Let the Manual Be Your Guide

Believe it or not, the owner’s manual that comes with your vehicle actually contains a great deal of useful information. Many times people skip the instruction book that comes with whatever cool new thing they have bought, but in the case of the owner’s manual for your car, it is well worth your time spending a few moments studying the information found in its pages.

You might not need to read the instructions on how to start your car, or how to buckle your seat belt (those things are actually outlined in great detail), but you should definitely study the chapters pertaining to vehicle maintenance. This is the best way to determine what services are required and when. Every owner’s manual will have a maintenance schedule that will tell when you need to have certain preventative maintenance services performed.

These are things like oil changes and tire rotations. Any service that is recommended based on mileage or time is necessary just to help prevent any future problems or to stave off undue wear and tear. Common services that are always found in the owner’s manual are things like oil changes, and tire rotations, as mentioned above; but also things like air filter replacement, spark plug replacement, coolant service, transmission service, brake inspection, and all sorts of other things.

Many manufacturers will show two different maintenance schedules in the owner’s manual, “normal”, and “severe.” The difference between the two is that severe calls for more service at more frequent intervals. The one that you should follow depends on how and where you drive your vehicle. The following is a description of severe driving conditions according to the owner’s manual in a 2005 Honda Civic.

• Driving less than 5 miles (8 km) per trip or, in freezing temperatures, driving less than 10 miles (16 km) per trip.
• Driving in extremely hot [over 90°F (32°C)] conditions.
• Extensive idling or long periods of stop-and-go driving, such as a taxi or a commercial delivery vehicle.
• Driving with a roof rack, or driving in mountainous conditions.
• Driving on muddy, dusty, or deiced roads.

If you drive in any of these conditions then you drive your vehicle under severe conditions. This of course is silly because anybody who drives any car anywhere is likely to be severe. Maybe a little old lady, who lives in San Diego and only drives her car twice a week for 10 to 15 miles at a time, can be considered normal.

An example of a service schedule from an owner's manual.

The reason for this nonsense is to make the cost of maintenance seem cheaper for the car shopper that is doing their homework. Most people think that they are normal and if they are calculating the total cost of ownership, they will figure maintenance costs according to the normal schedule.

Knowing the maintenance schedule for your vehicle is helpful because if you take your car in for an oil change and they try to tell you that you should have something else serviced, you will have an idea if what they are telling you is true or not. Knowledge is power.

If you are not sure when to replace a filter or if your car even
has a particular filter check the owner's manual first.

Not everything that your car will ever need is outlined in the maintenance schedule. Sometimes your mechanic will recommend something that is not listed, and they may tell you that it is part of routine maintenance. A good example of this is fuel filter replacement. Cars that have one of these almost never have a recommendation for replacement, but it is almost always a good idea to service it regularly.

Arm yourself with information from the owner’s manual and your car will last longer, and you will be more educated when you take it to the shop. This is the best guide that you have and the information will help you take care of this machine that you rely on so much.

GREAT FIERY VOLTS!!!

So now the Chevy Volt is catching fire. This is not to say that the Volt is experiencing a dramatic increase in popularity and sales are through the roof because they certainly are not. What I am saying here is that the Volt has gone up in literal flames a few times after being wrecked. So far this seems like a first for hybrids, as cars like the Toyota Prius have been around for 10 years now without much trouble.

At least one incidence has been reported of a Chevrolet Volt catching fire out behind a body shop while it was waiting for some restoration after having been wrecked. A few incidences have also occurred of the Volt catching fire while sitting out behind the facilities of a crash test center. At least one of these fires occurred after the test center wrecked the car and stuck it out back to specifically see if it would catch on fire, according to CNN. The fires seem to be erupting from the high-voltage battery. Every time one of these cars has gone down in a blaze of glory, it was always days or weeks after it was wrecked, and with every car, GM procedures for discharging the battery after it was damaged have not been followed.

The bad PR has caused GM to offer temporary loaner cars to owners of the Volt while an investigation is being conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, just in case the owners are freaking out and afraid of getting burned alive. GM of course is down playing everything saying that it’s not that bad since the fires don’t occur until well after the crash.

