Preventive Maintenance versus Reactive Maintenance - Which Should You Choose?

Maintaining and servicing your car is part and parcel of car ownership. Whether your car was purchased brand new or used, there are always bits and pieces of maintenance that a driver will have to undertake. Sometimes these repairs trickle in during each scheduled servicing, and sometimes, they hit you all at one shot, like a sledgehammer to the chest. Given that each and every car, along with each and every driver’s servicing experience is circumstantially different, it is hard to say if there is a right or wrong way to approach car servicing and maintenance.

Unless you are the owner of a car that is under agency warranty, and all you have to do is to follow the agent checklist during your scheduled servicing, it is likely that you will have had to think through some repair decisions somewhere in your life as a car owner. Interestingly, you will find that car maintenance can be trickled down into two main categories. Preventive, and reactive maintenance. Typically, these two categories of maintenance will demand differences in your mentality and attitude towards car servicing. Let’s take a look at what each type of maintenance schedule entails and how you can decide which type of maintenance is more suited for you.

As the name suggests, preventive maintenance is all about changing out parts that are failing or show signs of impending failure before they actually fail. Leaving aside the bare basics of car scheduled car servicing (oil change / filter change / scheduled transmission fluid change etc…), this is normally ascertained during the inspection phase of your regular servicing, where your mechanics will usually do a physical inspection of all the parts they can visibly see (hopefully after hosting up the car). This is also normally when they hook your car up to an OBD 2 car diagnostic tool reader and scan for any pending codes stored within your car’s OBD. Think of pending codes as logged instances of something not working right, but has not become an outright failure such that the pending code becomes a stored code and lights up your “Check Engine” light in your dashboard. Through this physical assessment and scanning for pending codes in your car’s OBD, your mechanics are usually able to update you on a list of repairs you are recommended to make, in order to keep your car from deteriorating towards a component breakdown or vehicle breakdown. Commonly, this is where your mechanics will update you on poor battery health, broken and leaking hoses / gaskets / seals / valves, brake pad and rotor remaining lifespan, misfiring spark plugs and coils, as well as anything else that looks cracked, damaged, worn out, and is about to break.

Interestingly, I have found that not all workshops in Singapore actually subscribe to this workflow. Having been through a few workshops myself, I have found that brand specialist workshops who typically cater to luxury makes (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Jaguar), seem to subscribe more actively to this form of maintenance proposal. Though non-conclusive, one might speculate that these workshops function this way because their luxury car clientele are generally more fussy, and are probably not so bothered about cash flow, which leads me to the next point.

Taking on preventive maintenance can be difficult to stomach if you are an individual who worries about cash flow. Because of the nature of preventive maintenance, there is a good chance that when you bring in your car for its regular servicing, you might not have felt the negative effects of any of those impending part failures yet. It can therefore be surprising when your mechanic calls you and updates you on a very long list of potential repairs. As such, when you drive your car into the workshop, you never know if you’re gonna be facing a $200 car servicing bill, or a $2,000 one. Of course, you can always opt out of certain repairs if you feel that the part in question does not pose a safety issue, and you would like to wait and see how it pans out.

That being said, the upsides of preventive maintenance are logical and numerous. Starting with the obvious, because the nature of preventive maintenance is such that you change out failing parts before they actually fail, you are unlikely to meet with catastrophic breakdown issues that will render you stranded by the side of the road, in need of a tow truck. This generally means less unplanned downtime and more peace of mind on the road. Also, because your car is also running on newer and more actively changed parts, it is also likely that the overall comfort and quality of your drive is better.

Once again, putting aside the bare basics of scheduled car servicing, reactive maintenance generally presents itself as changing out parts that have already failed and are at the complete end of their lifespan. The nature of reactive maintenance is that you tend to fully utilise the lifespan of your parts, which to some people, could represent better value for your parts, and even some cost savings. This form of maintenance, in most cases, is also easier on an owner’s cash flow. It’s really a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of situation with reactive maintenance.

While there is perhaps some wisdom in using your car parts to the very end of their lifespan, there are also downsides. Firstly, by utilising your parts all the way till the end of their lifespan, there is a risk that the failed part could lead to more damage to other surrounding parts. There is also the concern that you will probably have to deal with a slightly more unpredictable car servicing schedule, as you might have to haul your car in to change out a burnt spark plug coil or worn out brake pads when you least expect it. During this time that you are driving around with possibly numerous failing components, it is also unlikely that your car will be performing at its optimum performance or comfort level.

Interestingly, I discovered back when I was servicing my cars with a “mom and pop” style workshop, that this was exactly how they approached car servicing. When I send my car in for regular servicing, that is exactly what they do. Nothing more, nothing less. Oil change, oil filter, air filter, and that’s it. I recall one incident, where my brakes started to squeak one week after my regular servicing. I returned to my mechanic slightly enraged, and asked him why he did not tell me that my brake pads were so close to being worn out during my last servicing. Without flinching, he promptly posted me this rethort (in mandarin), “If your brakes don’t make noise, and I tell you to change it, what if you accuse me of trying to cheat you”? When I heard this, it thought to myself, “If my mechanic harbours such sentiments, then his behaviour must be influenced by the sentiments of the car owners he faces”. Needless to say, I was quite shocked to conclude that there were some car owners who felt this way about preventive maintenance.

Since most of the impacts of either form of maintenance revolve around the utility of the car, a good way to decide which form of maintenance works for you, is to take a look at your car usage, and your preferences. If you are the kind of driver who is fussy about your car’s overall performance and comfort, or are heavily reliant on your car for whatever reason, then preventive maintenance will help to keep your car in tip top condition, and minimise the risk of unplanned downtime due to breakdowns and additional trips to your workshop. Keep in mind though, that you should also be comfortable with your cash flow in order to keep up this form of maintenance.

However, if your daily commute consists of one trip to the office and one trip back home, or if you are not fussy about little creaks, squeaks, and rattles in your car, then reactive maintenance should help with cash flow, and bring you better value on your parts. Keep in mind though, that in some cases, by prolonging the use of failing parts, while waiting for them to actually fair before replacement, you run the risk of causing damage to other components in your car, which in some cases, may cost you more money in the long run.

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