Driving habits that are secretly damaging your car

This is a List of 10 things that could be damaging your vehicle – and you might not even realise you’re doing them.
But first let us look at these four today

1.DRAGGING THE BRAKE DOWNHILLS
Dragging the brakes is lousy practice that will likely add increased wear and tear on brake pads and discs. This will lead to needing to replace them more frequently, which will add an unnecessarily-increased expense to your driving
When travelling downhill, it is best to engage a low gear, apply light some light braking, and then release the pedal to allow the brakes to cool. Apply the brakes when required, before repeating the process until you’ve reached the foot of the hill.

2.RESTING YOUR HAND ON THE GEARSTICK
Your driving instructor probably told you to keep both hands on the wheel at all times, but many of us develop bad habits as soon as the ‘L’ plates are consigned to the bin. One of these might include resting your hand on the gearstick. But did you know this can be bad for the transmission?

The gearstick is connected to a selector fork, which is designed to make contact with a rotating collar for a short amount of time. If you rest your hand on the gearstick, you risk applying pressure to the selector fork, causing premature wear.

Some owner’s manuals specifically advise against resting your hand on the gearstick, it's worth checking yours to see if that's the case.

3. FLOORING THE ACCELERATION IN A HIGH GEAR
Many modern cars feature a gearshift indicator light, advising you when to change up or down a gear. These tend to be set for economy, so more often than not you’ll be short-shifting to maximise efficiency. However, you need to keep an eye on the downshift icon or be prepared to change down when necessary.

Accelerating at low rpm, or in too high a gear, means that the engine is working harder, placing unnecessary strain on the motor. Change down and allow the revs to rise before changing up. This is particularly important when carrying heavy loads or when climbing hills

4. SHIFTING FROM DRIVE TO REVERSE BEFORE STOPPING
Shifting gear before coming to a stop will cause wear and tear on the transmission band, rather than the brake discs and pads, which are serviceable items. Any work on the automatic transmission will be labour-intensive, and therefore costly.

The same can be said about crunching the gears in a manual car too, so it's advisable to come to a complete stop before switching in to reverse gear (although most modern cars won't allow you to switch without stopping anyway



I would be honoured if you add to the ones we have here so we can all learn to keep our vehicles sound