Servicing is the key to reliability

By Barry Lake

FOR family transport, Indonesia has long relied on commercial- based vehicles such as Toyota-Astra's Kijang and the Isuzu Panther.

While these vehicles are certainly reliable, they tend to use fairly simple mechanics, which have enabled many people to maintain and service their vehicles at home or through the local garage.

However, with the steadily-increasing number of new small passenger cars coming onto the market using sophisticated engines, transmissions and other components, servicing habits are bound to change.

But how reliable will these cars be? And, when they need to be serviced or repaired, will our mechanics be able to cope?

Such concerns are natural but one of the greatest revelations of modern motor cars is that they are incredibly reliable and need far less servicing than cars of the past.

Cars of the 1990s do not need the ignition points replaced and the timing adjusted, simply because there are no points in electronic ignition systems.

The spark plugs are platinum-tipped and amazingly durable. For years now, many modern cars have been traveling distances of more than 100,000km before needing new spark plugs, and some car manufacturers are now claiming spark plug life of better than 150,000km.

That is anything from five to 10 years of average motoring. Top-up your radiator? No thanks. Today's cars have sealed cooling systems, containing special coolants which resist overheating and prevent rust or corrosion attacking the metal parts of the engine.

When the engine heats up, excess fluid expands into a special tank, from which it is drawn back into the engine when it cools down again after being turned off. The cooling system is always full.

Adjust your wheel bearings, sir? Thanks, but no thanks. The trend now is to have "sealed for life" hubs with wheel bearings packed with high-technology grease and with no provision for adjustment ... which means also that there is no opportunity for them to be too tight or too loose. Nor is there any chance of dirt, dust or water entering the bearing to contaminate the grease.

Life spans of these sealed hubs are claimed to be upwards of 300,000km.

If a wheel bearing does eventually give trouble, the entire hub unit is replaced. This is the growing trend with many components: replacement of entire units which are sealed for life.

Expensive? Not really. When compared to the time involved in rebuilding components on older cars, along with the cost of parts, the new units are surprisingly moderately priced.

Huge savings in labor costs largely offset the cost of parts, the price of which is kept down by mass production.

But what about major repairs, like engine rebuilds and transmission overhauls?

Again, these are largely worries from the past. Car manufacturers around the world have for years now offered long warranty periods and the same thing is now happening in Indonesia.

And they do not normally expect owners to be taking advantage of the offer. In fact, the car companies expect their cars to run for much longer than this before requiring major repairs.

Disc brakes, as well as operating more effectively than drum brakes, are self-adjusting and remain consistent in their operation throughout the life of the brake pads.

Brake relining is not required. When the pads wear out, they can easily be replaced. So, too, can the brake discs -- although these last through several pad changes.

But, when the discs are finally worn beyond usefulness, they now slip off the hub easily and can be replaced with a new unit.

Whereas the old carburetor has many parts which can wear, and a float which needs periodical adjustment, fuel injection is virtually trouble-free.

The main potential problem is dirt getting into an injector, but this can be avoided by replacing the fuel filter and the air filter at the recommended intervals.

Of course, quality fuel is very important. Any petrol outlet that does not appear to have high standards should be avoided.

Probably the most feared of all modern automotive devices is the computer and yet even this is far less daunting when it is realized that it is very reliable and even when it does give trouble, the problems are far easier to trace and repair than most people might think.

For one thing, automotive computers have what is called "fail safe" systems.

These are back-up systems which put the car into a "limp home" mode. If a component fails, the car can still be driven to a repair shop. It might not develop as much power and it might even run roughly -- on less than the full number of cylinders -- but in most situations it will still run.

When the car reaches an authorized service center, a fully- trained technician simply plugs a diagnostic computer into the car and the computer tells him which part has failed.

Sometimes, the warning light system on the dash of the car itself will flash codes that tell the operator what has gone wrong.

By consulting the service manual and checking the codes, the operator will know that, say, a temperature sensor has failed.

This part is then replaced with a new unit and the system is again fully functional.

However, regular servicing of new vehicles is a necessity for reliable motoring.

Modern oils can cope with extremes of temperature -- both hot and cold -- and with high engine speeds but the engine oil still should be changed at -- usually -- 10,000km intervals.

If the car is used in extreme conditions of heat and dust, it is a good idea to also change the air filter, fuel filter and oil filter at the same time.

A good service center will also check the engine coolant level and the drive-belts for the ancillaries such as alternator, power steering pump, air-conditioning compressor and so on, although these will normally be trouble-free for tens of thousands of kilometers.

Major components should rarely need replacing but, if they do, they should be replaced by genuine components as supplied by the manufacturer.

And they should be fitted by a trained mechanic at an authorized service workshop who knows the product thoroughly.

If all this is done and the car is regularly and correctly serviced, car owners will be agreeably impressed by the reliability of today's new cars.