So what should we make of all of this? I for one am torn a bit with my opinion of the Chevy Volt.  The topic of the Chevy Volt can be rather incendiary (current fire problems not withstanding). I think it is ridiculous that the federal government took control of GM when they filed for bankruptcy back in 2009, and then forced the Volt to market for purely political reasons. The Volt kindles similar feelings amongst many taxpayers. I don’t have a problem with companies doing things for the purposes of being politically correct, or to advance some agenda. A privately held company ought to be able to do whatever they want to do as long as it’s not illegal. The problem is that even today GM is not privately held and the U.S. taxpayer still owns about 25% of the “new” GM.

The Volt was pushed to market with federal tax dollars, and then congress passed legislation awarding $7500 to anyone willing to buy a Volt in order to ignite interest in this new car. MSRP on a new volt is about $42k so with the $7500 incentive (from the developers and builders of the Volt i.e. the Feds) the price people actually end up paying is about $34k. This tax credit for Volt buyers means that tax payers are paying impractical rich people a large chunk of money to buy something that they will use to make a political statement, or they will just use as a toy. This is the real conflagration of the Chevy Volt

Now having said all of this, the part where I am torn is in that I love the technology that is wrapped up in the Volt. I am a technology geek of the highest order and the Volt does have some pretty cool stuff under the hood that makes it go. I have had a chance to inspect a Volt up close and personal, and I even took it for a spin. The car is without a doubt the most impressive thing to ever bear the Chevy bowtie. The ride is great, the handling is nice, and the gas/electric motor combination provides plenty of pep. The Volt beats the Prius in the quarter mile anytime, anywhere. I think that some alternative fuel vehicle is likely to take over at some point anyway, although it will probably not happen overnight. When it does happen it will be gradual and it will be a result of regular market demand, not the result of anyones political agenda.

The problem is that the Volt is like the U.S. military. While it is great at what is does, and perhaps it does its job better than anything in its class, when considering the overall cost, it’s obvious that things could be done better for a lot less money. Since the U.S. Constitution calls for the Federal Government to fund the military to protect us all, and since I am pretty sure there is nothing in the document that allows the government to build impractical cars, we can be concerned with G(overnment) M(otors), and we kind of have to learn to live with the military scorching cash.

So what about the fires? On the one hand I would ask what do you expect from a government funded project? On the other hand I would say that it is likely much ado about nothing. Gasoline powered cars catch fire all of the time and we still, after more than a century, keep the highly explosive fuel used to power these cars in plastic or metal tanks that are only inches from the ground as these land missiles cruise about and get into fender fights with other cars. If the Volt fires are a big deal then we will see it all unfold shortly. I think that the media loves fires and explosions so they will try to over inflate this entire issue and we can count on hearing about every battery that is set ablaze.

Roll In Style Not In Danger

Rolling down the street in your SUV with 22 inch rims can be something that makes you feel like you are king of the road. Oversized rims are all the rage on all sorts of vehicles and nothing adds bling to your ride like wheels that are huge and loaded with chrome.

While you might think it makes your ride look good, and I’m not saying it doesn’t, there are a few problems that you have when you put big custom rims at each corner of your ride. The biggest problem with this type of customization has to do with what we call unsprung weight.

Anything on the vehicle or in the vehicle that exerts the force of its weight on the springs of the suspension system is sprung weight. This would be most of the vehicle, such as the body, frame, engine and transmission, or anything that is placed inside the vehicle like passengers and cargo. This is sprung weight because it is all supported by the springs, and suspension system action can control the force of this weight.

Anything that exerts the force of its weight on the tires only, and not on the springs, is unsprung weight. This is because the weight is below the springs. Things like rims and tires, steering knuckles, brake assemblies, and drive axles fall into this category. These are all items that spring action and suspension articulation cannot control.

Generally speaking the more unsprung weight a vehicle carries, the harsher the ride is. Pickup trucks and many SUV’s that are built for heavy-duty applications tend to have more unsprung weight and therefore have a ride that is not so smooth. Higher unsprung weight can also lead to handling characteristics that are undesirable. All that weight causes the wheels to bounce around more and lead to more situations where they are not firmly planted. Wheels that are not firmly planted cause poor ride quality and poor directional stability.

