Greetings ! (Man that sounds cheesy....)

In the near future (It is looking to be december-ish) I am taking a rather large step (for myself) in my life. I plan on purchasing my very first car! Now, this isn't to say that its the first car I've ever been in. I've driven a large variety of vehicles (everyone in my family has diffrent tastes), from RWD Trucks to FWD coupes and sedans, motorbikes (Harley Davidson), New cars, older cars, Automatics, Manuels...

However, this will be the first car that, essentually, is mine. And I'm feeling very... enthusiastic about that prospect! However, I am very aware that cars themselves don't last forever. Their parts wear down, things get old and need to be replaced, and eventually it will reach a point where it looks nicer than it runs.

Thus, in order to ensure my car has a wonderful, long lasting life, I have come to you all for advice! It is my hopes that someone out there knows enough about car engines, either from lots of research, from fixing them, or even building them, that they'll be able to give me the advice that I need... Now, it has taken me long enough to get to my final question, so I think I'll make a beeline for it right now.

What can I do, from driving style changes, to maintance, to anything and everything inbetween and beyond, to keep my car long lived? Now, my reason for this (beyond the obvious financial) is that I plan on my car partisipating in motorsport events. Probably nothing more serious than autocross, but it is still a motorsport event that will put a good deal of strain on my car. In order to ensure that the car and it's parts within are in top enough shape that nothing will break on me without notice, I want to know what I can do in the meantime to ensure the wear is greatly reduced on the car's parts.

For a more indepth breakdown of what I'm asking...

Tires-
Obviously, stomping on the accelerator isn't good for them. Obviously yanking the wheel so hard that I understeer isn't good for them. The question is, beyond the obvious, is there anything I can do to ensure longer treadlife for my tires? Things in reguard to: Road conditions (avoid the potholes!), weather conditions (special considerations for rainy weather? How about windy?), and general driving habbits I suspect might be a good start...

Suspension-
In the car I learned to drive in, and still drive in to this day... Well, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the way I drive, but I've had to have two suspension parts replaced since Jan of 2001 (when we got the car). I can't remember what either was, but I remember the first had to deal with the steering (Grr... I should remember what that was called). Is there anything that can be done in terms of driving style and the like that could ensure my suspension stays healthy? Aside from avoiding hitting things like potholes and curbs, what else can be done to help ensure that when I take it to an autocross event, something won't already be nearly worn out from mear road driving? (I know that its never 100% sure NOT to fail on me, but my goal is to ensure that the odds are as much in my favor as is under my control)

Engine & Transmission-
Now, here is probably where me, as the driver, has a bit more overall effect on how it lasts. It, sadly enough, is also the area I'm the most fuzzy on whats good an whats bad. The red line is bad, I know that. Getting to the redline isn't quite as bad, as long as I don't hover right under it for long amounts of time. Obviously, every car is diffrent as to where the RPMs should hover around (I think), so rather than specific advice of any sort, I'm fishing for guidelines here... Would it be better to keep the RPMs as low as possible (without lugging or stalling the engine)? Or is there an ideal range (The Torque band maybe? Would that also help with fuel effeciency in any way?)? Er, worth mention, I'm talking about a manual transmission, with the good ol' H-Stick and Clutch.

Maintance-
Regular maintance is a given, I suspect. But a few questions about that... Every 3,000 miles is when I bring my current car is. Is that already pushing it? What if I brought it in in less? Or is that already well in the safe zone, assuming people will double or even triple that without thought? Should I bring it to the Dealership's garage, and swallow their higher prices for assurance that they have access to everything they need to know about the car?



I realize that changes to my driving style will probably be very difficult to change, which is why I'm seeking advice several months before I get the car. This way, I can try to adapt the changes with my current car. Then, when I change to my new car (which will be radically diffrent in... everything), because I'll have to 'learn' to drive all over again, I can ensure that I incorperate my adjusted habbits to ensure the car a long and healthy life .

