The simplest way to make your car last longer is to look after it a little and often. Drive gently until the engine is warm, check the oil, coolant and tyre pressures regularly, service it on time and deal with warning lights and MOT advisories while they're still small jobs. None of this needs mechanical skill, and most of it costs nothing. Below are 10 habits that, done consistently, cut the slow wear that ends most cars' lives early.
Go easy for the first 10 minutes when cold
When a car has been parked overnight, most of the oil has drained back into the sump and it's thicker while it's cold. It takes a moment after start-up for oil pressure to build and for oil to reach the top of the engine and, on many modern cars, the turbocharger.
You don't need to sit on the drive letting it idle. Modern engines warm up faster under light load, and the Highway Code (rule 123) says you must not leave an engine running unnecessarily while the vehicle is stationary on a public road. Start up, give it a few seconds, then drive off gently.
For the first 10 minutes or so, keep the revs moderate, change up early and avoid hard acceleration or towing at full throttle.
Check oil and coolant regularly
The Highway Code's vehicle maintenance annex suggests checking fluid levels at least weekly. If that sounds like a lot, aim for every couple of weeks and before any long journey. It takes 2 minutes:
- Park on level ground and check the oil with the engine off for at least 5 minutes, ideally cold.
- Pull the dipstick, wipe it, push it fully back in, then pull it out again and read the level against the minimum and maximum marks.
- Check the coolant expansion tank sits between its low and high marks. Only open the cap when the engine is cold, because a hot system is under pressure.
- Look at the brake fluid reservoir level too. The Highway Code warns that low brake fluid can lead to brake failure.
- Some newer cars have no dipstick and show the oil level on the dashboard instead.
If you're topping up the same fluid again and again, that's a sign of a leak or the engine burning oil. Keep it topped up, but get it diagnosed. Coolant that disappears or milky oil can point to a head gasket problem, which is cheaper to deal with early.
Our essential car maintenance checklist has a fuller routine if you want everything in one place.
Check tyre pressures monthly
Tyres at the wrong pressure wear unevenly, heat up more, use more fuel and make the steering and brakes behave worse. The Highway Code says under-inflated or over-inflated tyres adversely affect braking and steering, and that tyres must be inflated to the manufacturer's specification for the load being carried.
Check at least once a month, and before a long trip or a heavily loaded one. The Highway Code suggests weekly. A few points to get it right:
- Check when the tyres are cold, before you've driven more than a mile or two, because warm tyres give a higher reading.
- Use the pressures in the handbook, on the sticker inside the driver's door or inside the fuel flap. There are often 2 sets: normal and fully laden.
- Look at the tread while you're there. The legal minimum for cars is 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the tread, all the way round.
Wear on both outer edges usually means the tyre has been running soft. Wear on one edge only often points to wheel alignment, which is worth checking after a heavy pothole strike.
Slow down for potholes
A pothole hit at speed can bend a wheel, split a tyre sidewall, damage a coil spring or knock the alignment out, and repeated knocks wear out bushes, ball joints and wheel bearings over time.
Look further ahead so you see the hole early, check your mirrors and slow down before you reach it. Then come off the brake just before the wheels drop in. Braking pushes the nose down and compresses the front springs, which leaves the suspension less travel to absorb the hit. Rolling over it with the brake released is kinder to the car. Treat speed bumps the same way.
After a hard hit, listen for new knocks, check whether the steering wheel is still straight and look at the tyre for bulges on the sidewall.
Brake early and smoothly
Hard, late braking wears pads and discs faster and puts a lot of heat into them. Overheated discs can develop uneven pad deposits, which you feel as vibration through the pedal or steering wheel.
Leave a bigger gap to the car in front, read the road further ahead and come off the accelerator early when you see a red light or a queue. You'll use the brakes less and more gently, and on a hybrid or electric car, early lift-off lets regenerative braking do more of the work.
If the car pulls to one side when you brake, the Highway Code says the likely cause is a brake fault or incorrect tyre pressures and you should get it checked straight away. Squealing that doesn't go away after the first few stops, grinding, or a soft or long pedal all need a garage visit.
Get warning lights checked
A warning light that comes on for a day and then goes out is easy to ignore, but many faults start as something intermittent: a sensor reading out of range, a slight misfire under load or a charging problem. The car's computer usually stores a fault code even after the light has gone out, so a garage can often still read it.
The Highway Code says warning lights should go out once the engine starts (apart from the handbrake light) and that if one stays on or comes on while you're driving, you should find out why. As a rough rule:
- A red light (oil pressure, coolant temperature, brakes) means stop as soon as it's safe and switch off.
- An amber light means get it checked soon. A flashing engine management light usually means a misfire, which can damage the catalytic converter, so drive gently and get it looked at quickly.
If you're not sure what a symbol means, our guide to dashboard warning lights explains the common ones and how urgently to act.