Oversized rims are very heavy and add a tremendous amount of unsprung weight to the vehicle. Even if the rims are made of aluminum they can still add hundreds of extra pounds, especially if you add bigger tires with the bigger rims. Many times the tires are not much bigger in diameter than the stock tires, but the section height, or the height of the sidewall, is narrower to accommodate the larger rims. This low profile tire adds to the modern, sporty look of the large rims but it further decreases ride quality.

Another common mistake when having custom rims installed relates to the overall fit of the rim and tire assembly. Obviously the tire and rim assembly must fit within the wheel arch and not be so big that it rubs on any of the body or suspension parts. In order to get some wheels to fit properly, or to provide the look that the owner of the vehicle wants, wheel spacers are added to the hub of the wheel and then the tire and rim assemblies are bolted to the spacers.

Wheel spacers can cause big problems and are actually illegal in some states because they can make the vehicle handle dangerously, and they are easy to install improperly which may cause the wheels to fall off while driving. Like the over-sized rims, they can cause excessive wear and tear on the steering and suspension components as well because suspension geometry is changed.

None of this means that you can’t customize your wheels but it just means that you need to be careful. Just because a wheel assembly bolts on doesn’t mean that it will work just fine. With so many different types of custom rims available for nearly every vehicle on the road there is no reason not to find something that will fit just right, and give you the look that you want.

The Ingenuity of a Master Craftsman

When it comes to auto repair there is a right way and there is a wrong way and there is the cheap yet still effective way. The right way is indisputable, not really subject to debate. If the cylinder head gasket is blown then the proper way to repair it is to replace the gasket. If all of the tread is worn off of the tire, the tire must be replaced. The proper way to handle these situations are absolute.

This level of repair while desirable, but is quite often cost prohibitive. The following are some crazy examples of repair jobs that people have tried. These are things just pulled randomly off of the web. Some of them are wrong but probably work just fine and some of them are crazy dangerous. Despite the fact that these repair jobs are not by the book, you have to admire the ingenuity on a few of them.

Oh the skills of a master carpenter. Turning raw materials such wood, nails, screws and other bits of hardware into anything in the world you might need. This is actually a great job of reinventing the old woodies of the 1940's, and honestly the fit and finish doesn't look much worse than the original steel trunk lid that this Oldsmopile came with from the factory. Just think how good this would look in mahogany with a nice dark stain and a lacquer finish. Four hinges make it sturdy while opening and closing and it even has a lock on it to protect the valuable things that typically go in the trunk. 

If this guy had a saw and a hammer maybe he could have done as well as the guy above did. Not only does the cardboard not fit very well but it won't hold up to the weather and there are no hinges that allow for easy open and easy close. Actually the hinges are still there but they are just sticking uselessly into the air.

When you go rolling down the city streets in your Mercedes-Benz you need to represent. If the hood ornament is broken off of your ride then you might look like tool. No problem. Just take take a wire coat hanger and fashion a new one. You can tell people it was sculpted by Salvador Dali. They won't know who he was but they will appreciate the artistic accents of your and they will think that you are truly part of the upper crust.

So you drive a 1989 Volkswagen Jetta that doesn't have an USB port for your iPod, and it doesn't even have a CD player. You don't need to spend a pile of Benjamins on a new deck. Just find an old CD ROM drive that will play MP3 discs and wire it in to the dash. These usually run off of 12 volts D/C anyway so everything you need to make this thing play the latest hits from Adele is right there in the dash. 

Windshield wipers are a must have on every vehicle unless you live in a place like Las Vegas or Phoenix where rain storms are few and far between. If the wiper motor burns up it's okay. All that you need to do is get two pieces of rope and tie them both to your wiper arms or arm as the case may be. Then stick one rope into an open driver side window and one rope into an open passenger side window. Then all you have to do is pull one rope, and pull the other rope, then repeat over and over again until it stops raining. This might make it difficult to drive but it can't be any more difficult than texting while driving and that always works out just fine when you do that. Also, make sure that as you are driving and pulling the ropes back and forth that you keep your speed up so that less rain can blow into your open side windows. You wouldn't want your phone to get wet while you are texting.

