Check the oil: The simplest task to increase the life of your vehicle is to maintain the proper amount of oil in the engine. Additionally, change the oil and filter at the intervals recommended in the owner’s manual, for example, every 5,000, 7,500 or 10,000 miles. Oil lubricates the engine parts. Second, oil is a fluid that disperses heat. Some of the oil is burned off by the engine so it needs to be replenished when the level drops. Make sure it's the right weight oil for your engine. “An engine runs hotter with less oil in it. The hotter it runs the more strain, stress that is put on the engine parts. You could blow the engine eventually, meaning it will need to be rebuilt or replaced, it’s very expensive. It will not blow up if the engine is a quart of oil down, but when they start getting a couple of quarts down you can run into some interesting issues,” Moritz said. Fight sludge: There’s a big downside to short trips, stop-and-go traffic, as well as long trip...