Pre-Owned, Used, and Just Plain Junk

Find A New Ride With Less Worry

Everyone is afraid of something. Some people would rather die than give a public speech. Some people are afraid of the dark, or pain, or spiders. And some people are deathly afraid of buying a used car. Some people are so afraid of buying a used car they over extend themselves financially in order to purchase a new one. They tell themselves this is justified because with a new car they have a warranty in case something goes wrong. If they were to buy a used car they likely would not have a warranty to fall back on if repairs are needed. Nevermind the fact that paying for car repairs on a used car is almost always cheaper than making payments on a new car.

Buying a used car does not need to be a frightening proposition and most people can pick out a decent car on their own if they will follow a few simple rules. People become forgetful when they go to buy a car. Part of the reason is buying a car can sometimes be very exciting, fun, or scary (as I said before). If the experience fits into one of these categories then that means emotions will be involved. Our emotions get us into trouble, whether it’s a fit of road rage resulting from being cut off in traffic, or the excitement of test driving an expensive sports car that is not only too expensive, but doesn’t really fit our needs. Emotions don’t often help us make sound decisions.

The first rule when buying a used car: Do your homework. Find out what kind of options you have in selecting a car. Don’t select a car based on looks, or family tradition (my daddy drives a Ford, his daddy drives a Ford, so I have to drive a Ford). Take the time to find out which cars have what options. Should you get a sedan with a four cylinder engine or a sedan with a V6? What in the world is a V6? Figure these things out before you go looking. With the amount of information we have available to us online it is just plain silly to begin searching without checking out some great websites that have great information for used car buyers. Check out www.Edmunds.com

If you are going to buy the car with cash, then congratulations on being so abnormal. If you are a normal person and you will be financing the car, get your finances in order and get you approval upfront. This will help you to determine how much you can spend. Remember that the amount that the bank approves should never be the amount that you spend. You should always spend less. In the long run you will be much happier when trying to make the payments. Usually it's best to get a bank loan rather then arranging the financing through the dealership but this is not always true.  The thing is, if you arrange through a bank or something like that you have more latitude in your shopping. Once again, do your homework, it's not all about monthly payment. Interest rates mean things.

Find out how much your new car will cost to insure, and find out how much the new car will cost to service. Both of these amounts together should figure into the amount that you arrive at when determining what kind of monthly payment you can afford. Not only can you look at routine maintenance costs but there is information out there that will give you an idea of how much the particular car you are after will break down in a given year, and how much it typically costs to make these unscheduled repairs. Even the cost for a year’s worth of fuel can be determined.

The second rule when buying a used car: Do NOT shop model year. Many people will look at their situation, set a dollar limit on how much they can spend, and then set off to get the newest thing that they can buy for $10,000. How new a used car is has nothing to do with whether or not it will be a good car. This may come as a shock to some of you unless you have owned one of these cars, but some cars were junk even when they were brand new. This is not as much of a problem as it used to be because all cars are so much more reliable than they used to be, but machines still break, and sometimes it’s for no reason. Do some research and find out which makes and models have had the most problems during the time that they have been on the market. This is information that you can never get on a brand new car because they are brand new, and nobody has seen any problems yet.

What the car is has more to do with whether or not it’s a good car, than how new it is and this is something that is quite often reflected in the resale value. Honda and Toyota have really high resale values and very low depreciation. This is because they are perceived by the general public as being  reliable cars. Something like a Suzuki usually has a very high depreciation and can be purchased cheaply when it’s only a few years old. For example, if you are comparing a 2005 Ford Fusion to a 2005 Chevrolet Malibu, the Ford may always be more expensive if all other considerations are equal (this may not really be true this is just an example). Some might argue that just because the Ford will go for more money doesn’t mean that it’s a better car. You can make this case if you wish but do some research on known problems with any two similar makes and models and you will find that when comparing apples to apples, the car with the higher resale value is usually more reliable. This means that you have to compare midsize sedan to midsize sedan, and luxury SUV to luxury SUV, and so on. Don’t compare a four door Ford to a four door Mercedes. The luxury car will usually have a higher resale value no matter what.

The trap here lies in the fact that people will shop model year and they will say to themselves, if 10,000 dollars will buy 2005 Ford Fusion or a 2008 Chevy Malibu then the Malibu is the better choice, or the choice that gets you more for your money. Getting a newer car is not getting more for your money; it’s giving you a false sense of security. When buying a used car you want qualitative advantage, model year doesn’t necessarily give you this.

The third rule when buying a used car: Mileage doesn’t mean as much as you think it means. Sometimes a very good car at a very reasonable price might be skipped over because the mileage is too high. Much of this relates to the second rule. A car that is reliable will usually maintain its reliability even into very high mileage ranges. A car that is very old is likely to have high mileage, but if it’s a car that is good to begin with, the risk of major failure at any mileage is lower, this includes failure at high mileage. A good car that is well taken care of can be a reliable car all the way up to 300k miles. Buying a car with over 200k miles might seem crazy but if you only have 3 or 4 thousand to spend, you might need to check out some of these reliable high mileage vehicles.  Note: I have never had a vehicle myself that had less than 150k miles on the odometer. I have had more than a few with well over 200k miles. These cars were all perfectly reliable and I would drive them any distance with confidence. I was very picky when purchasing these cars and bought exactly what I was looking for.

The fourth rule when buying a used car: Open your eyes. Anyone can spot a fluid leak. Anyone can see what a bald tire looks like. Anyone can see when interior upholstery is trashed. If you are the kind of person that knows nothing about cars except for how to put gas in them, and how to drive them, you must still take the time to go over the car with a thorough visual inspection. Get down on your hands and knees and look under the car. Look under the car at the front, the back, the side, look at the tires, look under the hood, look at the oil, look under the radiator cap, look at everything.

