Car Care 104
Routine Car Maintenance You Don’t Want to Skip
Your car is running fine, right? Mileage is what it’s always been, there’s no funny noise from underneath, no inscrutable icons lit up on your dashboard. So I can skip routine car maintenance right? It’s easy to get blasé about keeping up with routine car maintenance when all seems well. Modern cars are far more reliable […]
Do You Really Need a Tune Up?
Modern cars—and that includes pretty much everything since 1996—simply don’t need a traditional tune up. It’s an obsolete term. Having said that, your vehicle still needs regular maintenance just as badly, and almost as regularly, as your parents’ cars did. It’s just that a “tune up” isn’t what’s needed. Well, you may well ask, what is […]
How to Find Your VIN
Check out this video from NHTSA, as shared with us by the Auto Care Association. Your car or truck’s 17-character VIN (vehicle identification number) is unique to your vehicle, and it will indicate whether yours is subject to a recall. The VIN number may be found on the bottom of your windshield’s glass, on […]
5 Unnecessary Car Maintenance Items You Can Skip
Regular preventative car maintenance is virtually always cheaper in the long run than episodic repairs. Write that down somewhere, because there will be a test later. The service writer at your dealership or garage should always be advising you about what maintenance is needed (if not, check for yours here), and generally, it’s best practice […]
How to Extend The Life of Your Car Lights and Wipers
This is really mostly about being able to see properly, and be seen when it’s raining or dark or both, isn’t it? We generally manage just fine on nice sunny days, but when it’s wet or dark out, there’s that instinctive reaction to squeeze the steering wheel a little tighter, lean a little forward, squint, and […]
Six Ways to Extend Your Car Battery Life
Baby, it’s cold outside. Cold enough that the starter motor on your car groans instead of sings. Cold enough that you’re starting to worry that you might just not get to work some morning without a jump. A few simple things may allow you to extend your car battery life considerably, however. Bear in mind […]
Car Exhaust System Maintenance Tips
Exhaust systems are pretty long-lasting nowadays. A generation ago, exhaust pipes and mufflers were made of inexpensive aluminum-coated steel. After a few years they would rust out, leaving you with a loud exhaust and the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. Ultimately, these car exhaust systems would rust out from the inside, for the most part. How […]
5 Car Dashboard Warning Lights You Can’t Ignore
Too much month left at the end of your money? It’s a good thing the car has been as reliable as a brick, eh? Until, of course, it isn’t. Preventive maintenance, like oil changes, tire rotations and even major expenses, like timing belt replacements, can be planned in advance and budgeted for. But there are some […]
How Often Do You Need to Change Your Air Filter?
Your car or truck burns around 12,000 gallons of air for every gallon of gasoline it burns, according to the Filter Manufacturers Council. How often should we change the air filter on our vehicle. Do that math—if your vehicle gets 20 MPG, that’s 240,000 gallons of air for every mile you drive. Why do we […]
How Often Do You Need to Rotate Your Tires?
Wait (you say), I thought all my tires rotated all the time? Isn’t that what tires do? You know, rotate? Silly as that sounds, a lot of drivers don’t really know what’s involved in a tire rotation. It’s simple enough, though; because tires don’t all wear in the same places or at the same rate, […]
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