A few notes that, I suspect, are worth mention:
I live in South Florida. This means my climate is often in the 85 to 100º F tempature range (29.4-37.8º C). Also, the weather year round is a mix between intensive sunlight, and lots and lots of rain (So its very humid mostly year round). I live about 9 miles (I just messured. Yay for google earth ) from the shore line, if that matters at all. Also, living in a state which is essentually flat, wind can be pretty strong (I once saw a line of side-by-side cars all thrown a lane to the right in the middle of a highway. Then again, that was right before a hurricane...).

My current car is a 2001 Chrystler PT Cruiser, which is a FWD Automatic blue hunk of metal I've probably done more damage to than I realize, seeing as it is what I drove as I learned to drive (and I dare say my Adolesent nature did more damage to it that I realize. I'm 19 now, so I ran through that period of "I'm better than everyone else" as I floored it everywhere I went, weaving through traffic).

The new car will be a Manual transmission, RWD, and I'm not going to say which car it is. Kinda embarrashed about that...

Anyways.... Thank you very much for reading my insanely long post. I hope someone out there has some advice for me! Perhaps someone else will read it too, and maybe, just maybe, there will be a few cars that last a few years longer than they would have otherwise...

Most cars these days are pretty much bullet proof, depending on how old it is would determine how much TLC it needs.

As a minimum I would say keep to manufacturers speficied service intervals, 3000 miles is VERY short interval, my cars these days have a 12,500 service interval,if you are worried about it have regular oil/filter changes with GOOD QUALITY oil, I always get my cars service at the dealer, might be more expensive, but they tend to know the specific vehicle better than backstreet billy.

Thats about all the mantainance it should need for day to day running, just don't thrash the tits of it, and generally drive it like a twat and it'll last for 100,000's miles.

As for driving style, totally depends on the car/engine, most cars have a specific torque band, or an economy band, you say getting to the red line is OK, I would disagree, you should only go up that far every now and then.

My car, Pug 307 diesel, has its best torque from about 1500rpm, and I change up at about 2300rpm, so my torque/econ band is fron 1500rpm-2300rpm, anything below 1500rpm and I change down, obvioulsy it depends on your car, and you would need to find this out.

Dan,

I agree,
Apart from the important oil changes if your going to be racing this car on autocross I can't imagine your waranty will cover you, and les face it if your your are goin on track with your car don't expect great longevety from your suspension and also half the manufacturers estimate on t-belt changes

Let's see then:

Tires:
Check the pressure on a regular basis and rotate them from time to time (if possible), so you get even wear. Other than that, you can only try to avoid slip (string acceleration/braking/cornering).

Suspension:
Not much you can do, except for trying to avoid potholes and curbs. For the most part, if something let's go, it's just normal wear. Don't worry about it.

Engine:
No wide-open-throttle and no high revs until the engine is properly warmed up, and that means oil temperature, not coolant temperature. As a rule of thumb, the oil takes about twice as long to get to operating temp than the coolant. Should be around 6 miles in your climate.
When cold the oil doesn't really work yet, the pistons are basically flopping around in the bore and the uneven heat distribution puts a lot of stress on parts like the head and exhaust manifold. In short, "getting on it" before the engine is at operating temp is bad bad bad. It's also a good idea to let the engine idle a few seconds while you buckle up etc, to ensure it's properly lubricated before it's loaded. Even though this probably doesn't apply to Florida residents, do not let the engine warm up idling.

Once the engine is warmed up, high revs aren't all that bad, really...unless we're talking about an 80's pushrod V8 that starts floating the valves at 4500rpm. As you may know, large parts of the Autobahns here do not have speed limits, which means virtually all cars on the road have seen hours or days of near redline driving at maximum load, often half an hour at a time, and yet the engines last just as long as their US counterparts. In fact this sort of driving is easier on the engine than city traffic with frequent cold starts and idling periods.