Under the engine and under the hood you should not see any fluid messes. Some people think that any engine will have some oily spots or greasy spots because that’s what engines are full of, but this is not true. If there is greasy fluid residue on the outside of the engine then it is the result of a leak. The untrained individual may not be able to tell where it is coming from but they can certainly spot it when it’s there. If any of the warning lights in the instrument cluster are on while the vehicle is driving, this is a problem. Sometimes the person who is selling the car will even tell you that the light is no big deal and doesn’t mean anything. If one of these lights stays on then something on the car is broken.

If the interior of the vehicle is a pig sty, what does that say about the interior of the engine? If a car owner doesn’t take care of the interior of the vehicle then its safe to assume that they might not take care of the vehicle maintenance needs. Scratches, dents, and dings can happen by accident, but old drink cups from two weeks ago still sitting in the cup holder, and French fries in the glove box are not an accident.

Typical underhood label that will be missing if
the car has been in wreck that smashed the hood.

Being able to tell if a car has been in a wreck or in a flood is usually fairly easy as well. To tell if a car has been in a wreck there are certain labels that you can look for. Every body panel on a car has a label with the vehicle identification number on it. Lift up the hood and look at the top of each front fender for this label. If it’s not there then you know that this body panel has been replaced. Look for the emissions labels that are almost always found on the underside of the hood. When a car is in a wreck that is serious enough that the hood requires replacement, the body shops never replace these labels. If the fenders and the hood are not original then this tells you that the wreck may have been serious enough that other problems might be hiding elsewhere. Remember however, that just because a car was in a wreck does not mean that it can’t be a good car; it just means that if it wasn’t restored properly then you might have problems in the future.



To tell if a car has been in a flood look at metal pieces on the interior of the vehicle that should have never been exposed to moisture. Things such as seat tracks under the driver’s seat are good. Check for any hint of rust or corrosion on these parts. If you see any there could be a problem. If you a feeling really adventurous you could look at one of the many electrical connectors under the hood. Disconnect it and have a look at the pins. They should be totally dry and free of corrosion. A car that has been in a flood could still be a good car if it’s repaired properly but there is more risk with this kind of a car because it is hard to tell is all of the corrosion has been taken care of. A tiny bit of corrosion in one connector somewhere on the vehicle can cause all kinds of electrical gremlins to come about, and these problems might not manifest themselves for years after the initial incident.

So is it better to go to a dealership or to buy the car from a private individual? This really is not that important. The important thing is the vehicle itself. Many people have been taken advantage of by both private sellers and used car dealers. Private individuals are more likely to rip you off by selling you something that has had the odometer tampered with or the emissions control equipment messed up, but the used car lot is more likely to sell you something that has been cleaned up on the surface but underneath its got problems. Used car lots are also more likely to sell you something for way too much money.

The advantage of the car dealer is that they are a bit more accountable for what they are doing. They run a business and therefore they must have a license which includes a special dealer’s license in most states. They can give you a temporary license for your car the minute you purchase it and they will get your permanent plates for you so you don’t have to hassle with the DMV. They may have a large inventory, and access to more cars if the one that you want isn’t found in their current inventory. In most states dealerships are not allowed to sell a car on the lot that will not pass local emissions and safety inspections. Many of them may sell a warranty of some kind with the vehicle which may come in handy some day. Used car dealers that are part of a new car dealer also may sell certified used cars, or as they like to call them, pre-owned. These are cars that are sold with extended warranties issued by the vehicle manufacturer. These are the best kind of warranties. In order to certify the used car the dealership service department must go through a check list and inspect and replace anything that needs service or might need service soon. For example, if the battery is still good but is over a certain age than it must automatically be replaced before the car is sold.

The biggest advantage of buying a car from a private seller is that they are not selling the car in an effort to make money; they are usually selling the car in order to just get rid of it. This means that many times you can find the best deals by purchasing a car this way. Many of the other conveniences are lost however, and in some situations these conveniences might be worth paying a little extra.

If all of this is still confusing and you still don’t have confidence about going out and finding some new wheels for yourself then there is one more thing that you can do, and perhaps you should do this regardless of your level of confidence. Take the car to a third party expert and have them check it out from top to bottom. Most shops will do this for less than $100. This is a small price to pay if it means that you can buy with confidence. If they find a problem with the car then you can be glad that you didn’t spend the money on something that was on verge of failure, or you can use the new information as ammunition in the negotiation of a lower sale price for the vehicle. Either way you win.

All of the above rules and tips could be followed perfectly and it’s possible that the buyer might still end up with a piece of junk, but that’s life. Nothing every works out perfectly. However, when a person is confident going into a situation it makes the situation mush less uncomfortable and not so scary. Be confident with the purchase of your next car, and not scared. You can find a good car, and ignore all of the junk.

Performance Tuning

If you don’t like the way your car runs then tune it

Most people have heard of tuning a car but most probably don’t know what that even means anymore. Most people, who think they know, probably don’t because the whole concept has changed so dramatically even in recent years. Tuning a car can be compared to tuning a musical instrument. If the goal is to make sweet music on all the right scales then the thing must be tuned according to the rules. Fundamentally, tuning a car means the same thing that it always did, but the means whereby a car is tuned today is completely different from what it used to be.

Tuning a car is not really the same as performing what is commonly referred to as a tune-up. When you take your car to the shop for a tune-up they are usually going to perform a bit of routine maintenance to systems that generally relate to engine function. Things like spark plugs, distributor caps, and other such things get replaced as part of a tune-up. This is fundamental to engine tuning but it’s not tuning.

Tuning involves making changes to the way the various engine performance systems perform their various tasks at the most basic level. In the old days this meant changing things such as carburetors and distributors with different parts to help you get a desired result. If parts were changed then usually they also had to be adjusted. Tuning does not always involve replacing parts; it might just involve adjustments to engine performance systems.

There are many different reasons to tune a car but the one that is most common, and the one that is the most fun is tuning the car to increase performance. Just about every driver out there wishes that they had a little more power. The other thing that some people go for when tuning is higher fuel economy but this is a distant second. Usually tuning is not done to the daily driver or the commuter, this is something that is usually done to the project car, the Sunday driver, or the midlife crisis type car. These are the cars that people like to upgrade in some way so they can be driven fast and their owners can have fun doing it.

