“If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It.” An adage many of us are guilty of adhering to on our car journeys. Let’s paint a picture. You are driving peacefully with all your dollars soundly sleeping in your wallet when suddenly the grim and demanding warning light wakes up and threatens to take your precious dollars away. However, here’s your bittersweet moment: you see the warning light come up but your car cruises smoothly and everything works! So you write and store a mental note, promising yourself you’ll attend to it later with a richer, freer, and dare I say, wiser you? You’ve stuck to the adage and the procrastinator’s prophecy comes true again.Buthere’s the thing—warning lights serve a crucial purpose in your vehicle and they are meant to save you eventual money and time.
Warning lights are a car’s self-diagnostic communication system. When you see a warning light, your car is talking to you in symbols. Ignoring this communication can do what it does to a repeatedly ignored person—it can make them stop talking to you altogether. To help you switch gears into the mindset of preventative car care, you can read the dangerous consequences of negligence below.
Table of Contents
1. Cost and Time Escalation
It goes without saying, if you don’t acknowledge and fix whatever is wrong with your vehicle, the problem will keep getting worse. Longer the wait, higher the cost and time. It will keep increasing for the associated parts for which you can see the warning lights. Ignoring the lights will eventually lead to the part getting pushed outside its limits, resulting in a breakdown. If you reach this point be prepared to part with whatever is the asking price.
2. Getting Stranded
One of the most concerning issues of car neglect is your car finally giving up and coming to a stop. If you are on your way to an important destination (you most likely will be), such a situation could mean a farewell to many productive hours. You may even be in the middle of a freeway when your car decides to give out, such a situation is susceptible to accidents and likely to leave you stranded.
While many lights can get you stranded, keep an eye out for the common ones like Charging System: indicates a problem with the car’s electrical system and Low Tire Pressure: a problem with the car’s wheels, usually at least 25 percent below the vehicle manufacturer’s recommendation.
3. Abandoned Safety
There are pre-installed safety mechanisms in your car for accidents. Neglecting a safety mechanism, emergency warning light like SRS (Supplemental Restraint System) means you have a potentially compromised airbag or seatbelt system. A faulty airbag most likely fails to inflate during a crash or it may inflate when it’s not needed and when you least expect it. Both of these scenarios are a surefire way to throw your safety into a questionable tomorrow. Whereas, a faulty seatbelt system would mean you are not safely strapped to your seat.
4. Complete Wreckage
For a car owner, negligence is a sin. And it is a sin which can cost you dearly. A warning light like ABS (anti-break system) indicates that you’ve got a leak and means you have started to lose control of the braking function of your car. If neglected, you won’t be able to stop your vehicle quickly or at all, leading to life-threatening disasters. Also, emergency lights like the Engine and Electric Power steering (EPS) represent vital car functions, and ignoring them poses a threat to everyone in and around the car.
Final Thoughts
Now that you understand the dire consequences of neglect and the true effects of “You don’t need to fix what ain’t broken,” I hope you make an appeal to the proactive safety officer in you. If costs are your concern when you see an emergency light, you don’t need to worry because ToyotaCare will cover you for the first 2 years or 25,000 miles, whichever comes first. If your ToyotaCare has expired you can simply opt for affordable Toyota parts and let most of your dollars continue to sleep in peace.