Monitoring the Thermostat

 

This is not that control panel on the wall of your house that you argue with your significant other over where the ideal setting should be. The thermostat is a control valve within the cooling system of your engine. Like the control panel for the furnace in your house, the engine thermostat is used to regulate temperature.

When the engine is cold the thermostat is closed, so coolant flow is restricted. This allows the coolant to heat up much more quickly because it cannot make its way out to the radiator where heat is released from the coolant into the outside air. The thermostat is located at the coolant outlet pipe coming from the engine going to the radiator.

Normal engine operating temperature is about 190 to 200 degrees F. Once the engine gets to a temperature close to this, the thermostat will open automatically. Most thermostats contain some kind of device that expands and contracts with temperature. When this thermally reactive unit gets hot it pulls the valve open allowing coolant to flow.

There are no fancy computer controls at work here, just old fashioned thermal expansion causing this thing to open. When the coolant gives off enough heat in the radiator to start bringing down engine temperature, the thermostat will react by closing slightly until the engine temperature is maintained at the optimum level for which it was designed.

Two problems result from a thermostat that has malfunctioned, but only one of them is well known because it leads to massive engine failure. The first and most dramatic thing that could happen when a thermostat goes bad is overheating. A bad thermostat can cause this when it simply fails to open at the proper temperature, or it gets stuck while opening and fails to open all the way.

When the engine overheats, the coolant heats up way past 190° to a point where the expansion of the various metal parts of the engine cause the parts themselves to fail. An engine can run safely up to about 230° F with no problems. When the temperature gets much above that the coolant can boil. Once the coolant boils it will build very high pressure in the cooling system and will boil over past the radiator cap or through the coolant expansion tank. This is why you see steam coming from some cars broken down by the side of the road. If temperatures get up to about 250° F the possibility for engine damage becomes a reality. Parts get weak and cylinder pressures go through the roof, literally.

The other thermostat failure that is not as well known but is probably just as common is overcooling. This is of course the opposite of overheating. Instead of the thermostat being stuck closed, overcooling happens when the thermostat is stuck open. If the engine is not allowed to warm up with the thermostat blocking coolant flow, it might not reach operating temperature at all.

Overcooling does not lead to a dramatic meltdown of expensive engine parts, which is why it goes undetected so much of the time, but it is still a problem that should be fixed. When an engine does not reach operating temperature it will not be able to maintain the correct air/fuel ratio. It will run rich, or with too much fuel. This is going to have an impact on fuel economy, but it will also have an impact on how much power the engine produces, and how much pollution will come from the tailpipe.

A typical engine that suffers from a thermostat that is stuck open might run as cold as 140° F. This might not seem that cold but it is. At this temperature you likely will not see your engine temperature gauge move very high off the lowest readings. In addition to this your heater performance will most certainly suffer. On those cold days when ambient temperatures are below 0, your engine will never come close to heating up, and you will probably have frost develop on the inside of the windshield.

Diagnosing a bad thermostat is no problem for an experienced technician. Many times a good repair shop will also recommend thermostat replacement anytime any work is done on the engine near the thermostat, regardless of whether or not it is currently known to be bad. Thermostats commonly go bad at inconvenient times, and considering it’s a $10 part, you should have it replaced anytime your mechanic is in the area.

Keeping the thermostat working will keep your engine running better, keep your fuel economy and power output up. And keep you from suffering a major breakdown from overheating in the middle of nowhere. Don’t forget about your thermostat, it would be a shame for a $10 part to cause so much grief. 

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.

Power to the People! Electric Power That Is!



2011 Toyota Prius

 In 1999 Honda introduced the first Insight to the U.S. market and at that time the race began. The race was obviously not a very fast one since we are talking about hybrids which are not very fast. The race was a race to develop new technology that would make cars go farther on less fuel, and create less pollution. Both of these things amount to greater energy efficiency. Of all of the alternative fuel systems that are on the market right now, none have experienced the kind of growth over the last decade that the hybrid vehicle has.