Since today’s vehicles are so advanced, there are really no adjustments that can or need to be made anymore. Parts can still be upgraded but once they are bolted on there is not much more that can be done because as far as adjustments are concerned they are all taken care of by the computer that is in charge of controlling the engine and all of its functions. In order to tune the vehicle in any way the computer must be changed in some way.

In the early days of computer controls this involved the changing of the programming within the computer by either replacing the entire computer, or just replacing or reprogramming the read only memory chip inside of the computer. While it’s easy to replace the computer it’s expensive to change hardware that isn’t really bad, just to get a new set of instructions to the engine. Replacing the PROM chip in the computer is easy as well, but if the programming wasn’t exactly right then it meant getting another chip, or taking the chip somewhere to get it programmed. The term “chipping” the car came from the practice of swapping out the PROM chip in the powertrain control module.

A replaceable program chip installed in an old engine control module

Over the past ten years this tuning process or reprogramming process has gotten much simpler. All vehicles built today, now have an engine control computer that can be easily reprogrammed with the proper software installed on a laptop computer. Some companies even make special scan tools that can be cheaply purchased specifically for tuning and reprogramming engine control computers.

This has all come about as a result of a federal mandate from the EPA. Independent auto shops need to have the tools and ability to reprogram engine control computers. According to the feds this is primarily for the purpose of updating software to help cars stay clean and efficient, and reduce air pollution caused by excessive emissions. The EPA mandate is that reprogramming capabilities be standardized in such a way that the aftermarket shops and tool manufacturers can program computers on any car. This means that independent software engineers can more easily crack the code used by each auto company in their engine control computers.

Of course tuning for performance has nothing to do with this EPA mandate, it’s just something that has gotten easier as a result of the action by our government. People out there who are tuning their cars without knowing what they are doing are likely creating situations where their car is polluting much more than it should, but more pollution is not necessarily the result of tuning. Many times when a vehicle with performance modifications is tuned for optimum performance, the tuning will also result in making the car more efficient in every other way. More power quite often goes hand in hand with low emissions levels. This means that an engine can be modified to produce more power, and still have emissions levels at the tailpipe that are very similar to what was there before the changes were made, and the vehicle can still easily comply with county, state, and federal emissions standards.

Tables that make up the basic operating instructions deep within
 the engine control module can be changed

The things that get changed in order to tune the car are things like fuel delivery tables and spark timing schedules, throttle control and other things. This does not mean that more fuel is added to make the car faster; it means that the proper amount of fuel will be added to go with the amount of air that is entering the engine. This air fuel ratio must be within specification in order to make the engine run efficiently. These ratios are essentially the same for high performance engines as they are for stock engines. Automatic transmission shift patterns can also be changed to help optimize the performance of the engine.

As mentioned previously tuning a vehicle with today’s advanced technology should not be attempted by just anyone. If a vehicle is tuned improperly it can lead to anything from terrible fuel economy or high emissions, to major engine damage. Some companies manufacture a device that can be hooked up the vehicle’s datalink connector, and new programming can be up loaded into the engine control computer. These programs are pre set and cannot be changed or altered in a way that would be detrimental to the vehicle. This is a simple way to tune but it might not do exactly what you want, or exactly what needs to be done. If anything custom needs to be done to properly tune the vehicle then a more complex process will be involved. Many different companies out there can teach you to custom tune a vehicle for performance but one of the very best is The Tuning School.

Based out of Florida, The Tuning School offers easy to learn curriculum that allows the eager student to learn how to properly tune modern vehicles using such programs as HP tuners or SCT, both of which are leading tuner programs that are on the market. The thing that makes The Tuning School great is that they offer DIY courses that can be done at home, and they also offer courses in different places around that country, that take the form of a two day seminar with hands-on training. These seminars happen at places where modern chassis dynamometers are used to run the vehicles being tuned in a controlled and safe environment. Using a chassis dynamometer is the best way to run the vehicle because as mentioned it is safe, legal, and the dyno can measure things such as horsepower and torque to help track tuning changes. Tuning can be even more fun when you have received instruction to help you do it properly. For more information on The Tuning School, check out their website: www.thetuningschool.com

Hot Bags of Gas

Cars are getting safer, technology is the reason

Despite the fact that many people die in automobile accidents every year, the modern auto is much safer now than it has ever been. In a study released by the U.S. Department of Transportation, 2010 saw the lowest death toll on U.S. highways since Harry Truman was in office. 2010 saw 1.09 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This is the lowest this statistic has been since 1949 when the Department of Transportation first began to compile such data. This stat is especially significant if you consider that every year Americans travel more and more miles in more and more vehicles.

The reasons for this good news are varied. People pay more attention to safety then they used to. Seat belt use is the norm. The parent who fails to buckle their kid into a car seat is viewed as neglectful, and kids are no longer the seat surfers that they once were. People think about things such as distracted driving, drunk driving, and drowsy driving much more than they used to. Perhaps the biggest reason for this decline in traffic deaths is the abundant technology that is now incorporated into the modern automobile for the purpose of making them safe.

Consider the following video. This was produced by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. They are the people that do all of the crash testing and safety scoring of each vehicle sold in the U.S. In this video they run a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air into a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu. The results are startling.

A popular misconception is that the old vehicles were safe because they were heavy, and solid, and made of steel, not plastic. This is not true as this crash test clearly shows. People who used to get in a wreck while riding in an old car used to get decapitated on the steering wheel, and get their bodies smashed to bits slamming into a steel dash.

Modern vehicles have things like crumple zones. These are areas of the body and chassis that are meant to absorb the impact instead of passing it through the vehicle into the passenger compartment. New cars are built so that if a head on collision is serious enough to break the engine loose form its mounts, it will actually dive under the vehicle instead of ending up in the laps of the front seat passengers.

Modern cars have all sorts of electronic safety measures built in. Anti-lock brakes allow the driver to steer under maximum braking. Anti-skid control is now so advanced that it can take control of the accelerator away from the driver, and also take brake control away from the driver in order to counteract steering inputs, and get the vehicle going straight down the road again. Cars are even smart enough to tell if you are wandering in your lane. They can also see a sudden stop of the vehicle in front of you and begin to apply the brakes before you do.

