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7 Bad Driving Habits that will Damage Your Car

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Published on March 9, 2022. EST READ TIME: 3 minutes

As a car owner, your ca is very endearing to you. So you must ensure optimum care and protection to maintain it well and ensure enhanced longevity with proper functioning. However, you must remember that his caring is in your hands. If you are self-driving your car, then the maximum onus lies on you in respect of maintaining the vehicle’s protection. Some of your driving habits play a major role here. Here, we will discuss the top seven driving habits that can damage your vehicle.

Top Seven Vehicle Damaging Driving Habits

1. Disregarding the hand brake:

Your vehicle’s handbrake can be a lifesaver, especially in a leaning parking spot; you cannot simply forego its importance in a lat parking spot too. Without properly engaging the handbrake, you lead the weight of your entire car to rest on a tiny metal component called the parking pawl. Because of its size, the parking pawl is bound to naturally wear down and hamper the overall health of your car.

2. Shifting from reverse to drive:

Performing speed shifting from reverse to drive is perhaps the commonest driving mistake, especially in the case of time restrictions. However, this sort of sudden directional change impacts the well-being of your car, affecting its drivetrain and the transmission system.

So, it's best to properly halt it, engage the proper driving gear and save the transmission, axle, and engine damage.

3. Applying full throttle:

It is an irresistible urge to move faster with your right foot. However, this only pressurizes the drivetrain and the transmission system. Moreover, it even requires applying entire force on the brakes for slowing down or halting the engine.

So, it is evident that each time you are zooming away from the brakes; you are instantly exposing it to severe damage and overutilization. For enhanced longevity, it is best for you to gradually accelerate and decelerate your car.

4. Keeping your hand on the gear lever:

For most drivers, the most natural way to drive is to put one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the gear lever. This comes in handy during frequent gear changing, but this added pressure of your resting hand can affect the lever bushings and synchronizers. This leads to premature wearing down of the gearbox. It’s best to rest both your hands on the steering and shift only when it is needed.

5. Maintaining clutch engagement:

This is a serious driving habit disaster. This tendency is especially observed in the case of a traffic jam when you keep pressing down your clutch and wait for the signal to turn green. Although it helps you in moving faster, it also grossly damages your vehicle.

When you keep the clutches depressed for long, it rubs against each other, causing severe damage to the pressure plates, bearing, and release arm. Therefore, it’s best to comprise a few seconds and spare such severe damage.

6. Overloading:

Overloading is like the obesity of your vehicle. Just like too much weight on your body hinders it from proper and optimal functioning, such as the case with vehicles too. The drivetrain, brakes, and suspension get unnecessarily pressurized during overloading. Moreover, an overloaded vehicle also consumes more fuel than usual. It is somewhat risky too and may lead to minor accidents even, ruining your possibility of getting the No Claim Bonus. Therefore, to ensure the proper health and wellbeing of your endearing vehicle, it is best to put less pressure and weightage, rest assured it will enjoy enhanced health in the long run.

7. Downhill braking:

When we are driving our vehicle down a steep surface, it becomes much too speedy at times. The initial reaction to this is to apply the brakes and check the speed. This sort of downhill braking immensely heats the rotors and brake pads, leading to overheating and premature wearing. It affects the longevity of your car.

So, the most plausible solution here is to use a lower gear and allow the engine to attain its full capacity. This saves your drivetrain from undergoing natural decompression.

Conclusion

Apart from these, you should also never ignore the different warning signs that your vehicle may reveal. Ignoring these signals might mean causing deeper mechanical damage inside. Moreover, you should also monitor your gasoline tank and keep it full. An often empty gasoline tank can take a toll on the health of your endearing vehicle. If you keep these factors in mind, and carefully drive your car cautiously, you will ensure proper running and avoid any accidents or damages that might disqualify your No Claim Bonus during insurance renewal.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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