Uber and Bolt Maintenenace

THE UBER/BOLT (Taxify) DRIVER’S CAR MAINTENANCE GUIDE

If you drive a Uber/Bolt (Taxify), you rack up a lot of kilometers, which means extra wear and tear. A car in the garage is not making you any money, so keeping up with the maintenance is extremely important. If you’re doing Uber or BOLT (Taxify), driver/owner, here are tips on how to stay on the road and earn the most cash.

First off, if you drive your own vehicle for a living, you likely want to follow the severe service car maintenance schedule. You might be thinking, “Hey, I’m only taking two people to the airport. I never tow, so it’s not severe service.” Actually, it is. The average driver in the South Africa racks up around 30 000 Kilometers per year, but driving full time for a UBER/BOLT (Taxify) service can bring that annual total to 90 000 Kilometers. A lot of those kilometers are spent carrying passengers through stop-and-go traffic in the summer heat nor winter colds. That’s work more in line with a taxi or police car. Let’s use some tricks of the trade from those services.

ENGINE PROTECTION

Oil: While you probably know how often to change your oil in a regular daily driver, an UBER/BOLT(Taxify) car needs a more frequent oil change schedule. You’re looking at lots of idling, stop and go, long periods with the engine on, and a lot more kilometers in general, so you want to use a high-quality oil. Depending on the kilometers you cover, you may be looking at changing the oil as often as every two weeks. While that may seem excessive, it is excellent preventative maintenance.

Filters Change out the oil filter with your oil change, and take a look at the engine air filter, too. These two are key to preventing engine damage. Also change your cabin air filter more often. The usual schedule is once a year, but aim for twice a year to keep your vehicle smelling fresh.

SUSPENSION & BRAKES, TIRES

Brakes Most drivers only change their brake pads every two to four years. With full-time UBER/BOLT (Taxify) work, however, you’re probably looking at every six months and sometimes every three months. Get the highest-rated pads you can afford, and save money by swapping them out and replacing the brakes yourself.

Suspension Shocks and struts are wear items that need replacing, usually only around three times in the average lifespan of a car. If you are a full-time driver, you are looking at annual replacement. No skipping out on this one, as shocks and struts are critical components of the suspension that determine ride quality. No one wants to ride in a vehicle with an overly harsh or bouncing suspension, so get these replaced on time. In addition to shocks and struts, you will probably have to replace the vehicle’s springs around 170 000 Kilometers. In South Africa, there are a lot of potholes, this means that, you’ll probably need to replace the tie rods early and get to know a reliable place for an alignment.

Tires Get a super-affordable tire pressure gauge and check your tire pressure daily before starting your shift. Why daily? Tire pressure affects everything from the ride quality and tire wear to petrol mileage, so it’s an easy and quick way to save more and earn more. Rather than going out of your way to a petrol station with free air, use your own portable pump. Keep tire rotation on your calendar, too, for longest tire life. A good rule of thumb is to do so during every oil change.

We hope this information keep you on the road so that you can make maximum cash. If you need assistance just click here and a mechanic will come to you.

Car Wont Start inspection

My car wont start. What do i Do now?

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting dressed up and smelling nice, then getting into your car to go to work or meet u with friends and family and the car will not start. This happened to me once. My car was fine the one day and the next, it just would not start.

There are many things that can lead to a car not starting. A skilled mechanic can identify the problem within a few minutes or it can take up to an hour trying to figure out what is wrong, as it was in my case. In my case, it was initially the battery that packed up after my car was parked for month without being driven. All i thought i needed was a battery and i will be on my way, but boy was i wrong.

Before i can go into detail of all the possible causes of a car not starting, i found out that you need to make sure you buy the correct battery for your car or else it can make your starter pack up. And that happened to me and yep, as you may guess it was quite costly. So, when you car wont start, there can be a few causes which i will outline below.

Flat Battery

This is probably the most common cause of car not starting issues. This one is easy to identify, the dashboard light will either fade or will not illuminate at all. If these are the symptoms, it will be a good idea to get a new battery, and in most times the car start on the first crank.

Alternator

The alternator for those who do not know, is a device that helps run your electrics in your car while it is running and also, one of its main function is to recharge the battery. In most instances when your alternator is/has packed up, a battery light will illuminate on your dashboard informing you that there may be a problem with the charging system. If your battery is relatively new and you see that light come on, the alternator is the possible culprit. Your car will run with power from the battery and once that has been completely withdrawn, your car will not start. This will need an alternator replacement.

Starter Motor

The job of the stater motor is to crank the engine. Now, you probably ask yourself, how will i know it’s the starter. Well a process of elimination will have at this point excluded the alternator and the battery. The starter motor will display symptom of a weak crank sound, and when this motor is initiated too many times, the crank sound will start to fade and sometimes even burn out the starter completely. If you crank sound is weak and goes hlihee heee heee hee he ee ee, then the cause could be a starter that has packed up.

Fuel

Fuel is a very important element in the starting of the car. When a car wont start, but it cranks fine and healthy, the battery light is not on and the lights are not fading, the possible cause is that the fuel is not getting to the engine to initiate combustion which turns the engine. This could be as simple as purchasing petrol and pouring in into the tank, or could be as expensive as a damaged fuel pump. The mechanic will usually test if the pump is working by monitoring fuel flow into the engine from a pipe that is responsible for delivering the fuel to the engine. If no fuel comes out, one needs to first check if they have fuel in the tank and if there is fuel, then it can be potentially be the petrol pump or in some instance a filter that is blocked.

I hope this help you gain a little bit of knowledge and also save you some money and head aches.

PS: It is always good to check with a mechanic to help you get to the root cause of the problem.

Don’t Be Overcharged for Car Repairs

 

Why Repair Costs Are So High

The labor rate in most dealerships and repair shops today ranges from R 700 to over R 1000 per hour. Why so high? Because it’s expensive to run an auto repair business and because Car Care Click mechanics are mobile, we are able to reduce the prices significantly. In addition to the normal overhead such as the cost of the building and property, taxes, utilities, insurance, employee benefits, and so on, repair facilities have to spend thousands of rands every year on equipment, scan tool updates, information access and other costs that are necessary to repair today’s cars.

Consequently, when a shop quotes what seems like a very high price to change a relatively simple part, it may seem like they are attempting to take advantage of the situation and are overcharging for the repair. Maybe they are tying to rip you off, or maybe they are not. We can’t say because every situation is different.