Service on schedule
An MOT is not a service. It checks that the car meets minimum safety and environmental standards on the day of the test. It doesn't change the oil, replace filters or look at the parts that wear out quietly, such as the timing belt.
Follow the schedule in your handbook, which is usually set by time and mileage, whichever comes first. Low-mileage cars still need regular oil changes, because oil degrades with age, condensation and short trips even when the car isn't doing many miles. A typical schedule covers:
- Engine oil and oil filter.
- Air, cabin and fuel filters at the intervals listed.
- Brake fluid, which absorbs moisture over time; many manufacturers specify a change every 2 years.
- The timing belt (on engines that have one), at the mileage or age in the handbook, whichever comes first. A snapped belt can wreck the engine.
Keep every invoice and stamp. A full service history also helps when you sell. Our guide to the hidden costs of car ownership has more on budgeting for servicing.
Give diesels a longer run (DPF)
Most modern diesel cars have a diesel particulate filter (DPF) in the exhaust. It traps soot, then burns it off in a process called regeneration. That needs a hot exhaust, which short, slow trips never deliver.
The RAC's DPF guide suggests a good 30 to 50 minute run at sustained speed on a motorway or A-road to help keep the filter clear. It also says that if the car has started an active regeneration, around 10 minutes above 40mph is usually enough to complete it. If your diesel spends most of its life on school runs and supermarket trips, build in a longer run every week or two.
Signs a regeneration is under way include cooling fans running after you stop, a different engine note or a hot, acrid smell. If you can, keep driving until it finishes.
If the DPF warning light comes on, the RAC advises a longer drive to let it regenerate. If the light stays on, turns red or the car loses power, take it to a garage. The same guide puts a replacement DPF at around £800 to more than £4,000 depending on the car. Removing the filter isn't a fix: the government's DPF guidance says removal is almost always illegal, and a missing DPF on a car built with one is an MOT failure.
Wash underneath in winter
Road salt mixed with water and mud sits in wheel arches, along the sills and on the underside, and it speeds up corrosion. Excessive corrosion on structural parts, brake pipes or suspension mounting points can fail an MOT, and serious rust can make an older car uneconomical to repair.
Through the gritting season, rinse the underside every couple of weeks:
- Hose or pressure-wash inside the wheel arches and behind the wheels.
- Rinse along the sills and the bottom edges of the doors, tailgate and bumpers.
- Clear the drain holes at the bottom of the doors and around the bonnet scuttle and boot so water doesn't sit inside.
A wash in early spring to shift the last of the salt is worth doing, and while you're under there, look for bubbling paint on the arches and sills. Small spots are much cheaper to treat early.
Treat MOT advisories as a to-do list
When the car passes its MOT, read the advisories before the certificate goes in the glovebox. Under the defect categories DVSA introduced in May 2018, an advisory is something that "could become more serious in the future", and the tester advises you to monitor it and repair it if necessary.
That makes the list a free forecast of what's wearing out. "Brake pads wearing thin", "tyre close to the legal limit" or "slight play in a suspension joint" are cheaper to fix now than when they fail the next test or damage the parts next to them. Fixing one or two at each service means fewer surprises at the next MOT.
You can see every advisory, failure and recorded mileage since 2005 on the government's MOT history service. The same history shows up in a free car check on CheckVehicle, alongside DVLA data for the car. If a few items keep appearing year after year, our list of the most common MOT failures explains what usually causes them.
How to make your car last longer without forgetting
Habits stick when they're tied to something you already do:
- Once a month, check tyre pressures, oil, coolant, brake fluid and the exterior lights.
- In a diesel used mainly for short trips, add a longer run at steady speed every week or two.
- After every MOT, put the advisories in your phone's notes and book the most urgent one in with your next service.
If you're buying your next car, look for the same signs in someone else's: a full service history, an MOT record without the same advisory carried over year after year and a tidy underside. Our guide to checking a car's MOT history before you buy shows how to read it.
Frequently asked questions
How many miles can a car last if it's looked after?
There's no fixed figure, as it depends on the make, engine and how the car is used. Corrosion and the cost of a single large repair compared with the car's value are what usually end a car's life, more often than outright engine failure.
Is it bad to let your car idle to warm up?
Long idling isn't needed on modern cars and is slower than driving gently. The Highway Code also says you must not leave an engine running unnecessarily while stationary on a public road. Drive off after a few seconds and keep the revs moderate until the engine is warm.
Do short journeys damage your car?
Lots of very short trips mean the engine and oil rarely reach full temperature, which increases wear and lets condensation build up in the oil. On diesels they stop the DPF regenerating, which can lead to a blocked filter. Combining trips and giving the car a longer run regularly helps.
Should I fix MOT advisories straight away?
Advisories aren't legal failures, so you don't have to fix them before you drive. They are items the tester expects could get worse, so dealing with them before the next MOT usually costs less and avoids a failure. Anything on the list that affects brakes, tyres or steering is worth prioritising.