All of these things are passive; they require no action on the part of the driver and will just do their thing whenever necessary. Of all of the passive safety systems, the one that is perhaps the most controversial, but maybe the most effective, is the supplemental restraint system (SRS). This is the system that controls the airbags. The controversy centers on the fact that an airbag going off in your face is a scary thought. Many people have been in a wreck, had an airbag deploy in there face, and came away with a bloody nose, minor burns, or abrasions. This is nothing compared to a fractured skull and massive concussion from hitting the dash. In a few incidents children have been hurt by airbags but in every case the child was in the front seat, not restrained at all, or sitting in rear facing child seat. These are all primarily the fault of the adult driving the car, and in some cases the child probably would have been launched through the windshield anyway.

So what makes the airbag work? The controls and actuators essentially boil down to a computer controlled, pyrotechnic device that burns a propellant and inflates a bag with nitrogen gas if the vehicle is involved in a wreck at 15 mph or faster. This small explosion is hot and powerful but very effective. Some types of airbags will use a pyrotechnic charge to release a canister of highly compressed gas to inflate the airbag. The typical inflation time for an airbag is about 30 milliseconds (1000 milliseconds in one second). In less than half a second the airbag deploys and is already beginning to deflate. White smoke can usually be seen after airbag deployment, this smoke is essentially sodium carbonate which is totally harmless. This powder protects the airbag while it remains packed into the assembly over the years.

The airbag must be triggered by two different sensors in order to deploy. Typically these sensors are mounted in the front corners of the vehicle to deploy the driver and passenger airbag, and in the B pillar to deploy side airbags. The SRS control unit which is usually mounted in the center of the vehicle near the floor also may contain a sensor that can sense the rapid deceleration that occurs with a major impact.

Airbag sensor

Besides the driver and passenger airbag which became mandatory starting in the 1994 model year, vehicles now must also have side airbags that come out of the seats or the doors to protect occupants in the event of a side impact. New cars also have side curtain air bags which pop out of the roof liner to protect the occupants head and shoulders from slamming into the windows, doors, and side pillars. Some vehicles also have knee airbags that come out of the lower part of the dash, center airbags for rear seat passengers, or even shoulder strap airbags that come out of the seat belt itself.

SRS systems on the most modern cars are more intelligent that the airbags that were mandated back in the mid 90’s. Before an airbag will deploy in will look at things such as the position of the seat to determine how the airbag should be deployed. If the driver is sitting very close to the steering wheel like your grandma does, then it will deploy the airbag with less force. If there is a short person sitting the passenger seat it will deploy the airbag with less force, because it can sense how tall the person is. If a small child is sitting in the passenger seat and seat belt is buckled it will deploy the air bag with less force. If there is a child in the passenger seat and the seat belt is not buckled it will automatically turn off the airbag.

Plenty of airbags to go around

This system that is so intelligent is known as the occupant classification system (OCS). The system uses strain gauges built into the seat mounts, or something similar, to weigh the passenger. It also uses sensors on the seat track to see how close the seat is to the dash. The system incorporates special antennae in the seat cushion and seat back to classify the height of the passenger, and determine the position of the passenger in the seat. If the passenger is leaning against the window taking a snooze the system will see this and it will disable the side impact airbag. Indicator lights on the dash will tell the occupants of the vehicle which airbags might be disabled in certain situations. Pickup trucks have an off switch on the dash that allows the passenger airbag to be completely turned off. This allows kids to be buckled safely into the passenger seat and it also allows the use a rear facing child seats.

Devices known as seat belt pretensioners are also controlled by the airbag system. These devices are found in the shoulder strap retractors or in the seat belt buckles. They are there to tighten the seat belts against the occupants to more firmly restrain them in their seats. These pretensioners use a much smaller explosive charge to accomplish this task very quickly.

The SRS system is continuously monitored by the computer that controls everything. When there is a failure or break-down in the system that might cause the airbags to fail to deploy, the control unit will illuminate the airbag or SRS light. This alerts the driver that the system has a fault and ought to be checked out by a qualified technician. The technician will be able to interface with the SRS control unit and find out what the problem might be.

Cars are probably not as safe as they can be but they are much safer than what the used to be. Supplemental restraint systems are a large part of the reason for the increased safety. Despite the controversy, airbags have proven to be safe when they are used correctly. The future of auto safety is hard to predict. The devices of the future are likely just things that we haven’t thought of yet. Considering the downward trend of deaths from traffic accidents cars are likely to only get safer.

Needles and Scales

Back in the old days the instrument cluster on the average vehicle was much easier to understand. The main reason for this is that cars were simpler. You might instead say that back in the old days cars weren't very smart. Today cars are both more complicated and much more intelligent. Gauges are no longer displaying a value based on a sending unit attached to the gauge. All gauges are now computer controlled and the computer receives the info that it commands the gauge to display from all sorts of different places. Not very many people really understand what all of the needles and scales refer to when they go sweeping back and forth. Some might have an idea but they don’t really understand all of the implications of each gauge.

Most likely the speedometer and the fuel gauge require no explanation. There was a brief period when a few manufacturers got rid of all gauges except these two because they figured that nobody cared about the others. The thinking was that lights could be used to alert the driver if a major problem was imminent but it wouldn’t show the driver how bad, it would just turn on a light. Perhaps this is true for some drivers but not for all so most cars and trucks again have more than just these two.

170 mph...I don't think so!

If your car dies and will not restart, take a glance at the fuel gauge. If the needle is pointing to the E, go ahead and put some gas in the car before you have it towed to the shop for repairs. More than once a distraught car owner had their car towed into the shop as a no start and it was just out of gas. Even if the gauge is not all the way on the E, it might still be out of gas because none of the gauges in the instrument cluster are totally accurate all of the time. Speedometers are usually only accurate within a few miles per hour, and the faster the vehicle is traveling to more inaccurate the speedometer may become. Some speedometers will show a top speed on the scale of something that is really unrealistic. The highest number on the speedometer has nothing to do with the vehicles top speed.

