High Mileage Commuting

[youngsc]

Got a question for all you guys that are doing 80-100 miles a day in driving or 500-600 a week. What kind of extra maintenance if any are you doing for your cars? My 00 is pretty solid and never given me any probs but I'm getting paranoid with the amount and time I'm driving and will be for at least the next 15 months. Currently I have 70k but you can do the math at 500+ per week how quick it will add up. TIA

[kala]

Re: High Mileage Commuting

Welcome to my world. I have put in almost 30K last one year. I do around 400-500 a week. I change my oil every 2000 miles since higheway miles tend to make the oil darker since everything is rotating at a higher speed. I use ac delco filters and they perform pretty good. Every 3000 miles I run Techron fuel inj cleaner/93 premium just that one tank. Changing my old worn out v6 shocks to SLP takeoff made a dramatic difference. If you look hard enough in other forum, you'll get one at great price. I wish I could tell you anything else. Our cars are very reliable and gets awesome gas mileage. I am so glad I bought this car because for the money I paid, it didn't give me any big trouble at all. I did change the tranny fluid/filter 23K miles ago and rear diffy fluid 1K miles ago. Also, MSD 8.5 wires FTW! I am very happy with my cars performance. Do these small little things and you can keep your car forever (well, at least until the new camaro comes out ;) )




:)

[Stock98camaro]

Re: High Mileage Commuting

Mine did about 30k in the past 2 years... Maybe a few more thousand miles. Just basically changed out my oil every 5k miles and was fine. Breaks wore out faster because of the more milage, and I needed to clean out the cooling system. My shocks need to be replaced and my AC is broke, but all in all it was all from just the miles. It is all regular stuff. My 98 did really well for me and was super reliable.

[josh98bird]

Re: High Mileage Commuting

Just regular oil changes every month and pay more attention to your tire pressure and such.

[youngsc]

Re: High Mileage Commuting

Cool beans, thanks all. I'll just try to get my oil changed a little sooner since I am doing mainly highway driving and add a bottle of FI cleaner when I change my oil too. I'll check into those shocks too. Yeah it's gonna be a bee-otch with all the driving but in a year and a half it will be worth it.

Another question, any brake pads you all might recommend for prolonged wear, something more organic? semi metallic? I used to work in auto parts but don't remember too much of that stuff now.

[mloaks]

Re: High Mileage Commuting

I commute 94 miles/day, 75% hiway and 25% towns. Type of miles is the key; stopngo city is the worst, regardless of distance.
Use Bendex organic pads and they work superb, but dust up the fronts like crazy.
I change synthetic oil every 5000 miles.

I feel that fuel filters, tire pressure, and fresh, clean sensors are the keys to hi miles usage, if yr driving is mostly hiway and not stop and go. For both types with an A4, fluid changes are vital.

[Den69RS96]

Re: High Mileage Commuting

if you do mostly highway driving you most likely can extend your oil change intervals beyond 3000 miles. I wouldn't go past 5000 with reg oil. If you use a high quality synthetic such as mobil one Amsoil or Royal purple, you can go farther. The short stop and go commutes require more frequent oil changes. The oil doesn't get up to temp and it can't burn off the condensation that built up. I run royal purple in all my cars. I change the oil at 7500 miles in the commuters. I change it yearly in my camaros since they seen limited mileage. Make sure you rotate your tires and grease up any fittings under the car on an annual basis. I also use a k&n filter and clean it every year. The rp and k&n gave me another 1.3 mpg. Check your tire pressures as well. Low tires will eat into your mpg. Also check your belt for cracks. Lots of folks over look the belts. It would suck getting stuck on the side of the road because of a broken belt.

[Everglades W68]

Re: High Mileage Commuting

Also check your belt for cracks. Lots of folks over look the belts. It would suck getting stuck on the side of the road because of a broken belt.

Good point. Also, always keep the old belt in the car (I stow mine behind the spare tire panel) - with the right size socket wrench also, of course.