There are a million dumb things you can do in your car, and Scotty Kilmer has seen’em all. So when he says these are the four dumbest things you could possibly do in your vehicle, that’s a high bar to clear.
What’s on #savagescotty’s “Top Four Dumb Things Not to do in Your Car” list?
- Jumpstarting your car backwards
- Running your car out of gas
- Skipping oil changes
- Driving on old coolant
Seasoned YouTube mechanic Scotty Kilmer goes in-depth on these issues throughout the video, and we’ll gather what you need to know right here so you have it in a handy, readable format.
If you didn’t already know all of this, it’s important stuff. If you did, we still recommend subscribing to Scotty’s YouTube channel for his great car advice and fun, to-the-point presentation. Let’s get started.
Scotty Kilmer’s Top 4 Dumb Things NOT to Do to Your Car
1. Jumpstarting Your Car Backwards
Red cable goes on the terminal marked with the + sign. The other cable goes on the -. As Scotty points out, the tricky thing is that not every car battery makes it easy to see how the terminals are marked. But they are marked, so move the terminal out of the way if you need to.
2. Driving on Empty
Running on empty is bad enough. Starting on empty is even worse. When you crank fumes, your fuel pump is going to suck air and burn itself out, because the pump, on most cars, is right inside the tank.
The gasoline pump needs fuel to lubricate it, and the more air it sucks, the dryer it gets. When you burn it out, that’s a five, six hundred dollar fix, plus an afternoon on your back under the car.
3. Skipping Oil Changes
As Kilmer says, he used to see engines blow up all the time because they weren’t well-oiled. He points out that modern cars are even more demanding of oil, with tons of tiny holes and mechanisms that need to stay lubricated.
Scotty advises changing your oil before the maintenance schedule, every three to four thousand miles or so. Fully synthetic oil will buy you a few thousand extra miles if you know that you can be forgetful about it.
4. Forgetting to Change Your Coolant
Simply put: Coolant wears out, you need to change it. Change it every three years for conventional anti-freeze, or every five years for extended-life anti-freeze.
Scotty points out that modern engines use a lot of aluminum, which won’t rust, but will corrode when the anti-freeze’s anti-corrosive elements break down.