A special fuel gauge for people who drive a car that's a gas hog.

The tachometer is the gauge that tells you how fast the engine is turning. At idle the gauge will usually read around 600 or 700 revolutions per minute (RPM), and when driving down the road it will read whatever speed the engine is turning. Towards the top of the scale there may be an area that is colored red. The area of the scale where this red coloring starts is referred to as the engine “red line”. The red line is where the engine is turning too fast for its own good and may suffer some kind of damage if it remains at red line for too long. Usually there is never any reason to run an engine so fast because by the time it reaches red line it’s no longer producing any more power, and the vehicle won’t usually continue to accelerate, unless the transmission can shift into a higher gear and the RPMs drop back down into the range where torque can be further multiplied. Generally speaking, when driving the vehicle, the lower you keep the RPMs the better fuel economy you will have, as long as you don’t let them get too low.

A red line of 8500 RPMs is very high. This must come from a performance car.
I think the 138 MPH confirms it.

A coolant temperature gauge is found on almost all vehicles. This gauge tells the driver how hot the engine is. Many times, this gauge will not have any numbers or delineations of any kind, or it may just have a C at one end and an H at the other. Whether it has numbers on it or not, the driver of the vehicle should remember where the needle usually sits because if the needle moves up it means the engine is getting hotter. Running an engine too hot will cause serious damage. Many temperature gauges will have an area near the top of the scale that is red. Never let the needle get into the red, and if you can help it never let the needle get anywhere near the red. Pull over and watch the gauge with the engine idling. If the gauge continues to climb shut the engine off and let it cool down. Just for reference, and incase your gauge does have numbers on it, the engine temperature should be between 190° and 200°. If it gets as hot as 220° that can still be acceptable. If it gets above 230° it would be time to get nervous. If the gauge needle hardly moves off of the lowest point even after the vehicle has been running for some time, there might be a problem with over cooling. This can cause a lack of power and poor fuel economy. Ideally the temp gauge should never move once the engine is warmed up.

The oil pressure gauge is one that is commonly found on trucks and performance cars. This shows the oil pressure on the main oil galleries deep inside the engine. Oil pressure must always remain at a level that will allow the crankshaft to be properly lubricated in its bearings. This gauge usually just has a normal range in which it should operate. The rule of thumb for oil pressure is a minimum of 10 psi for every 1000 RPM. When the engine is cold the pressure will always be at the high end of normal. Once the engine gets hot the pressure will be high when the engine is running at high RPM and low when the engine is running more slowly, but it should always stay in the normal range. If oil pressure drops too low engine damage will occur, especially if the oil pressure drops low while the engine is turning quickly or under a heavy load. If all oil pressure is lost pull over immediately and turn the engine off.

The last gauge that is common is the volt gauge or battery gauge. This gauge displays what the voltage is in the electrical system with the engine off, and with the engine running. The scale will usually just show a “normal” range rather than numbers. Regular electrical system voltage when the engine is running is anywhere between 13.5 to 14.5 volts. The needle should usually stay in the normal range but will usually be lower when at idle and will go up when the engine accelerates. Movements of the needle should not be too drastic however. If the gauge falls considerably when the engine is running this can be a problem and could eventually cause the engine to stall. If electrical system voltage falls too low then there is not enough electricity to run the fuel pump.

Old cars and trucks had an ammeter instead of a voltmeter. Because of the way the ammeter functions it’s easier to hook up a voltmeter on modern cars. Both gauges give an idea as to how the alternator is functioning, and whether or not it is charging the battery and providing power for all of the electrical systems while the engine is running, but the voltmeter will even work when the engine is not running. When the key is first turned on the voltmeter still shows how much voltage is in the electrical system but it only showing voltage from the battery and not from the alternator. A fully charged car battery should have 12.6 volts, but with the battery installed in the vehicle and the key turned on, the battery ought to have somewhere between 11 and 12 volts.

Oil pressure, oil temperature, coolant temperature, and fuel level.

 Some other gauges that you might find on a vehicle would be an engine oil temperature gauge. This is another way of monitoring engine temperature. A transmission temperature gauge is somewhat common. This is to show how hot the transmission is, and is usually found on things like big pickup trucks that may do a lot of towing. Vehicles with a forced induction system such as a turbo charger may be equipped with a boost gauge. This gauge displays how much pressure is building up in the intake manifold. The more boost, the more the turbo is working.

Because everything on the vehicle is computer controlled, including the instrument cluster, and because the vehicle shares so much information back and forth between all of the different computers on the network, some vehicles have customizable displays that can show many different types of gauges. Computers such as the engine control module receive all kinds of information from various sensors and inputs. This control unit also performs many calculations related to vehicle function. The computer that controls instrumentation can easily pull all of this info off of the network to display it for the driver. Even though most gauges have an analog needle that points to numbers or ranges on some kind of scale or dial, they are still digital gauges because the controls are digital.

Numbers and pointers mean things. The things that these gauges display are important. Every driver out there should be able to read and comprehend all of the gauges on the cars that they drive. Not only should the driver be able to read the gauges but they should also watch them constantly as they are driving. A simple part such as a $10 thermostat can destroy an engine by allowing it overheat. If the driver of the vehicle sees the temperature go up and takes action to prevent over heating, then all they have to pay for is a thermostat rather then pay for a new engine.

Mind Your Binders

Don't let your brakes break 

Many different vehicle systems could be classified as important, but there is only one system that gets used all of the time and if it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed too only one time, serious property damage and injury is guaranteed to result. This system is the braking system. Think about how many times you have applied the brakes of your car as you are barreling off of the freeway heading straight towards another car, a pedestrian, or a concrete wall, and your 2 or 3 ton instrument of death and destruction stops effortlessly. The amount of dynamic inertia contained in the movement of the mass of your vehicle is tremendous but you are so used to the brakes working without even thinking about it, that it’s no big deal.

