Essential Car Care Mistakes to Avoid for Longevity

Car owners should avoid driving on low fuel to prolong fuel pump life and maintain engine health.

### Essential Car Care: Five Common Mistakes to Avoid
* 🚗 Don't drive your car on a low tank of fuel, as this can **damage the fuel pump**, which is **cooled by the gasoline**; instead, aim to **keep at least half a tank** to prolong its life.
* ⛽ Avoid overfilling your gas tank to prevent **significant damage**, and always use the type of gasoline recommended for your vehicle to avoid **wasting money**.
* 🔧 Understand your engine type and technology, as this knowledge can influence your **maintenance habits** and help you **prevent issues like carbon buildup** in direct-injection engines.
* 🏎 Perform an "Italian tune-up" occasionally by **pushing your car to its limits**, which can help keep the engine **clean and running smoothly**, but don't make it a daily habit.
* 🛑 Avoid hanging items from your gear shifter or steering column, as this can lead to **safety issues and expensive repairs**, particularly with the steering column's **spiral cable**.
* 🧼 Don't use Windex or ammonia-based cleaners on your infotainment screen or tinted windows, as these can cause **immediate damage** to the screens and coatings.
* 🌧 Be proactive about cleaning sunroof drains to prevent flooding, and ensure any windshield replacements are done by **reputable companies** to avoid **leaks and electrical issues**.
* 📅 Lastly, always change your oil **more frequently than the manufacturer's long intervals** to maintain engine **longevity and performance**.

Hello and welcome to the Car Kaa Channel, and welcome to five things you should never do to your car: the mechanics edition. These are things I see people do all the time that you should actually not be doing, or at least try to avoid as much as possible. Let us start with

number one, right after this. The first one is, and this is something I see people do a lot: don't drive your car on a low tank of fuel all the time. Look, folks, I understand that some are on a budget; you don't really have the money to fill up that tank all the

time, and you're always putting $20, $10, as the finances allow. But here's what you're actually doing: you're going to end up having issues. See, gasoline cars have a fuel pump that sits in the fuel tank. That fuel pump is

actually cooled by the fuel, so the more you have it submerged, the better for that fuel pump. It's going to run cooler; it's going to last a lot longer. In the case of Toyota and Lexus—this is what our channel kind of focuses on—we rarely

have fuel pump problems, and the ones that we do have fuel pump problems are usually recalled, or something is taken care of. But usually what kills fuel pumps in Toyotas is continuously running it on low. You put $10, you run it down almost to empty, then

you put $10 again. Don't do that. Here's a suggestion, though: if you are that person that is on a budget, you can't really afford to fill up the tank right away, you have to put a small amount at a time. Save up; fill up your tank then.

Every time it gets to half a tank, put in $10. That way, we always have half a tank should there ever be an emergency and you need to go somewhere. You don't have to fill up the car; it's not always on empty. And then you're also preserving

your fuel pump. Trust me, fuel pumps are very expensive in modern cars. I'm glad that they are very reliable, but when they do go, because you're always running it on low, they can be very expensive. As an additional tip, since we are speaking of fuel, don't overfill

your gas tank. We've talked about this in detail in a video, which I'll leave right here, but you could cause significant damage if you continuously and kind of intentionally overfill the tank just to get a few extra miles. That's kind of the opposite of running

it low all the time. So basically, the middle ground is best. Another additional tip: use the gasoline that is intended for your car. If your car wants regular gas, use regular gas. If it needs premium, use premium. But don't use regular gas in your premium car; that's

kind of obvious, but equally, don't use premium in your regular car because you're just wasting money. Scientifically, there's absolutely no benefit in that; it's just a waste of money. What engine does your car have? Not how do you rebuild that engine, but basic

question: Do you know what engine your car has? Do you know what basic technology it has? Because that really impacts how you're going to operate it, how you're going to take care of it. For example, I ask people all the time, "Hey, what engine does your car have?" It has a

Four-cylinder, I think. There ends up being a V6; they don't know, and that's okay. We're not anticipating everybody to know everything about cars, but these basic things that you know about your car can actually impact the way you're going to take care of it.