Very low revs on the other hand is something most engines don't like at all, especially combined with high loads. The main and connecting rod bearings in an engine rely on something called hydrodynamic lubrication, which means the oil pump just feeds them oil, the pressure to separate both bearings surfaces is produced by the rotation of the bearing itself thanks to a wedge-shaped gap.
However, this means the bearings need a certain minimum engine speed to produce that pressure. For your run of the mill gasoline car engine that speed is around 1500rpm. High loads below that can result in partial metal-to-metal contact inside the bearings. Basically the tiny "peaks" of the surfaces will be touching while the valleys are still being separated by oil. In that case an oil with good EP/AW properties is your last line of defense. Additionally the torque output of the engine is not very uniform at low revs because of the long pauses between each individual power stroke, which in turn puts additional stress on your transmission.

Transmission:
What you want to avoid is driveline shock(wheel hop, clutch chatter, very low revs) and syncro wear. Just don't force the shifter into gear, and give the syncros time to do their job. Exert a reasonable amount of pressure and let it click into place on its own.

Clutch:
Well, that's rather obvious. Don't ride the clutch to keeps temperatures low, use the brake to hold the car on a hill, not throttle/clutch, and don't rest your left foot on the pedal to avoid unnecessary wear on the throwout-bearing.

Maintenance:
3k mile oil changes are a complete waste of money with absolutely no benefits for your engine. Now, I'm not one those "my pickup truck ran 10 years without changing the oil"-types, there IS a well defined point at which oil has to be changed, but it's nowhere near 3k miles. Oil does not degrade in quality in a linear way. All current engine oils contain additives which neutralize acids, disperse and suspend contaminants, wash away deposits etc., and as long as there is active additive left, the oil quality and engine wear stay constant. For most cars and oils that threshold is 10k miles or more. Changing it before that point does not decrease wear.
The 3k mile oil change myth in the US and Canada (it's unheard of in the rest of the world) is merely a relict from the 60's when oils did not contain these additives and the only way to get rid of contamination or acidic components was to replace the oil. Additionally production tolerances and fuel metering were much much worse, so contamination was a much bigger issue.

Now wether you go to the dealership, an independent shop or do your own maintenance pretty much depends on the age of the car and if you're bound by warranty requirements.

Becky's Gospel on Automotive Care
The car should 'just work'. If it does not, take said car to a mechanic and instruct them to 'un-make it broken'. Pay money (as a car owner this will be a familiar fealing).

I was going to write a long winded reply, but bal00 beat me, and said everything that needs to be said really.

As for oil changes, many manufactuers claim 30,000 - 40,000 miles between oil changes. The manufacturers are WRONG or MISINFORMED, or just trying to make their cars look better. There is NO IC ENGINE in the world that should go more than 15k miles between oil and filter changes, 10k is better. 3k is just silly, as the oil will still have plenty of life left.

The less mileage you do (i.e. shorter journeys or leaving the car standing) the more often you have to change your engine oil. Don't buy a car that has done less than 8k miles per year on average - it will suffer problems sooner or later (perhaps just a rotten exhaust from condensation, or bearing problems from emulsified oil etc). Low Mileage is bad bad bad. High mileage isn't necessarily bad.

Don't worry about Full Dealer Service History. The people who do the work are no more competant than your average mechanic, and often a whole lot worse due to the Bonus Pay schemes run (at least in the UK). This means your servicing is done worse at 3 times the price. It is however necessary to keep a warranty, so in the first 3 or so years expect dealer servicing

Hope this helps, and good luck with your new car. Keep us informed :up:

Get a haynes manual, a decent tool kit, and spend hours repairing, replacing, and bodging every thing that brakes/falls off/weares through/rusts itself silly on the road side in all manner of awful weather conditions.... but that's because I do over 20,000 miles a year.

That's what I do with my 16 year old two stroke motorcycle... it's on piston number six at the moment! On the plus side, it's bloody quick (thanks to a great deal of port polishing, valve chamfering etc. etc.), costs nothing considering, and allows me to get everywhere I need to for the most part while still scrimping and saving for a 300zx 2+2 Twin Turbo when my next years no claims comes in!