So what’s happening when you step on that pedal? Brakes are nothing more than energy converters. The vehicle moving through space is nothing more then kinetic energy, energy in motion. In order for the vehicle to stop we cannot simply take away the energy or destroy it, we have to convert it into something else which would be another form of energy. The easiest thing to convert the kinetic energy into is heat. To convert the energy into heat we take advantage of friction between the rotating wheels and the material that makes up the brake pads or shoes. These brake components get hot and then the heat is dissipated into the air surrounding the brakes.

Sometimes when the brakes get overused they loose the ability to convert the kinetic energy in to heat energy. This is called brake fade. When the brakes get too hot, the coefficient of friction between the brake pads and the brake rotors is decreased. If the components of the braking system do not dissipate the heat, then they cannot convert any more energy into heat, if this conversion does not take place then deceleration of the vehicle does not take place, or at least it does not take place as much as it should. This is the reason that big trucks take their time when driving down a steep canyon road. These trucks are so heavy that they have an enormous amount of kinetic energy so they use engine braking to keep their speed in check, because they are very susceptible to brake fade.

So how is the force of your little foot enough force to bring a 6000 lb. land yacht to halt? Several different things are in place that makes this possible. First of all a good old fashioned lever is attached to the brake pedal. When you push on the pedal you are pushing on one end of a lever. On the other end of the lever there is a mechanism called a brake booster. The brake booster uses vacuum force from the engine, or hydraulic power from the power steering pump to help the brake pedal lever exert force on a hydraulic piston inside of the master cylinder. The master cylinder is where we find the brake fluid that flows through a closed system to each one of the wheels.

An old dead scientist by the name of Blaise Pascal discovered that mechanical advantage could be gained when a small diameter piston pushes fluid through a closed circuit and pushes against a larger piston. This means that the small piston in the master cylinder can move a few inches and the pistons at the brake calipers increase that force greatly as they push against the pads. This concept is similar to the way torque is multiplied when a small gear turns a larger gear. The large gear turns with more force but it turns slowly. In the case of a hydraulic circuit, the small piston moves a longer distance than the large piston, but the large piston exerts tremendous force.

A brake master cylinder attached to a brake booster

On the other side of the large piston are the brake pads. The brake pads are pressed into the discs or rotors at the center of the wheels. In the case of drum brakes the piston or actuator that is located at the wheel is much smaller then the piston used for disc brake assemblies. The moveable friction units that are used with drum brakes are called brake shoes. When the shoes are acted upon by the hydraulic piston, or wheel cylinder as its called, they expand outward, away from each other and press with great force into the inside of the brake drum. So in the case of disc brakes the pads grab the rotors, and in the case of drum brakes the shoes push outward against the inside of the drums. This is so simple and so reliable that people never think about this action whenever they mash that wide pedal on the left to throw on the skids.

In order to meet safety standards all cars and trucks must have disc brakes in the front. Disc brakes aren’t necessarily more powerful than drum brakes but they are much more resistant to fading, and the application is more consistently smooth. Since the front brakes do the majority of the heat conversion that brings the vehicle to a stop, it is important that they be up to the task. Many vehicles will have disc brakes on the rear axle as well. These disc brakes will always have smaller pads and rotors than the disc brakes that are on the front of the vehicle. Drum brakes are not as common as they used to be but they are still common enough. Drum brakes are only found on the rear axle of cars and trucks and are usually used on lower end vehicles. These would be cars and trucks that are more entry level or less expensive. Usually disc brakes on the rear of a vehicle would be 

considered an upgrade.

Brakes don’t require a tremendous amount of maintenance, but brake pads and rotors are perhaps the most common wear and tear items anywhere on the vehicle. Front brake pads can wear out under normal usage in as quickly as 25,000 miles. Rear brake pads or shoes will usually last 2 or 3 times as long as the front brake pads, because the rear brakes provide less of the stopping force. The speed at which the brakes will wear out depends on the habits of the driver and the conditions under which the vehicle is driven. If the driver lives at the top of a canyon and drives down the canyon everyday to go to work, they are probably going to have to replace the pads on a more frequent basis.

Replacing break pads and shoes is very simple and doesn’t require much in the way of special tools. When selecting new pads at the parts store many different options exist. These options are based on the composition of the friction material used on the pads. The three most common materials can be classified as semi-metallic, organic, or ceramic. Each one of these materials has different qualities that affect performance. Typically the ceramic pads are the best all around brake pad, but of course that means that they are also the most expensive.

Brake pads

Should the brake rotors be machined or replaced every time the pads are replaced? The answer to that is technically no. If the rotors are not machined to remove any warpage, or replaced with new ones when the pads are replaced, the brakes will still work fine. The problem is that many times the pads will not break in properly and they may begin to vibrate in the calipers when the brakes are applied. This will lead to a squealing noise. The other thing that may happen is the rotors may have a tendency to become warped. Warpage usually occurs when the brakes are overheated, and when this happens is causes a vibration in the pedal and a shimmy in the steering wheel when the brakes are applied. Mounting the rotors on a lathe and cutting them so they turn true, used to be the most common way to service the rotors. Most shops it seems now just recommend replacing the rotors. This is not a bad policy because it more often results in trouble free brakes on the customer’s car in the future. Sometime the cost of machining the rotors and cleaning them up is the same as the cost of replacement rotors.

A few other things related to the brake system that require periodic maintenance are things such as brake fluid, brake shoe adjustment, and parking brake adjustment. Brake fluid typically should be replaced about every three years. On 99.9% percent of the vehicles out there the brake fluid has probably never been replaced because it is one of the most forgotten and neglected fluids on the automobile. The reason that the service of brake fluid depends more on time rather than miles is because one of the jobs of the brake fluid is to absorb moisture. This will occur whether the vehicle is driven or not. If the brake fluid becomes saturated with moisture it causes the boiling point of the fluid to decrease substantially. If the boiling point gets low enough it will boil when the brakes get hot and the vapors in the brake lines will compress rather than transmit force. This will cause failure of the brakes. Moisture is also corrosive to the brake components, and corrosion can also lead to brake failure.