In most small fender benders, you know, the kind where the vehicle only gets a little banged up and is by no means disabled. The part of the car that is still very susceptible to damage are things like the headlights and taillights. The problem with a broken headlight is that the bulb will usually still come on, but as soon as it gets wet it will burn out. This can be easily solved mounting a mason jar or some glass bottle sideways with the bottom pointing forward to direct the light. The bulb can be put inside the jar and the opening taped off. This will provide excellent lighting for all of your nighttime motoring needs, and it's much cheaper than taking it to the body shop.

The controls for the heater are extremely important. Even if you don't mind freezing a bit as you drive around in your car, you must have functional heater controls in order to have a windshield defroster. These controls help to route hot coolant through the heater core under the dash. where the blower can blow the heated air onto the windshield. Since hot coolant is a lot like hot water forget about getting the factory heater control parts, those are of course, too expensive. Just get the cheapest faucet that you can find at home depot and attach the heater hoses to it. You will have all the temperature control that you need.

Duct tape is the answer to most of life's quandaries. Anything in the world can be fashioned from duct tape including a new car door release strap. The outside door handle is just a lever that lifts a rod connected to the latch down inside the door. If the handle breaks off just make a strap from some duct tape and...oh, I don't know, a stick, and you are back in business.

When you need some new tires, or when you have some sweet five spoke alloys that you want to use to add some bling to your ride, there is always a way to make it happen. Today oversize wheels are very popular but if they don't clear the fender then all you have to do is some trimming here and there and they will look sick. A good pair of aviation shears can make short work of your fenders, a reciprocating saw can also be very effective for all manner of auto customization and repair, including the facilitation of proper tire fitment. 

Speaking of sick tire and wheel combinations. If you don't have oversized wheels but you still want to look cool you can put very low profile tires on your rims. These tires can be expensive so it might be cheaper for you to get an old garden hose and wrap it around the rim enough times so the hose will touch the ground. Most of those low profile tires are just like rubber bands stretched around the rim anyway so using an old garden hose should do the trick. If you are lucky your will be able to find four old hoses that are the same color so that all of your wheels will look cool. Either way, when people look at your car they will know that it's cool.

The Subaru Outback is a rugged, outdoorsy wagon for people that love being outdoors, love mother nature, and love all things biodegradable. A good idea is to remove the rear bumper and send it to the recycler because that plastic might hurt a landfill somewhere if you just throw it away. Then steal some felled timber and a few chains from some lumber jacks that your are protesting against and fashion your self a new bumper that not only looks rugged and natural, but is biodegradable and helps the car blend in much more easily with the forest. This can help you to be good friends with the squirrels.

It's a rear view mirror. Everyone knows that a hand held mirror like this is often used for viewing rears, therefore it should work good as a replacement for the rear view mirror on your car. I wonder if objects in this kind of mirror appear closer than they are.

This Chevy/Geo Metro is a one of a kind thanks to the creativity and resorsfulness of one individual. With escalating gas prices it may only be a matter time before people are selling their big pickup trucks so that they can get something like this that offers the best of both worlds. The fuel economy of a a sub compact, with cargo hauling capacity of...a...well, a subcompact with a wooden box on the back. At least it has four doors so that you can still take a few kids along when you go to buy a load of bricks for the retaining wall that you are building in your back yard.  

An exhaust leak is something that can happen on any car, and it can make itself known rather suddenly. As it turns out, Red Bulls gives you exhaust repair. actually you could use any aluminum or steel can as a repair sleeve to put the two broken pipe ends into. Make sure you use a couple of radiator hose clamps to seal the deal. The other advantage to aluminum cans is that they don't rust, and it reduces the overall weight of the vehicle which can actually make the car faster. 

A broken control arm can be a real problem. The last thing you need while your are driving down the road is for one of your wheels to suddenly flop over sideways. Maintaining the directional stability of the vehicle in this type of situation becomes considerably difficult. Many different things can actually be used to put the two halves of this important bit of suspension linkage back together. The safety minded individual who owns this car used the three best things (after duct tape) that can be used to repair anything. Radiator hose clamps are very sturdy and completely adjustable. Not only do they work for clamping tin cans onto your exhaust pipe but they can also hold a control arm together. The old leather belt that you used to use to hold up your pants up should also be able to hold up that back tire as it keeps that broken control arm from falling apart. Finally, the zip tie. Made from space age polymers, zip ties are are super tough, very high tech, and adjust to the shape of anything. The vehicle in this picture will be safe for many miles to come because of the careful repair performed by a true craftsman.