I'll give you a few examples. If your car has direct injection, you might want to know about that. Does it have just direct injection, or does it have direct and port? You might want to know about this because direct-injected cars only... unfortunately, the byproduct of that is

carbon buildup. You can never prevent it, but you can actually change your driving habits and maintenance habits to prevent it from being an issue. For example, don't drive all city on a direct-injected engine—even with any engine, but

with direct-injected engines, seriously don't do all city driving, because that is your highway to carbon buildup. That is harmful. They all build carbon, but if we don't have issues, we're not worried about it. And then the other thing is, do you ever take your car on the highway

and drive it very conservatively on the highway? Did you know that—this is a term that mechanics use—an 'Italian tune-up'? Do that every single day, potentially you'll wear things down and we have issues. But once a week, once every two weeks, you push your car to the

redline and kind of let it breathe. That's what we call an Italian tune-up. It's actually helpful to your car because you're driving it short distances, and that's another one you should avoid. If you're driving short distances, you're only driving in the city, you never...

really get it past 2,000 RPM, and then that's the life of the car. It never really builds up enough pressure to push everything out, and now we have issues because you're driving it too conservatively. I have built a lot of engines in my life as a

technician. I see the ones that are driven hard and the ones that are driven very conservatively. Usually, the ones that are babied—they're full of carbon, even non-direct injected ones—and the ones that are driven hard, they have other wear because of that always

revving high and all that, but they're usually very clean and carbon-free. So don't be too conservative with your car, folks. Engines are meant to be driven. That's the other thing: you want to drive them. Though, take an intentional long trip every once in a while, get it

up, push on it. Do it safely, within the speed limit and everything, but once a week, once every two weeks, give her that good Italian tune-up. Your car will thank you for it, and you will get the benefit of that long-term. And just to

clarify one thing that I get asked a lot: doing an Italian tune-up, or really pushing your car to redline and kind of going all out and letting the engine breathe, once every week, once every two weeks, is not going to harm your engine.

Folks that do that every single day and every single drive, yes, over time—but not immediately—over time. But doing it once a week, every two weeks, won't harm anything; if anything, it's actually going to benefit things. And most importantly, avoid short trips at all

Costs and, if you only live a little way from work, warm up that car longer, maybe on the way back. You don't want to be late to work, but on the way back, as you wind down at the end of the day, take a longer road. Instead of one mile, let's go three or four

miles. It helps; every bit helps. Let these cars warm up, folks, especially in cold weather; it really helps them. The last two things: know your engine. Do you have a turbocharged engine? Turbocharged engines require a lot more maintenance to keep them reliable for

long term, and we did a specific video on that. I will leave that right here for full details, but you've got to know this stuff. And the most important thing: these long oil change intervals, folks. I cannot emphasize how disastrous that is for the longevity of your engine if

you know nothing about your engine—I don't know if it's a four-cylinder, I don't know if it's direct injection—you don't need to know anything about cars, but you should know this: whatever the manufacturer interval is, these long 10,000, 15,000, 20,000-mile intervals, always cut it

in half, if not a third. If you have a 10,000-mile interval, go five. If you have to replace the oil every year, go six months. People will write essays about this. I have been drying my voice since the channel started, telling you don't do

this, because I see the effects of this. Everybody will write essays about this and how their car lasted, but not everybody drives in kind of ideal driving conditions. If you do, it's fine, but 99% of people actually don't, and you don't want to

Fall for this one: the earlier you change your oil, the better. Don't go with long intervals. Please, this one is a good one for you. Don't hang things in places that are not meant to be hung from. I hope that makes sense. Let's get into it, and you'll see I

see this all the time. This is one of the most common ones, and I admire folks for it. Don't hang a garbage bag from your shifter. I see this all the time; folks are trying to keep their garbage away from the car and put it in a bag, nice

and neat. Don't hang it from the shifter, folks. Shifters slowly are disappearing, but the old-school shifters—you really don't want to be doing that. The number one thing I see is park/neutral safety switch issues because you have something heavy hanging on the shifter; it's

actually pushing it, and eventually, you get it just enough out of position where it just throws the computer off, and now we have premature... unnecessarily. There is no need to do that. Leave that bag on the floor; it's perfectly safe, and we're good. Don't hang

it from the shifter. And another one that I see that could get very expensive and actually very quickly: don't hang things around the steering column, or worse, the stalks. See, here's where I see it happening: from that, you hang a necklace,

and I understand folks want to accessorize their cars and make it personal, and that's perfectly fine, but around the steering column area—that's a moving area—and behind the steering column of modern cars, there's something called a spiral cable (in Toyota language) or a clock spring (in kind of universal