Seriously though, anything that doesn't involve complex valve trains pr gearbox and clutch things I do myself on any vehicle. It's more fun to spend the time working on the car than get overtime at work to pay for someone else to do a slightly less attentive job...

The only thing I have to say about this topic is get yourself a pre-Tacoma Toyota pickup truck with the 22RE 4 cylinder motor. If you want it to last only 200-300,000 miles, then don't bother with changing the oil or keeping antifreeze/coolant in it. If you want 500,000 miles, change the oil regularly and keep the radiator filled up. There is no vehicle out there that can take the abuse an 80's to early 90's Toyota pickup can take.

At least this is in the US. Other places can probably still buy my beloved 22RE motored Toyota. Now in the US, we have "americanized" Tacoma's which are complete junk compared to my old 89 Toy. I desperately wish I picked up the 89 I saw 2 years ago rather than going with the 99 "newer" Tacoma.

Edit: LOL, just saw this statement

Quote :

Now, I'm not one those "my pickup truck ran 10 years without changing the oil"-types, there IS a well defined point at which oil has to be changed

I really did do NO oil changes to my 88 Toyota 4Runner. Bought it with 105k and sold it with 189K on her. Also, the radiator NEVER had antifreeze in it. I would fill it up and it would be dry the next day. Could never figure out where it went. Not on the ground, not in the engine, no smoke out the exhaust. Just disappeared. Only sold it because I wanted to go back to having a pickup truck after buying the house and needing to haul stuff to fix said house. Oh, and I beat the living crap out of that 4Runner for 10 years. Only 1 person I know abuses a motor vehicle worse than I do, my brother-in-law, hehe.

Thanks

I just wanted to say that, as I'm actually heading out the door right now (Labor Day festivities! Yay?), so I'll have to post a more indepth reply later (or, if no-one else replies, edit this one).

Just one other thing before I go

I don't really expect it to last forever. I'm not that delusional (maybe...), heh. However, my goal was to learn how to treat my car 'right' so that when I roll it over to autocross, I don't have parts dropping out of my undercarrage. I figure if I'm going to push it hard once in a while, I might as well treat it to good care the rest of it's time.

And its going to be a new car, thus, with a dealer warrenty (I saw a few comments on used cars). I was going more along the lines of after said warrenty expires (or becomes invalid because I forgot to read the fine print and did something stupid).

A quick comment on the 3,000 miles thing... Really? My old car (the PT Cruiser) has, in the almost six years I've had it, 80,000 miles on it, and its gotten to the point where things break on a regular basis (actually, right now under brakage, I hear periodic rubbing from them in what seems to be timed with my wheel spins. I think it might be my rotor?). For example, my air just had to be fixed, twice, for two diffrent reasons, about a month ago. But I live in florida, so dang it, I want my air to work!

Brakes... That reminds me...
Performance braking aside, what about, er, economy braking I guess? What sort of braking habbits will keep my brake pads for wearing out too quicky (an issue I've had as long as I've been driving)?

Braking too softly will just polish your pads and make them unsafe in an emergency. Relying on your brakes at every opportunity will just wear them out.

Best way is to use the brakes properly when you have to (don't just tickle the middle pedal), and in other circumstances use the engine braking/internal friction to slow down - this (obviously) requires a degree of anticipation.

In short - don't ALWAYS use your brakes whenever you need to reduce speed.

To be honest I think its being a bit anal paying utmost care to your car whilst driving and maintaining it to then take it autocrossing.

