3 EV Parts You Can Service At Home
Electric vehicle owners can take care of several important maintenance tasks for their car at home. These include brake pad replacements, fluid replacements, and tire monitoring and replacement.
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One of the many advantages of owning an electric vehicle is that they require less maintenance than combustion engine vehicles. Combustion engines rely on an intricate system of gears and interconnected moving parts. EV batteries, on the other hand, are much more mechanically simple and have no gears at all. This means EV owners, on average, spend less on vehicle maintenance each year.
However, some maintenance is still required if you want to get the most out of your electric car. Understanding battery maintenance can be critical to ensuring a long and efficient life span for your EV. But there are other parts of your EV that require maintenance from time to time.
Some of those parts can easily be serviced at home, rather than requiring professional maintenance. This can save you even more money over the life of your car. As a helpful guide to EV owners, here are three electric car parts that you can easily service at home.
Brake Pads
Electric vehicles use a braking system similar to that of combustion engine vehicles. However, there is one notable difference in the way brakes operate in electric vehicles. Most EV models use a system called regenerative braking. With regenerative braking, a little bit of energy is recaptured by the battery when the brakes are activated.This provides small, but meaningful, bursts of charge to the battery, helping it to last longer.
While regenerative braking uses advanced technology, it does not change the way your brakes function as you use them. They are still, mechanically, very similar to the brakes found in a standard gas engine car. This means EV brake pads can wear down over time, and need to be replaced at a similar frequency to combustion-engine car brakes. This can be done at home with some basic equipment. In fact, many auto parts stores sell brake tool kits that have everything you need to replace your brake pads. With the right equipment and know-how, this job should take less than an hour to complete.
Tires
Many people might not be aware that EV tires are different from the tires you find on gas engine vehicles. They are still made from the same materials. But electric vehicle tires need to be heavier and more durable. This is because most electric vehicles weigh more than their gas engine counterparts. As a result, EV tires can wear out more quickly with lots of starting and stopping.
Having said that, tire maintenance should still be familiar for new EV owners. While the tires are bigger, they are functionally the same as other tires and require the same types of care. This means rotating tires every so often and routinely monitoring tire pressure. The process for changing an EV tire is also the same, and is something that most EV owners can easily perform at home.
Fluids
Electric vehicles require fewer fluids than gas engine cars. For instance, EV owners never need to worry about changing their oil ever again. However, some other fluids are still essential for the upkeep of your EV. Brake fluid, for example, is still a necessity. Some EV models also still require transmission fluid. The three main fluids that EV owners need to remember are brake fluid, coolant, and windshield wiper fluid. Replacing these fluids is usually a task that EV owners can handle on their own at home in a little time.
Ray Catena Auto Group is the tri-state area’s biggest name in luxury driving – and now, also the area’s pioneer of Electrified Luxury. Find out more about how to extend your LEV’s range or what should be on your maintenance checklist as a luxury electric car owner. Contact us to learn more.
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