Month: March 2015

Record heat has raised more than temperatures this summer, as the nation struggles to retain its cool. Just as heat takes its toll on people and electric bills, it also impacts car reliability and safety. By some accounts, tire blowouts are on the rise, creating dangers for travelers. But you can reduce this risk, if…

Old habits do die hard. Since the earliest days of the automobile, idling has been something of a necessary evil. Back then, the question of whether or not a vehicle would start again was secondary to the odds of drivers breaking their wrists on the cranking handle. In these days of $4-a-gallon gas, with modern…

Gasoline is expensive and you’re looking for every way possible to save money at the pump. You already shy away from premium fuel, knowing that your car doesn’t require it. You’d like to save a few pennies per gallon more by going to an off-brand gas station. But you can’t get rid of the nagging…

Irregular tire wear is a frustrating little gremlin that can steal your tires’ performance and tread life if you let it. The problem is that irregular wear comes in so many different flavors. The causes of strange tire wear can range from air pressure to improper balance, from misalignment to bent wheels. Here’s how to…

Oil chemistry and engine technology have evolved tremendously in recent years, but you’d never know it from the quick-change behavior of American car owners. Driven by an outdated 3,000-mile oil change commandment, they are unnecessarily spending millions of dollars and spilling an ocean of contaminated waste oil. The majority of automakers today call for oil…

With more than 3 million hybrids on the road, servicing hybrid ¬vehicles and hybrid fluid maintenance is in your future. Does that scare you? It shouldn’t. Some special procedures must be followed when working on a hybrid. Most dual-mode hybrids use one of the motors/generators to start the engine instead of a conventional starter attached…

The fresh-fallen snow on a wintry morning is beautiful, but it can also cause extra work for those whose cars were exposed to the snow and ice. Scraping and chipping the ice off the windshield costs not only precious time but also the extra gas needed to run the car with the defrosters. If you…

Car paint color doesn’t have to fade over time. Find out 4 simple ways to stave off the car paint fading process. One way to keep your car looking new is to keep the car paint color the way it came. That means doing everything you can to avoid fading. Sure, paint will fade, but…

Do You Need a Compression Test? Your car’s engine compression can tell you a lot about the overall health of the engine. If your car is blowing blue smoke out of the tailpipe, or if your car is losing lots of oil, you could have a bad piston ring. This will also cause low compression…

One of the most impressive improvements you can do to your car is clean and paint your engine and surrounding engine compartment. No matter how good the car looks or sounds, what you see under the hood makes or breaks the over all impression of the car. Nothing looks better than opening the hood to…