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High Mileage Vehicle Maintenance Tips: All You Need to Know

high mileage vehicle maintenance tips

Some of the common high mileage vehicle maintenance tips to extend the lifetime of your vehicle include:

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  1. Maintain the scheduled services
  2. Never ignore problems
  3. Keep up with oil changes
  4. Take care of the vehicle's exterior
  5. Inspect the timing belt
  6. Keep an eye on the tires
  7. Inspect the brakes
  8. Fix issues with the cooling system
  9. Inspect the transmission fluids
  10. Avoid harsh driving habits

When your vehicle's mileage exceeds a certain threshold, like 75,000 miles or probably 100,000 miles, you will likely deal with major breakdowns. That's why it gets a little tricky on how to take care of your car because you might need to focus on new things and deal with other stuff than what you used to do.

With a surge in the used car prices, people are now hesitant about selling their high mileage vehicles because it's very hard to find a used vehicle at a reasonable price. Therefore, many of our readers reach out to us looking for high mileage vehicle maintenance tips.

Our team conducted an in-depth review of all available resources and listed these tips in the following article to help you extend the lifetime of your high mileage car without needing major repairs. Read on to learn more!

What is the high mileage vehicle?

Before we dive into the details about “high mileage vehicle maintenance tips,” it is important to differentiate between two common terms: high mileage vehicles and old vehicles. Unfortunately, many people get confused between the two terms, and whenever they hear the term high mileage vehicles, they immediately think of older cars. However, that's not the case.


As the name suggests, high mileage vehicles refer to cars with a lot of mileage on the odometer on the dashboard. It's not rare to find a modern car with a lot of mileage because drivers typically use the highways or go through road trips to add more mileage. Many people even traveled to different states using their cars instead of planes.

On the other hand, older vehicles do not necessarily have to have very high mileage. Many owners of classic cars prefer to have their vehicles sitting in their backyards to enjoy them as part of their collection. Thus, don't be surprised to find an old car with lower mileage than a modern vehicle with very high mileage.

High mileage vehicle maintenance tips

When your vehicle exceeds a certain mileage threshold, you must open your eyes to new types of maintenance to enhance and extend the vehicle's lifetime. Otherwise, you can get into situations where your vehicle deals with major breakdowns when you're not prepared.

Let's take a closer look that's what automotive experts recommend in terms of high mileage vehicle maintenance tips:

  1. Maintain the scheduled services

Every vehicle, whether it's a high mileage or not, has certain scheduled maintenance and services listed on their vehicle's owner’s manual. While you must and should have been keeping up with these services before, once your vehicle is very high mileage, it's critical to keep up with these services because otherwise, you can deal with major breakdowns that could cost you thousands of dollars.

  1. Never ignore problems

If you used to hear weird noises or deal with strange smells in your vehicle and ignore them before, now it's not the right time to do so. Your vehicle is at a critical stage, and any symptom or sign is indicating minor issues might lead to significant damages in no time.

Therefore, automotive experts recommend that if you can detect the problem as early as possible, there is a very high chance that you can restore the vehicle without needing to install more major components. Thus, you can save a ton on repair costs.

  1. Keep up with oil changes

Your oil is one of the most critical fluids in your vehicle, and ignoring an oil change can lead to a significant engine overheating in no time. Therefore, to extend the lifetime of your high mileage car, learn about what type of oil your vehicle needs. There are plenty of available high mileage oils that you might need to consider and invest in one.

An oil change is not very expensive maintenance and should cost somewhere between $35 and $75. Of course, this price range depends heavily on the type of oil using and your vehicle's brand as well. Also, oil change prices depend heavily on where you're getting the job done. For instance, if you are doing the job yourself, you don't have to worry about labor costs. However, if you're getting the job done at a dealership, labor costs get extremely high and much higher than getting the job done at an independent shop.

These high mileage oils enhance your vehicle's performance and take care of any minor leagues that could result in oil overconsumption. Furthermore, some oil additives provide additional benefits like preventing corrosion and oxidation.

  1. Take care of the vehicle's exterior

When your car is very high mileage, it can look older than it is. Therefore, if you've been taking good care of the interior of your car, it's time now to keep an eye on the exterior because your vehicle's exterior might experience major issues that could result in significant damages.

For example, if there was small rust around the vehicle frame, it's a good idea to take care of it before it develops and gets to the vehicle's structure, resulting in significant-high repair costs.

Repairing car rust depends heavily on the severity of this roster. It might not cost you more than a couple of dollars to purchase some sandpapers and use paint chips. However, in some difficult situations, Car rust might cost thousands of dollars to get repaired.