AWD v. 4WD

If all the wheels are pushing, what’s the difference?

When the SUV craze first began back in the mid 90’s, nearly every single new SUV offering, from every manufacturer, had four-wheel-drive (4WD). As customer preferences have evolved, which they can do very very quickly. That 4WD option that nearly everything was equipped with has changed to what might be more accurately called all-wheel-drive (AWD).

AWD and 4WD seem like they are the same thing because vehicles that are equipped with either have the ability to allow all 4 wheels to propel the vehicle down the road. This is true, they are pretty much the same, but there are some fundamental differences that make them what they are, and in the end these differences make them very different. One thing that seems certain is that the term 4WD seems to be applied to things that are more truck like, and AWD seems to be applied to things that are more car like. This is one difference but let’s get into this a little deeper.

Drivetrain

Typical FWD layout

The drivetrain of the vehicle is the part, or system of parts, that make up all of the rotating assemblies that come inline after the engine. This includes the transmission, the driveshafts, the axles and axle shafts, and the wheels. All of these parts can be laid out in different ways but every vehicle will usually have all of these drivetrain parts somewhere in the system. The drivetrain and the engine together are usually referred to as the powertrain. Front-wheel-drive (FWD) vehicles have a more compact drivetrain with everything essentially located under the hood, or in or near the engine compartment. Small vehicles usually have this kind of drivetrain layout. Rear-wheel-drive (RWD) vehicles have a different layout that supplies the rotational power to the rear wheels. This has all of the same drivetrain components as a vehicle with FWD except it will also have a driveshaft that will come out of the back of the transmission to send power back to the rear wheels. This kind of setup is always found on pickup trucks and on many larger cars.

Typical RWD layout.

The trucks, SUVs, and a few cars that are equipped with 4WD have a drivetrain layout that is pretty much like a RWD vehicle but there are a bunch of extra things thrown in. Instead of a driveshaft being attached to the back of the transmission, another box of gears known as the transfer case is there between the driveshaft and the transmission. The transfer case is responsible for taking some of the torque that is going to the rear wheels and turning that rotation around to send it to the front wheels.

4WD

The transfer case usually has several different modes under which it can operate. Some of the more familiar ones include 2 high, 4 high, 4 low, and in many cases Neutral. 2 high is the mode that you would drive in when roads are good and extra traction is not required. This is kind of like the normal mode of operation.

4 high will shift the transfer case to direct power to the front wheels and the rear wheels equally. In 4 high the driveshaft to the front wheels and the driveshaft to the rear wheels will turn with an equal amount of force and speed. This is the reason that the wheels of a 4WD vehicle seems to hop or bind when the vehicle makes a sharp turn on pavement or hard ground while in 4 high. This mode provides the high traction necessary to maintain control in snow or mud loose dirt.

Most 4WD and some AWD systems
will be laid out like this.

4 low is like 4 high in that power is directed to the front wheels and the rear wheels equally, except now the torque is multiplied through a final, super low gear reduction. This means that the engine will turn very quickly but the wheels will turn very slowly, in all of the gears. This torque multiplication is used to sacrifice speed for more of the raw twisting force that is torque. This helps a big heavy truck climb straight up a very steep hill with minimal effort. The trade off is that while the truck can now climb the hill that it couldn’t climb in 4 high, it won’t climb very quickly. 4 low is all about maximum torque along with maximum traction.

The last mode is neutral. This disengages the output of the transmission from the output of the transfer case. This is pretty much what neutral in the transmission does; it’s just another way to do it. Some 4WD vehicles do not have neutral in the transfer case; they only have it in the transmission. When towing a truck or SUV with a tow rope, it is better to put the transfer case into neutral than to put the transmission into neutral while towing.