The motorsport will cause MUCH greater wear on components before driving normally would. Of course you want to makes everything last as long as possible, bit taking it autocrossing isnt really going to aid that

My small list of things to do or not do if you love your car:
- Protect it from rain. Really, that helps a lot. Get the car into the dry whenever possible. All components of the car will thank you for that.
- If you want to use it for performance driving get the best oil money can buy for your car.
- As said, give the engine time to warm up before going for full throttle.
- If you buy a completely new car read the instructions carefully and follow the advice for the first thousand kilometers. A new engine needs to be driven carefully until all bearings are worn as they should. Going full throttle in a new engine can kill a dozen horsepowers.
- As said, don't rev too low. Especially if you're into performance driving the oil pressure should never go below the maximum value of the gauge unless the engine is idling (that's for most cars, some more realistic cars like most older Porsches have oil pressure gauges that go to 5 bar, 3 bar is enough).
- A small hint for autocrossing etc. Don't use bigger tyres than the stock ones. Sure, big tyres look cool, but the added diameter will mean more distance/wheel turn and thus reduce acceleration. Rather go for wide than for big tyres.
- Change oil regularly and keep the service-intervals.
- Get the best fuel you can effort. Especially if you want to rev high. So many people ignore that...
- Be careful with the gearbox. A lot of cars aren't made for very fast shifting.
- Don't turn the steering wheel while standing still. The power steering doesn't like that. Keep a minimum velocity while turning the wheel.
- If you love your car, don't buy cheap tuning thingys. Really, there's nothing worse you can do to a car. Please don't. I beg you.

But most importantly: If you like your car chances are that you're also interested in the technical side of things. Read about them. Buy magazines that explain such things. The internet, f.e. wikipedia or howstuffworks, is also a great resource for a start.

Vain

I don't drive yet, but I hate when people use the brake as a "cancel" button.

A quick question to all you knowledgable folk. I always hear people saying do not let the engine warm whilst the engine is idling (ie not moving). Can anyone explain why this is the case, because I would have thought this is the optimum way to heat the engine without causing damage.

Thanks in advance.

Modern engines/lubricants dont need to be "warmed" by leaving them to idle, you are only wasting fuel by doing so, obviously don't thrash the tits off it till its warm, but there is no need to sit idling waiting for it to warm up.

Dan,

Dan,

I understand that, but why does the manual and people on here say explicitly not to do it?

The engine is built to work under load. That means all bearings, as f.e. on the crankshaft, are expected to wear (a very small bit) and thus the various shafts will not be absolutely in the middle of the holes as the holes of the bearings have extended under fatigue. The bearings develop a bit of slack.
While under load the shafts are forced in the intended direction of the bearings and the slack on the opposite direction isn't of any problem. But when not under load the shaft will fling around due to the clearance. This can lead to micro-cracks that will later (much later) cause failure.

If you want to heat the engine during stand-still do so by using on/off throttle. Continuously revving at the same rpm will cause excessive fatigue. Better apply throttle until you reach a good rpm, then let go, wait until the revs have dropped, and apply throttle again. That way the bearings are always under load. Either from the cumbustion or from resistance (while throttle is off). Sometimes small 2-stroke engines need to be kept at higher revs using this technique or they will go out (generally rather sign of a poor engine condition, but not always fixable).

Vain

Quote from tristancliffe :

Braking too softly will just polish your pads and make them unsafe in an emergency. Relying on your brakes at every opportunity will just wear them out.

Best way is to use the brakes properly when you have to (don't just tickle the middle pedal), and in other circumstances use the engine braking/internal friction to slow down - this (obviously) requires a degree of anticipation.

In short - don't ALWAYS use your brakes whenever you need to reduce speed.

Nah, if you need to slow down, use the brakes. This is the advice of police drivers, Roadcraft, and various road safety establishments/charities/etc. Using the brakes has two advantages - firstly it shows your brake lights, so you don't get rear-ended. This is particularly noticeable on several dual carriageways around where my parents live - dual carriageways punctuated by several roundabouts a few miles apart. Some drivers just come clean off the throttle a fair way from the roundabout rather than use their brakes, which obviously catches the traffic behind by surprise and causes undue reactionary braking from them when they realise they're suddenly closing rather fast on the car in front.

