As you will recall, we have chosen our workshop, Steves Auto Clinic, to take care of the transformation to our Citi Golf and the car is currently well and truly in the surgery as we speak.
But just as choosing the correct workshop is vitally important, so is understanding the importance of preventative maintenance and many of us don’t, and this costs big time.

There was no way we were going to allow our Citi to get a horsepower injection without first taking care of the critical stuff in terms of saving us money somewhere down the road and of course also keeping our soon to be pocket rocket safe.

Here are some classic examples to help drive this point home, a worn cambelt could cost as little as R 500 to replace, but should it not be replaced in time and break, the consequential damage could be way over R 10 000. And as fate would have it, the cambelt on our Citi was one step away from destroying the engine.

Another critical fault found on our Golf was that a CV boot had been torn and not attended to and the CV joint left to run dry. A CV joint needs to be re-greased at +/- 50 000 km and thereafter every 30 000 km, if left un-greased, it will fail.

A new CV joint could cost up to R2 000, and most vehicles have four and others up to eight. Yet to service and re-grease a CV joint can cost as little as R 40, makes you think doesn't it.

While there a dry and worn wheel bearing was also identified as the last of the important and potentially expensive long-term wear and tear items.

Perhaps if the owner had taken the time to consider what the experts at Steves Auto Clinic have to say on ‘Budgeting & Planning for Motor Vehicle Repairs & Maintenance’. Because whether we like it or not, vehicles need to be serviced and maintained regularly and this is becoming more and more expensive.

If you have a limited budget to spend on a vehicle, communicate with a service provider who can advise what needs to be done on the vehicle and then prioritise the work. It will cost less if more than one thing is being done on the vehicle in one day. For example you would normally pay less labour if you were to have brake pads fitted while the vehicle is being serviced, and even a dyna tune for instance is cheaper if it is done in conjunction with a major service.

You should work out roughly how many km you will travel in one year and budget for a service every 10000 km. So if you travel 30000 km per year your car would need to have ± 3 services at approximately R 800 per time.

This would equate to R 2400 per year divided by 12 means you need to provide roughly only R 200 per month for your vehicle maintenance. This is good value for money if you consider that you pay a steep monthly bill, well in excess of R 200, for short term insurance and in most cases don't claim for five years.

So once again we have given you some good food for thought and hopefully given you a few tips on how to save yourself some money at the same time, but should you want to know even more, you know you have to take a drive through the SAC website at www.steves.co.za .

Next week we start on the cool stuff, making power, as the cylinder head has been removed while they do the cambelt, and we will cover this next stage in detail.