A blown out caliper piston caused by brake pads wearing out and grinding metal on metal.

A few adjustments still remain as far as the braking system is concerned. Even though drum brake assemblies have been fitted with automatic self adjusters for the last 30 years or so, they still benefit from routine adjustment. The automatic adjusters just keep the shoes somewhat adjusted. The shoes in the drum brake assembly need to ride very close to the drums to ensure proper application. If they are not adjusted then the drum brakes will not take their share of the stopping duties. This can lead to premature wear of the front brakes or even brake fade. The parking brake can still be adjusted on all vehicles as well. This may be a matter of adjusting the parking brake shoes (these are part of a separate braking mechanism at the rear wheels of some cars), or adjusting the cable. If you apply the parking brake and it will not hold the vehicle, or even if the lever has to move to far in order to apply the brake, it might be out of adjustment.

One more thing to look for is the brake warning light. This is not the ABS light, which is something different. The brake warning light comes on for one of three reasons. The parking brake is left on, the brake fluid in the master cylinder reservoir is low, or there is a failure in the hydraulic system. If the light comes on and you have a hydraulic failure, the pedal will feel very spongy and may sink to the floor. This is very bad, get your brakes looked at right away. If you have left the parking brake engaged than you can easily remedy that situation. If the light is on, and the previous two scenarios don’t seem to fit, then it is likely your brake fluid is low. Do not top it off. Brake fluid does not get consumed or run out. If the fluid is low it is likely that your brake pads are worn out and require replacement. As the pads wear thin, the pistons in the brake calipers move out from the housing. The space behind the pistons fills with fluid. This fluid comes from the reservoir, which causes the level in the reservoir to go down.

Pay attention to your brakes. If they don’t feel right they aren’t right. If you hear grinding, or any other noise that is abnormal, don’t delay, get your brakes checked. Many people wait way too long to check their brakes. Some minor squealing and chirping is normal for disc brakes, but if you are not sure then it’s best to have them checked. The best thing that results from such neglect is a much higher repair bill because worn out parts damage other parts. The worst thing that results is serious damage to property and person. No excuses are valid for neglecting your braking system. If they fail you not only hurt yourself but you could hurt others.

Be Nice to Your Mechanic

To help you understand a few things about your personal automotive technician

A few things that everyone should remember when they take their car to the repair shop. This post is written for the benefit of the customer, and in defense of the technician and the things that they are trying to do, in order to do a good job and make a decent living. Some things are small such as, not taking your car to the repair shop to have a poor running condition diagnosed and the fuel gauge is on empty. How are they supposed to test drive your car and diagnose it when it’s about to run out of gas? Other things are much bigger, but all of them are things that will help the customer to make the mechanic’s job a little easier.

Even though the automobile is a man made machine, the service and repair thereof is not an exact science. Even technicians that are smart and work very hard at what they do, are not clairvoyant, and cannot predict everything, nor catch every problem. Sometimes a problem will require more than one visit, though this should be rare, it does happen. Why is it that people will pay a doctor $6,000 four different times to fix the exact same problem, and not bat an eye, but if the brake pads their auto mechanic put on the car 6 weeks ago are now making a squeaking noise, it’s because the mechanic must be some kind of fool or perhaps incompetent.

Customers should understand that nothing is free. Diagnosis of today’s complex automotive systems takes time. If you are told that it will cost $200 dollars to diagnose your problem then that’s because it takes time. Time is the only thing that the technician has to give, and they should not be expected to give it away for free. When some shops advertise free services, most of the time the shop owners expect the technician to take it on the chin and do something for free with the chance of maybe up-selling something along the way. The problem with freebies is that they attract people who will never buy anything and only want something free whether it’s really needed or not. Also, the more freebies people are given the more freebies they will expect in the future. So if you take your car to some place expecting not to pay for some quick check or service, don’t expect to get anything useful out of it, just expect that it will end with a sales pitch. Take your car to shops that charge an honest fee for an honest service. If they happen to top off your washer fluid for free, consider yourself lucky because nothing in life should be free, not even washer fluid.

Many times when you take your car to the mechanic to get something diagnosed it can be a shock to find out that your vehicle has suffered some kind of massive failure. Maybe the failure is not huge but perhaps your mechanic finds all sorts of other problems with your vehicle, either way it’s going to take a huge chunk of change to get the thing back to tip top. If you want to get a second opinion that’s perfectly fine, but don’t just assume that the mechanic is trying to take you to the cleaners just because they say your car has problems. Do not take anything personal if your mechanic says your car is falling apart.

Cars are just big expensive machines that do nothing but wear out. From the moment you drive it off of the dealership lot it begins to wear out. Never ask your mechanic to just patch the problem. If you don’t have the money to fix the car properly then maybe you need to start walking. When you ask the technician to only halfway perform a repair you are asking them to take a tremendous amount of liability upon their shoulders. This is not fair to them, and it’s not safe for you to drive a car in such a state.

Auto repair shops calculate labor costs and technician pay according to what they refer to as a flat rate system. This means that if the labor estimating guide says that it takes two hours to replace the water pump in your car, then you are going to get charged two hours worth of labor. The good thing about flat rate is that is protects to customer from slow or lazy technicians because the tech will get paid two hours worth of time at their hourly rate to complete the job, regardless of how long it actually takes. If it takes the technician 3 hours to complete the task, then they still charge the customer two hours and the technician still gets paid for two hours. However, if the technician can complete the job in 1 hour, they still get paid for two, and the customer still has to pay for two. Don’t think that just because you the customer are paying for five hours worth of work, and they finish the job in two, that they are ripping you off. This is the way that charges stay consistent, and the way that a good technician makes money.

Shops also mark up parts. When they purchase parts from the same parts stores that the customer’s could get parts from on their own, they usually get the parts at a wholesale price and then, they mark up the price when they sell them to you. Many shops will even pay a small commission to the mechanic for every part that they install. Sometimes people will try to bring in their own parts to save money and they get upset when the shop says that they won’t install them. This is the same as bringing your own unpopped popcorn to a movie theater and expecting theater personnel to pop it in their machine and serve it too you. The other problem with installing customer supplied parts is that the quality or integrity of the part cannot be backed up. If there is a part failure after the part is installed, who is responsible for paying the labor to install a second one?