Secondly, it's considerably cheaper to replace the brake pads and discs, than put the extra strain on the gearbox and clutch by coming down through the gears under engine braking in order to maintain enough revs to provide any meaningful retardation.

Ehh, you don't wear the drivetrain excessivly by not using the brakes to slow down. I never use the brakes in situations in which they aren't needed. And I guess tristan didn't mean you should downshift like hell just to avoid braking, but if the speed limit is chaning from e.g. 100km/h to 80km/h there is no need for braking, you just let off the accelerator unless you're a driver who doesn't look ahead.
Another thing: If you want to drive trackday-like with your car, you should consider chaning the gearbox-oil too, many people just don't know, that the stock-gearbox oil wasn't intended to withstand high-stress situations. If you've driven your car a long while (a really long while, maybe 100k miles) you could change the gearbox oil too.

Hint: Cars like economical driving style

Quote from ebola :

A quick question to all you knowledgable folk. I always hear people saying do not let the engine warm whilst the engine is idling (ie not moving). Can anyone explain why this is the case, because I would have thought this is the optimum way to heat the engine without causing damage.

Thanks in advance.

Short of revving the snot out of it, idling is the worst way to warm up an engine. For once, lubrication is rather poor at idle because the oil pump is barely moving any oil.

Most importantly though, you're extending the time the engine spends running below operating temp. At idle an engine easily needs twice as long until the oil is up to operating temp, and wear is a lot higher during that time.
Additionally you will have problems with oil dilution/contamination. During the cold start phase, engines run extremely rich...in fact the exhaust smells of unburnt gas. They need to inject more because the fuel that condenses on cold engine parts is not available for combustion and runs past the piston rings right into the crankcase(oilpan) instead. Not only does fuel get into the oil, water also condenses on colder parts (as it is a byproduct of regular combustion) and makes its way into the oilpan.

That's a problem for a number of reasons. First, water and gas are extremely poor lubricants, in fact gasoline can wash away the oil film leading to metal-to-metal contact in rather vital spots, and water can wreak havoc inside the bearings (cavitation and corrosion) among other things. In short, oil dilution is extremely harmful.
Second, water and the volatile components of the fuel evaporate extremely slow. The non-volatile components of the fuel don't evaporate at all. It would probably take like 50 miles of driving at operating temp to get rid of the contamination that accumulated while the engine was warming up idling. That means unless the car is used for longer trips on a regular basis, water and fuel will build up inside the oil.
Third, since the pistons take ages to expand inside the bore, the piston rings will seal poorly and lots of blowby gasses will get into the crankcase. That's a problem because in combination with water, the exhaust gasses will form acids and use up the additives inside the oil in very little time.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Don't worry about Full Dealer Service History. The people who do the work are no more competant than your average mechanic, and often a whole lot worse due to the Bonus Pay schemes run (at least in the UK). This means your servicing is done worse at 3 times the price. It is however necessary to keep a warranty, so in the first 3 or so years expect dealer servicing

Local Jag dealer doesn't consider spark plugs a service item and the VW/Audi dealer don't do oil changes, they still charge £100 an hour labour though :doh:

And now for my long winded reply

In reply to:

Bal00-
Wow, thanks for the very informative reply. Some of it I actually didn't know! Yay! I learned something! A few questions though (anyone else can answer if they know...).

• Under tires, you mentioned avoiding slip. Do tires that hydroplane at all (I've had a few instances when I wasn't paying attention when I stop, and I put my drive tires in standing water... When I applied gas, there was a bit of wheel spin) wear tires a considerable amount? I know it would (I think) wear less than a wheelspin on dry asphault or tarmac, but is the wear on tires something significant, or negligable?
  
• Under Transmission, you mentioned avoiding driveline shock. Would blipping the throttle on downshift be something worth learning for street speeds, or is the transmission designed to take that particular level of shock without a real care in the world?
  
