. But does this rule apply equally to all vehicles? The simple answer is no.
Think about it: what if the engine is mounted on a generator? It doesn’t go anywhere, does it? So, should we conclude that it should never be serviced because the distance travelled is zero all the time? Of course not!
Generators don’t have an odometer; instead, they have a running time counter. This accumulates the numbers of hours that the engine is “on” and the user’s manual tells the service interval in hours.
When you think about it counting the running time of an engine makes more sense than measuring the distance travelled. However, there are parts of a motor vehicle that wear out as a result of movement alone, regardless of the method of propulsion; the breaks, for example, will get worn whether the vehicle has an engine or is pulled by a horse!
Therefore, in a car, both the engine running time and distance travelled are equally important factors to consider in deciding when to go for service. How can we determine the duration after which to get the car checked?
Let’s start with the famous 5,000km: If you drive your car on a relatively clear and smooth highway and at a reasonable average speed of say, 80km/h, it would take you a little over 60 hours to cover that distance.
Now, obviously, nobody can drive for 60h continuously. If you drove 8h per day, the journey would last about 8 days. No wonder then, that long-distance vehicles are serviced about once every week because.
How about the more regular motorist? Suppose you live in Thika and work
in
The situation is very different for a city motorist. The average daily round trip is about 20km (10km each way) and at this rate, it can take about 250 days to clock up 5,000km. That is, over eight months.
To make matters worse, the 10km journey takes about one hour due to traffic jams; that is, two hours daily. Therefore, in the 250 days it takes to cover 5,000km, the engine will accumulate about 500h of continuous running. This is over 8 times more than the 60h of a long distance vehicle.
Clearly, there is a problem. Checking the distance covered alone is not enough. For that reason, manufacturers recommend that a car should be serviced after 5,000km or three months of use, which ever comes earlier.
Thus for those driving long distances most of the time, the 5,000km limit will be cleared in a few weeks; while for city motorists the three months will expire long before the 5,000km.
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