 

Auto repair is not something that you want to wait around for. If you are just getting your oil changed then it’s not big deal to wait, but if major services or repairs are being performed don’t wait around for it. This puts undue pressure on the service writer and technician. Many times the technician might have to skip a well deserved lunch break just because they feel like they need to get your car finished quickly. Nobody likes to have someone hovering over them when they work, even if you are not actually hovering.

One more thing, don’t give the technician the valet key to use while they are working on your car. For one thing they might need to get into your trunk or into the glove box as part of the service or repair process, and the valet key is only good for unlocking the driver’s door and starting the car. The other thing is that you cannot keep them out of these areas anyway because they can always find a way in if they are looking for something to steal. At a dealership all they have to do is go to the parts department with your VIN and they can cut a new key in minutes. If all they have is the valet key then it’s very annoying, and a waste of their time and yours, if they have to find some other way around.

Remember these few things and you will be happier, your mechanic will be happier and your car will always be repaired to the best of the ability of the professionals that you have entrusted your vehicle to.

Know a Good Mechanic?

A few things to look out for when picking a technician, in defense of the consumer.

If you do, it can really make your life seem peaceful and make the universe seem more balanced. If you don’t, then nothing but pain and despair result anytime there is a problem with your car. Why is it so hard to find a good mechanic? Why does it seem like so many automotive technicians are trying to rip you off? Why is the auto repair industry so messed up? Many reasons can be cited as to why things are the way they are in the auto repair industry.

The biggest problem in the auto repair industry is that most auto mechanics don’t really know what they are doing as often as they should. Many mechanics know something about most things, but they lack understanding of the fundamental operation of most vehicle systems. If the general public knew how truly clueless most technicians really are they would be 10 times more afraid then they already are, every time the check engine light comes on. Most technicians have no formal education so they not only lack all of the mechanical know how, but many of them lack the necessary skills to even properly document everything that they are doing to service and repair customer’s vehicles. Many mechanics with years of experience, but no formal education, are very good at what they do. But, you show me an old mechanic that made it good with no education, and I’ll show you a mechanic who took longer to get good at what they do then was necessary.

So why is it that shops will employ such uneducated individuals, and allow them to do things like fix the brakes on someone’s 3 ton land missile? Part of the fault lies with service managers who themselves may not know as much as they should. Many service managers have backgrounds in sales and customer service and know nothing about the automobile. Part of the blame lies with the general public. The reason that the consumer bears some of the blame is due to the fact that many people shop price when trying to figure out where to get their vehicle serviced, rather than shopping for quality of the work. You get what you pay for. Is there ever a time when this is not true?

Technicians that are very highly skilled, work quickly and efficiently, and without making mistakes, are the ones that make the most money. Shops that employ these kinds of technicians are almost guaranteed to charge more because they have to cover the extra cost of paying such a technician. The customer is going to pay this extra cost, but they are going to get a better product. That product is a car that is repaired right the first time, in a quick and convenient manner. How much is this peace of mind worth? If the public would demand more quality by not settling for the cheapest shop then they would get more quality.

Is there any way for the average consumer to know if the technicians that work at a particular shop are any good? One way is to seek out technicians that are certified through the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). A technician that is ASE certified has met the proper requirements for experience in the industry, and has taken the time and effort to pass any one of the many ASE exams. The typical automotive technician can become certified in 8 fundamental areas under ASE. These areas cover things such as braking systems, steering and suspension systems, engines, air conditioning, and engine performance. Once they obtain certification in the 8 areas they claim the title of Master Technician. Beyond that they may certify as an advanced level specialist in things such as engine performance or alternative fuel systems.

Being ASE certified does not guarantee that a technician will be perfect, but it does mean that they care enough to take the time to maintain some kind of standard in an industry that is completely void of any standards. When asking about ASE certification, make sure that their credentials are up to date since the certification must be renewed every 5 years. Any technician who values their certification will be happy to show it to any customer. All of the major auto manufacturers push for the technicians at their dealerships to become ASE certified. If the public would demand standards within the auto repair industry then more shops would demand that their technicians become certified. Since ASE certification is completely voluntary, it’s up to the public to push for it.

So why do automotive technician’s seem so dishonest so much of the time? Calling them dishonest is not really accurate. Some will make up a story to cover a misdiagnosis by telling you that the muffler bearing wore out because the transmission dongle was seized. Some are just very dishonest, but most of them are just very bad at communicating. If a technician fails to adequately communicate the condition of the customer’s vehicle, or the nature of the repair, then it leaves the customer to second guess what it is exactly that they are paying for. The technician must also follow through with good advice for the customer regarding any other possibilities for the future of the vehicle. Example: If the technician replaces a fuel filter while doing some routine maintenance, and finds it very plugged, they need to tell the customer that the possibility exists that the fuel pump could be damaged and may go bad in the next 4 to 8 weeks, or maybe not. If they don’t tell the customer this bit of information, the pump will fail, and the car will come back to the shop on a hook (tow truck) with the customer screaming that they just had there car in the shop, now it’s broken, and they want it fixed for free. If the customer knows about this possibility of failure up front, when the fuel pump fails, the customer will say to themselves that they knew this might happen and they will take the car back to the shop and happily pay for the prophetic mechanic to now replace the pump. If the pump never fails, then that's okay too.

A few more things to think about. A shop that is good shop is also a shop that is clean and tidy. No reason exists to justify any shop being a complete pig sty. This doesn’t mean that the paint on the walls must be fresh and everything must be shimmering white, but there is no excuse for a floor that is not swept or for tools that are scattered on the floor. If the technicians or shop managers don’t look after their own stuff then what makes you think that they will look after yours.

Finding a good technician is difficult. If you do find one then never let them get away. Considering how much we rely on our cars each day, a good mechanic can make life much easier.

The next post will be for the benefit of the mechanic things for you to consider on their behalf.