• Under Maintainance, you gave a little lesson on Oil changes. I'm going to talk to my dealer mechanic for my current car (who won't be the same mechanic for my new car, as it'll be a diffrent brand. Diffrent dealer) about oil longevity, because what you say makes sense (my dad's caddilac has an oil-life sensor, and when we oil change its usually in the 60-70% remaining range, which I always found odd). I'll have to read what the fine print in the warrenty says about oil changes (incase it might void it if I 'neglect' it too long), but would you say performance oils last more or less time than non-performance oils? And assuming the oil I use has an effect on the 'threshold' you mentioned, what would be a good way to caclulate when to change it? Would it say on the bottle, or should I knock a thousand or so off whatever the bottle says?

Becky Rose-
Hehe. Thats what I do with my car right now . I hear a squeeky sound, I drive it to the dealer (they know me by sight and car I'm there so often for repairs/maintance ). I say, it squeeks, he says, It'll be ready tommorrow (or in some cases, longer). I return on designated date, pick up car, pay money, and drive home. Its a good system, but my goal is to avoid the need for its usage as much as possible.

tristiancliffe-
Honestly, I was really looking forward to your opinion. I've been lurking on the fourms for a while, and you've shown a rather impressive ability to justify what you say with reasons, factual and logical. As for what you said, it'll be a new car so I don't have to worry too much about previous owner's miscare for the car.

Also, about the braking, is there some sort of 'give zone' in the brake where the lights will come on, but the brakes won't be engauged yet? Is it possible to add something similar? On my bike, I usually engine brake and just lightly tap my rear brake (slowly applying more and more pressure as I slow down, releasing right before I stop) for the sole purpose of brake lights.

And about engine braking... Is it better for the wear to engine brake without any brake use, or brake without any engine brake use (clutch pressed or car in neutral). I suspect a moderation of the two would be the ideal match, but I was curious as to which was 'better' for the car.

z3r0c00l-
As much fun as that sounds, I don't have a place to do any sort of work on my car, nor do I have the nessisary tools to do it right. My parent's garage is filled with... stuff... lots of stuff (what is it with us Americans using garages to store stuff rather than storing cars? Is that a US weirdo thing, or is it global?). And yes, I have to do it in my garage rather than outside. Its too hot to work outside for long periods of time , and my garage is air conditioned.

Also, the manual will tell me where everything is, where everything goes, but not how to fix anything, so I need a teacher as well . Maybe in the future, but for now, I'm stuck with the overtime and paying someone else to fix it.

pb32000-
The goal isn't to make everything last as long as possible, it is to keep the car in prime shape without replacing everything or leaving it sitting by learning how to take care of it in the mean time, so when I do autocross, I can get it's best performance.

Vain-
Uh oh. It rains almost -all- the time where I live. Seriously, they call Florida the sunshine state, and we get insane levels of rain. I think I read somewhere that florida has a historical rainfall level ranging from 34 inches to 89 inches (just to show that our state can't make up it's mind). I might be able to park it in the garage (if I get it cleaned before December), but thats not very likely. Plus, most parking lots are in the open, and I'll probably drive in the rain a lot... Is there something that can minimize the effect of rain on the car?

As far as the tires, I'm probably going to keep the OME tires on the car, because thats just what I do. I might invest more money in the future on better tires, but I doubt I'll change the size.

Transmission... You said a lot, how do I know if it is or isn't made for fast performance shifting? Is there some way to tell?

The power steering thing I didn't know, Thanks!

wheel4hummer-
Me too. I spend a good deal of my time in the car muttering about how stupid people are, tapping their brakes going down a road just because someone 10-15 car lengths ahead of them changed lanes.

STROBE-
I belive what tristian was saying, was not 'don't use the brakes', but rather, 'use the brakes with meaning'. Tapping, or applying a feather's weight in force, would cause the brakes to perform less well when you need them. But its good advice none-the-less.

herki-
Ohh... gearbox oil. That never crossed my mind. Going to look into that right now.

