Sometimes spending money on scheduled maintenance or preventative maintenance can really help. How does changing the fluids in a car really help? Well, it helps, but you have to consider your plan for how long you will keep those wheels and how they will be used. If you trade every couple of years, just changing the oil and keeping the other fluids topped off will be enough. On the other hand if your plan for the car is to keep it until the wheels fall off, then scheduled maintenance, including changing fluids becomes very important. We see a lot of cooling system problems such as failed radiators and heater cores from not changing antifreeze. We also notice a lot of water outlet failures too (they’re plastic) in cars with old antifreeze. Antifreeze and power steering fluid should be changed every three years, and brake fluid every two. Heater core replacement in VW and Audi vehicles requires disassembly of the interior of the car and is a big job, so you can imagine how expensive it is. Power steering units for these cars are very expensive also. Cars will last many years and hundreds of thousands of miles by performing scheduled maintenance. If you have been doing your own maintenance or just have general questions, call Robert’s Automotive or see there preventative maintenance page.