Hitting the 100,000 Mile Marker

There are certain milestones by which we can chart our life as a driver: receiving our learning permit and later, our first license; purchasing our first vehicle with our own money; the first time we are pulled over and given a speeding ticket; the first time we take a ride with our children, bringing them home from the hospital. All of these experiences add mileage to our experience as drivers and, in a more literal sense, mileage to our vehicles. In fact, the idea of symmetry between a car and its owner is not a new one—a car tends to look about as put together as our bedroom; it becomes an extension of ourselves.

In lieu of the metaphorical discussion that could be had about the experiential mileage we take on as we travel down the highway of life, there are very real consequences that occur when our car puts a lot of miles behind it and crosses the 100,000-mile marker. At this point, bringing the car to Provo for regular car repairs becomes even more of a necessity.

The 100k Tune-Up

Once your car reaches that nice, round milestone, it is important to bring it in to your local Master Muffler for its top-to-bottom, inside-out check-up. The purpose of this comprehensive trip to the car repair shop is to ascertain the state of your car’s various systems and decide if anything needs to be changed, replaced, or otherwise kept an eye on. The most likely components that will either need work immediately or soon include:

• The Timing Belt: As the name suggests, the timing belt brings various parts of the car (specifically the camshaft and the crankshaft) into perfect synchronization. The camshaft allows the mixture of air and fuel vapors to enter and exit the internal combustion chamber of the engine; the crankshaft operates the pistons that compress the mixture, eventually causing it to explode thanks to a spark from the spark plug. 

• • If any of these systems fall out of alignment with one another, the engine could be damaged. The timing belt ensures this doesn’t happen, but it will eventually crack and break due to age and overuse.

• The Water Pump: Your radiator is part of your vehicle’s cooling system and is meant to flush a mixture of coolant and water through your hot engine, cooling it down, before being cycled back into the radiator. Once it has returned, valves release the excess heat as steam and cool whatever liquid is left, which is then taken, once again, on a journey through the engine. 

• • The water pump is responsible for this cycle, using the turning of axes from the engine to suck water out of the radiator. The water pump has a lifespan just as with any other of your car’s components. If it fails, the pump’s cap will warp and melt due to the engine’s heat and you’ll be forced to undergo an expensive car repair.

• The Brake Discs: Our Provo car repair experts encourage you to change your brake pads every 40,000 miles or so. By that metric, you’ve likely changed your brake pads at least once, probably twice before reaching the 100,000-mile mark. However, your brake discs, against which the brake pads apply pressure in order to slow the tires down, also require inspection and repair over time. 

• • Master Muffler is happy to recommend replacing the brake discs every 70,000 miles or so, meaning that at 100k they should likely be changed.

• Fluids: It is likely that your mechanic will change—or at the very least top off—your car’s various fluids so that its systems are good to go for another few thousand miles. As the fluids age, they can gather grime and particulates that, if left to cycle through the car, will cause damage over time.

• • Once getting the fluids replaced, your Master Muffler technician will let you know when you should return to do the process over again.

Here’s To The Next 100k

Any modern car is built to last far beyond 100,000 miles. In point of fact, most cars reach and exceed 200,000 before they are permanently retired. By bringing your vehicle into the Provo Master Muffler on a regular basis for car repairs, you will guarantee that your car reaches that next, illustrious milestone. Once that odometer rolls over all those zeroes, drop on by to set up an appointment and we’ll get you in and out in no time.