Quote from Shinrar :

And now for my long winded reply
Bal00-
Wow, thanks for the very informative reply. Some of it I actually didn't know! Yay! I learned something! A few questions though (anyone else can answer if they know...).

• Under tires, you mentioned avoiding slip. Do tires that hydroplane at all (I've had a few instances when I wasn't paying attention when I stop, and I put my drive tires in standing water... When I applied gas, there was a bit of wheel spin) wear tires a considerable amount? I know it would (I think) wear less than a wheelspin on dry asphault or tarmac, but is the wear on tires something significant, or negligable?
  
• Under Transmission, you mentioned avoiding driveline shock. Would blipping the throttle on downshift be something worth learning for street speeds, or is the transmission designed to take that particular level of shock without a real care in the world?
  
• Under Maintainance, you gave a little lesson on Oil changes. I'm going to talk to my dealer mechanic for my current car (who won't be the same mechanic for my new car, as it'll be a diffrent brand. Diffrent dealer) about oil longevity, because what you say makes sense (my dad's caddilac has an oil-life sensor, and when we oil change its usually in the 60-70% remaining range, which I always found odd). I'll have to read what the fine print in the warrenty says about oil changes (incase it might void it if I 'neglect' it too long), but would you say performance oils last more or less time than non-performance oils? And assuming the oil I use has an effect on the 'threshold' you mentioned, what would be a good way to caclulate when to change it? Would it say on the bottle, or should I knock a thousand or so off whatever the bottle says?

As for the tires, slip doesn't only occur when the wheels are spinning. If you accelerate and brake there's always a certain amount of slip (a few percent). In fact there's even some slip if you're just cruising at 70mph. What I was trying to say: hard braking/accelerating/cornering will affect tread life quite a bit, even if the tires are not squealing. And no, some wheel spin on a wet road is not worth worrying about.

Downshifts are not a problem, unless you just sidestep the clutch.

Oil life sensor is a bit of a misnomer because the computer is just programmed with a certain number of engine revolutions and counts back to zero using various modifiers for things like cold starts, high rpm driving etc. They are fairly accurate, just a bit on the conservative side, because the US is a rather litigious society, so manufacturers go for the lowest common denominator in terms of oil quality, engine condition/tolerances etc.
If you change it at 0% and don't use 1950's oil, you're still on the safe side and haven't caused any additional wear on your engine.

For your oil change intervals, go with the manufacturer recommendation. If there's a shorter "severe duty" interval listed, ignore it.

Use a decent synthetic, but skip "race" or "motorsport" oils. These do have good lubrication properties but are not suited to regular road duty because they're lacking certain additives that are important for oil life, cold start protection etc.

If you wanna learn more about oil, I'd recommend the BITOG forums:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi

They also have a very nice collection of Used Oil Analyses from various cars/oils/intervals. For example here's one from a BMW 540i (15k mile oil change interval):
http://theoildrop.server101.co ... bb=get_topic;f=3;t=003662

1. I can't imagin a way to keep water away other than keeping the car dry.
By the way, having a garage to point at when you're selling a car is a great thing. Just promise the car spent every day in the garage and you just saved yourself 5-10% of the price.
2. If you want to go autocrossing you'll soon want to buy new tyres. And as in autocross acceleration is ver important I felt you might be interested in the tyre-size-bit.
3. That's easy to find out. Try to shift quickly. Either the gearbox seems to be okay with that or you get strange things like high resistance (most likely for a new car), a cracking sound (from the synchromeshes, rather typical for older cars) or the gear once in a while pop out (also only in older cars). In that case back off and do yourself and the gearbox a favor and do the shifts nicely. You can also be pretty fast without violating the gearbox - it just requires more feeling.

[Edit] @bal00's comment:
If you go autocrossing do go for the motorsport oils. But that depends on how you really use the car.

Vain

True "race" oils are done after like 500 miles or less. They belong in actual race cars, not road cars.