  1. Inspect the timing belt

The timing belt is a durable component, and when you first purchased the vehicle, you're not expected to replace it frequently. However, once your vehicle is about to reach high mileage approaching 60,000 miles, consider replacing the timing belt even if it's not showing you signs of significant damages. This way, you prevent dealing with sudden issues that could put your life at risk when driving, especially at highway speeds.

Unfortunately, replacing the timing belt is not a simple job, and it's not very cheap. It should cost you somewhere between $300 and $500. This price range varies significantly depending on your vehicle type and location where you have gotten the job done yet.

  1. Keep an eye on the tires

Your vehicle's tires are the first components that interact with the road immediately. Therefore, maintaining the right tire pressure and tire quality is extremely critical to help you drive smoothly and prevent dealing with safety situations that could put your life and the life of other people around you at risk.

Refer to your vehicle owner’s manual and familiarize yourself with when you need to perform tire rotations. It does not necessarily mean that you need to replace the tires frequently, but performing terrorization helps even out any wear and tear on your vehicle's tires.

Tire rotation typically costs between $10 and $20 for every axle here; on the other hand, installing new tires should cost somewhere between $80 and $150. Keep in mind that when you install a new tire, you might need to replace both tires or the four at the same time to maintain the suspension system and eliminate further complications.

  1. Inspect the brakes

The braking system is critical in your vehicle because it has to do directly with your safety. Therefore, once your car reaches high mileage, consider inspecting the braking system more frequently than before.

Look at the brake pads and check if they have the right thickness to help you stop the vehicle when needed. Also, inspect the rotors and either rebalanced them or probably replaced them depending on what's specified in your vehicle's owner’s manual.

To replace the brake pads, you might pay somewhere between $35 and $150 for all the wheels. On the other hand, the rotor is a little more expensive and should cost $30 to $75 for each rotor. Keep in mind that this price range includes only parts costs.

  1. Fix issues with the cooling system

The cooling system prevents any engine from overheating and therefore damages. Unfortunately, when there is any minor problem in the cooling system, it's not rare to deal with major complications in the engine that could cost you a lot of money.

Therefore, keep an eye on the coolant level and inspect the thermostat, the radiator, and the other components of your cooling system to eliminate major breakdowns on your high mileage car.

Cooling system repair costs vary significantly depending on the source of the problem. For instance, if you're dealing with a coolant leak, expect to pay about $786 depending on your vehicle type, but it's really an expensive repair because it's hard to detect the leaks and how to resolve the issue.

On the other hand, if all that you're dealing with has to do with low coolant level, you can easily top off the coolant to the minimum threshold without needing any help from professionals, which means zero labor costs.

  1. Inspect the transmission fluids

Depending on the type of transmission your vehicle has, the transmission fluid might lubricate the internal components and play a role in how the transmission operates. Therefore, consider inspecting the transmission fluid and measuring it frequently to avoid situations where the level drops below the minimum threshold.

Depending on how old your vehicle is and the quality of the transmission fluids, you might even need to do a transmission flush, which is recommended between 30,000 miles and 50,000 miles.

Coolant flush should cost you somewhere between $100 and $150. But, of course, the price also depends on your vehicle type, the amount of coolant needed, and the location where you get the job done.

  1. Avoid harsh driving habits

Many of us like to drive our vehicles in certain ways to enjoy the ride. But, unfortunately, some drivers might have bad driving habits that could shorten the life of many major components in the vehicle. For example, if you used to hit the braking system very hard suddenly without allowing a new vehicle to stop gradually, you can easily deal with major complications in the braking system.

Furthermore, if you write on the clutch in a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, you can easily deal with cluster damages that require high repair costs.

Therefore, try driving your vehicle with ease and eliminate any stress that could reduce the car's lifetime.

Conclusion

Dealing with high mileage vehicles can be a big deal for inexperienced drivers. However, once you go through, they listed high mileage vehicle maintenance tips in this article; you should enjoy a longer lifetime of your vehicle without needing to worry about major breakdowns.

While it's great to follow these high mileage vehicle maintenance tips, your car might be at a point where it's beyond repairs. In other words, if your high mileage car is already dealing with major problems in the transition or the engine, it might not be worth your time and effort trying to make it work. That's why automotive experts recommend selling the vehicle and using its money to purchase a better car.

Cash Cars Buyer is willing to remove your vehicle within one to three days only! Cash Cars Buyer is one of the top-rated car removal companies in the nation that guarantees to pay you the top dollars and provide you with free towing despite your living location around the United States.

Our process is very straightforward and doesn't take more than a couple of days to get your car removed safely and for the most money.

All it takes you is to:

  • Describe your car’s type and condition
  • Receive our instant free quote
  • Accept the quote
  • Get your car removed and receive your cash payment on the spot!

To learn more about our process and our teen, you can reach out to us by giving us a call at 866-924-4608 or visit our home page click on the free instant online offer.

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