Car language; that is what connects your airbag, your steering wheel controls, your horn. That clock spring, or spiral cable, is actually a very big wound wire and, as you turn the wheel, it continuously supplies that electrical connection. Well, when you put stuff

around the steering wheel, initially it's okay, nothing will happen. But then eventually one of them will slip; it'll get pushed into the steering wheel and get inside of that and it destroys it. I've seen this way too many times. Be very careful with that because these spiral cables are very expensive, and you don't want to damage it just from hanging something that eventually got caught up and went inside and destroyed it. But more than that is the one that I see a lot, and you've got to really be careful with this one: hanging

things from your mirror, from your rearview mirror. People love to do that. First, they'll hang seven air fresheners; the other thing is you hang your 20-something graduation tassels. Look, I'm very proud of you for that, and it's a beautiful

thing, but here's the problem: that rearview mirror in most modern cars is no longer hung on the roof of the car; they're actually sitting with a little tab of glue that is glued onto the windshield. Well, you put all this extra weight on it; eventually you just bump

into it a little bit, it'll just come right out. But that's not the end of the world; you just glue it back on and we're good to go. But here's the problem with modern cars: that area where the mirror is has gotten very busy; you have cameras there

You have sensors there for all the safety systems, so when that thing comes off, it's going to pull everything with it. And now you're not only gluing it back and all this stuff, you're calibrating it; it just turns into a massive thing just because we have to hang these

things from the mirror. But more importantly, even if your car doesn't have all of that, it actually impairs your vision. Don't hang things from your mirror, folks. And the last one, although this is—again, times are changing—don't have 200 keys on your keychain on cars that still have

a physical key. We're getting away from those, but all you're doing there is just putting excessive wear on that key. And eventually, one of these days when it's single digits outside and you're in a hurry and it's super cold, you're going

to go and try to start your car, the key won't turn because you wore it off on one side. If that ever happens to you—I hope it doesn't—but if it ever happens to you, here's a quick tip: flip the key. Sometimes that will

actually work. But when you have that, you know that you've been wearing this cylinder on one side. Don't hang a lot of keys from your physical key that starts the car; that actually starts wearing things out very rapidly. Don't use Windex or similar

products on your infotainment screen. And folks, just to clarify because fairness is important here: there's nothing wrong with Windex; Windex is actually a very good glass cleaner. But read the words: glass cleaner. Your infotainment screen is not glass. If it was an old CRT screen, maybe.

We're okay, but this is not a glass screen. This is very important that you know that. So here's the problem: the problem is not Windex. Windex actually has products that work, but the ammonia that they use in Windex causes significant

damage to touch screens, and even non-touch screens that are in your car. The common thing is the touch screen immediately stops working, and then the screen gets discolored. Folks, in their best intentions trying to keep their cars clean, they figured, well, I

just clean my glass with that awesome Windex; it works really good. Let's clean the infotainment screen. I'll just give it a quick wipe—that's all it takes to destroy that infotainment system. And if you are shopping for an infotainment system, just

heads up: they are outrageously priced. I mean, unbelievable how expensive the OEM infotainment systems are! They're just... I don't understand it. I mean, it's just a little screen with a little half-baked software to work. Why are they so expensive? That's up to the

manufacturers, but that's not our conversation. Don't use cleaners that have ammonia in them on touch screens, folks. You will be very sorry, and the damage is immediate. I see this all the time, and it's super common. A lot of folks, unfortunately, do not know about

this. And it's kind of similar with tinted windows on your car: don't use ammonia-based cleaners on your tinted windows. You actually damage them right away—damage the coating; it starts fading, discoloring. Be careful which products you use on your modern

Car floods that are not caused by a flood. I hope that makes sense, folks. The number one cause of car interior flooding, other than problems with the car itself, is two things other than the usual: sunroofs and drains.

Here's something very interesting about sunroofs, which I really dislike. Did you know that sunroofs are actually a controlled leak? That's literally what they are. Most folks assume, 'Oh, the sunroof has a seal and it's actually just sealing the glass where it doesn't leak at all.'

Well, that's actually not the case, because if that's the case, you won't be able to open it. It's actually a little rubberized seal that pushes to slow down the flow of water as it goes into your car. Yes, you heard that right: sunroofs are a controlled leak. That's exactly what they are.

So the way they work is the seal slows down the leak into the gutters—literal gutters—and these gutters have a hose that runs down and drains outside the car. Because the seal is slowing down the flow of water inside, the gutters have enough time to drain.

But here's what happens when they don't drain fast enough—not even clogged, they just don't drain fast enough. That water eventually builds up, builds up, comes inside your car, and you actually will not know until it's too late. Carpets soaked, electronics are wet, we have all kinds of electrical gremlins.