All of these different modes of 4WD are usually selected manually as needed. This is why sometimes 4WD is referred to as part-time 4WD. Many newer vehicles with 4WD will have some auto selection capabilities in the transfer case as well. These vehicles might have a transfer case selection that is referred to as AWD or auto 4WD. In this mode the transfer case uses computer controls to look for slippage between the front and rear wheels. If the computer sees any of this slippage it will automatically shift the transfer case from 2 high, to a mode that is essentially AWD.

AWD

So then what exactly makes this auto mode AWD and not 4 high? When the vehicle is running with AWD, the transfer case is splitting power between the front and rear wheels, but the 2 drive shafts, meaning the front and rear driveshafts, are not locked together. They are allowed to turn at different speeds if needed.

Any transfer case capable of running in this kind of AWD mode contains what is called a differential. This is the set of gears that allows the front and read driveshafts to turn at different speeds. The differential allows a rotational speed differentiation to occur when needed. The time that this is needed is usually while the vehicle is turning. Remember the SUV in 4 high, and how the wheels bind and skip when turning? This is because there is nothing in the transfer case to allow one driveshaft to turn at a different speed from the other while the vehicle is going around a corner. Every drive axle on the vehicle will also have differential located between the drive axles that turn each wheel. This allows the outside wheel to turn faster when going around a corner than the inside wheel.

Because of this center differential, AWD is not as effective in extremely low traction situations as 4 high. This is because if the front or rear axle has no traction whatsoever and the wheels are slipping, the differential will actually take all of the torque from the wheels or axle that does have traction. The slipping wheels literally take all the power from the non-slipping wheels and the vehicle quits moving. This happens because of the way the differential works. It must allow for faster rotation of one wheel or axle if that’s what that wheel or axle what’s to do. On normal dry pavement the wheel spinning faster is allowed to do so in order to go smoothly around corners, so in low traction situations the wheel that wants to spin faster (the one with no traction that is spinning on the ice) is allowed to spin as fast as it can. Many AWD and 4WD vehicles will have some kind of mechanical or electromechanical device that will prevent this from getting out of control to the point where you are totally stuck. If your vehicle doesn’t have this kind of torque limiting device then it is very frustrating to get stuck and see just one wheel spinning, even if you have 4WD or AWD.

In Plain English

So let’s sum it all up. AWD has a center differential and 4WD does not. AWD usually requires no action on the part of the driver to make all 4 wheels turn, and 4WD usually does require the pull of a lever or the push of a button in order to engage. AWD works well for all driving situations, and 4WD is only for low traction situations. AWD vehicles almost never have a low range, and 4WD vehicles almost always do have a low range. AWD is good in snow, a little mud, and gravel, 4WD is better in each of these situations and will also climb steep hills, as well as go down steep hills and remain in perfect control (most of the time).

Nearly all 4WD vehicles have the exact same drivetrain layout, but when it comes to AWD the layout has many variations. Many AWD vehicles will have a drivetrain layout that is essentially the same as any FWD vehicle. This is because they usually run around with only the front wheels moving the vehicle down the road. They will of course have a driveshaft coming out of some sort of transfer case that goes to the rear wheels, but this rear driveshaft, and the rear wheels will only engage when the front wheels slip. This is the type of AWD system that you typically find on all of the cross over type vehicles that are on the road today. Cars such as the Chevy Equinox, Ford Escape, Honda CRV, and Toyota RAV4 fall into this category. Sometimes you will see some kind of emblem that says 4WD on the back of a vehicle with this type of FWD bias AWD system. Don’t be fooled, they do not have true 4WD.

Which One Should I Buy

AWD cannot compete with something like this SUV
with 4WD.

If you want good traction in the snow then get AWD. If you want good traction in the snow but spend a fair amount of time off-road then get 4WD. If you want to drive something more like a normal car then get AWD. Trucks with 4WD will require a bit more maintenance, are usually heavier, and usually don’t have as much interior space. 4WD is also more complex and costs more to make. Trucks with AWD are usually not really that great off-road, and cannot come close to getting to the places that 4WD go. Because most people are not into climbing steep mountains and slogging through deep mud, they usually go for the AWD. That is why today’s SUVs usually have AWD and not 4WD.