And lo and behold, it is just a leaf sitting in the gutter and partially clogging it, slowing down the flow. Folks, this happens every single year. We see a lot of this.

of cars with clogged sunroof drains and usually here's the typical formula for that: cars parked under a tree, especially in the fall; cars that are rarely washed; and they live in kind of a muddy, dusty environment where a lot of

that crud kind of eventually makes its way down and starts clogging the drain. If you live in these conditions, you need to be proactive about cleaning this. It takes 5 minutes. I have a little video about it; we'll leave it right here. Anybody can do it; you don't really need

to be, you know, know how to fix cars and whatnot. You could do it, and if you don't, ask your mechanic; they'll take care of it. It won't cost you much. And then the second thing that causes car floods is windshields. Folks, at least in Toyota or

Lexus land, we don't really have a lot of windshield leaks from the factory. Toyota really does things well in that department. Other manufacturers, though, some of them don't, so be aware of that. But the problem is when you have a replacement windshield. I see people when

they have like a crack in the windshield, the first thing they ask is, "What's the cheapest one I can put in?" That's the biggest mistake. You need—it's not about the quality of the glass; it's the labor. You need to go with a

reputable company. Look, folks, we're all humans; we all make mistakes. Nobody is perfect, and that's okay. We're—that's what makes us kind of special. Our imperfections make us special. You work with a glass company; they made a little mistake; they left a little area that

Doesn't have a sealer, you put the glass on, it leaks; your car is flooded, you have all kinds of electrical problems. Who's going to pay for that? Because your insurance company will be like, 'Uh, you just replaced the glass; that's not our problem.' The big

company that replaced the glass, that stands behind their work, will be like, 'You know what? We made a mistake. Sorry about that, but now it's our turn to take care of it. We're going to reseal the glass and fix your car.' But if you have

some unreputable company, just because they were $50 cheaper on the install, do that, they will disappear in the wind, folks. It is very important that when you get a glass windshield replaced, you use a reputable company, because I see this all the time and it's very simple to

actually... if you're going, for example, if you're going to buy a used car, to identify if this was a replacement glass or not. All manufacturers will list specifically, at least in these times—not in the olden times—they will list their name on the glass. You will see if it's a

Toyota, you see it clearly say Toyota; if it's Lexus, it will say Lexus; if it's any other manufacturer, they say their name on the glass. Now that is not a guarantee that this glass is original, because what if they replaced it with an original one

that also says the same manufacturer's name? This is when it's going to take a little bit more investigating. But whenever you see a glass that's been replaced, you need to be—especially after a glass replacement—you need to be a little bit more proactive about looking

for signs of water intrusion. If you see them, immediately take action; call the company. Have them double-check because you don't want things to fester. Water leaks initially aren't a problem at all. You'll have a little bit of water; oh, it's not a

big deal, but it's a month or two later when the problems start. All of a sudden you have mold inside the car; you have all kinds of electrical gremlins because all these connectors took a little bit of time to corrode, and now we have

problems. Be careful with this, folks. Keep that sunroof drain clean and make sure you go with a reputable company when you do a windshield replacement. Folks, these are five practical tips that any of you can do and avoid—and understand *why* you're avoiding them, not just do them

and not really question it. You should always ask for the 'why'; that is very important. And I hope these tips make your car ownership better, safer, more reliable, and happier, folks. I hope this video is helpful and informative; I hope you learned something new. If you like it,

consider giving a thumbs up. If you're not a subscriber, consider subscribing to the channel. Check out some of my other videos. Until the next video, folks, may the Lord bless you and keep you, and you have yourself a wonderful day.

5 Things You Should NEVER Do To Your Modern Car in 2024

The Car Care Nut

Things to avoid doing to your car (Mechanics Edition)

Avoid driving on a low fuel tank consistently to protect the fuel pump.

Don't overfill the gas tank to avoid potential damage.

Use the correct type of gasoline recommended for your car.

Understand your car's engine type and technology for proper care.

Avoid excessive city driving, especially with direct-injected engines, to minimize carbon buildup.

Occasionally give your car an "Italian tune-up" (high-RPM driving) to prevent issues from conservative driving.

Turbocharged engines require more frequent maintenance.

Reduce oil change intervals by half or a third from manufacturer recommendations.

Avoid hanging items from the shifter to prevent park/neutral safety switch issues.

Don't hang things around the steering column to protect the spiral cable/clock spring.

Refrain from hanging items from the rearview mirror to avoid damage and vision impairment.

Limit the number of keys on your keychain to prevent key wear.

Don't use ammonia-based cleaners like Windex on your infotainment screen or tinted windows.

Sunroofs are controlled leaks; clogged drains can lead to flooding.

Regularly clean sunroof drains, especially in environments with leaves and debris.

Use reputable companies for windshield replacements to prevent leaks.