1999 Honda Insight

A hybrid vehicle is one that runs on more than one power source. Hybrid vehicles use a gasoline engine and an electric motor for propulsion. Depending on the design it may be able to run on gasoline only, electric motor only, or a combination of the two. Examples of hybrid vehicles are things such the Toyota Prius, the most popular hybrid ever, the Honda Insight, and the Chevrolet Volt. Often you hear the Volt described as an electric car but the fact of the matter is that the Volt has a gasoline engine that will come on to assist the electric motor to propel the vehicle down the road, or to generate electricity for the electric motor the use. A true electric car such as the Nissan leaf has no gasoline engine at all, more on the Volt in a minute.

The gas/electric hybrids that are on the market now will always have the following components: Gasoline engine, one or two electric motor/generators, a high-voltage battery, and some kind of power inverter. All of these systems use complex computer controls to keep everything running nicely. Depending on the hybrid setup they may not have a transmission like we are used to on normal cars, or they may have one that is just like those found on normal cars. Hybrid drivetrain designs vary.

2000 Toyota Prius

Some hybrids have more complex systems that allow the vehicle to function more in electric mode only. These are what are known as series/parallel hybrids. With this design the electric motor or motors, are the primary drive units and the gas engine is there to assist and turn generators to produce electricity. Some hybrid designs cannot function at all in electric mode only. These are called parallel hybrids.  A parallel hybrid uses the gas engine for the majority of the drive and the electric motor is there to assist. A design known as a series hybrid also exists but none of the hybrids currently on the market fall into this category. The series design has no mechanical connection between the engine and the wheels. All drive is accomplished by the electric motors and the gasoline engine is there only to turn a generator. This is essentially the way modern diesel electric locomotives run.

ICE

The gasoline engine is not much different from those that we are used to in regular cars. They still use the regular principles of internal combustion in order to move pitons up and down and turn the crankshaft. The engine is usually known as the ICE (internal combustion engine). Some extra measures are taken however to help them be ultra-efficient, and work well with the electric motor/generators. Most of the time the gas engine will not have a regular starter motor because the large electric motors used to propel the vehicle can also be used to start the gasoline engine. Some times when the ICE is started it seems strange because you don’t get the usual cranking sound that you have with regular engines, it’s almost as if the engine just instantly come to life.

An A/C compressor with no pulley

Many times these gas engine will not have any of the accessories or the associated belts that are found on the front of the engine. These items can be powered directly by small electric motors. The air conditioning compressor doesn’t need to be belt driven because a small electric motor inside the compressor can be used to turn it. This is a good thing because the gasoline engine on every hybrid will not always be running whenever the car is in use. If the engine isn’t running then an engine powered device will not work. This would mean no A/C when the vehicle comes to a stop. Other things that are electrically powered are things like the power steering, the engine water pump, and the alternator. The alternator is actually completely eliminated. Why do you need a small 12 volt generator that is spun by the engine when you have 300 volt generators onboard?

Engine and transmission removed from a hybrid vehicle. The big orange cables carry the  high-voltage.

Motor/Generator

The motor generators on a hybrid vehicle are usually located in what might usually be referred to as the transmission, or between the gasoline engine and the transmission. The amount of propulsion that is provided by the electric motors totally depends on the hybrid design. As mentioned before, some hybrids only use the electric motor to assist the gasoline engine, and the vehicle will not move on electric only. On some hybrids the electric motor can propel the vehicle alone, up to about 50 miles per hour. One way to get a rough idea about how much fuel a hybrid can save is by how much the electric motors can propel the vehicle without the gasoline engine running. Most hybrids currently on the market can move down the road on electric only but most of them can’t accelerate to speeds above 10 mph without the gasoline engine coming on. Once they get up to speed there are some hybrids that can run on electric only at a steady cruise between 25 and 40 mph. As the technology gets better and better, more hybrids are capable of going faster, for longer periods of time running on electric only.



The rotor of of a brushless motor
from a hybrid. Notice how well the scraper
 sticks to the permanent magnets



The motor/generators are motors that help to move the vehicle but they are also generators. All hybrids have a mode called regenerative braking. In this mode the motor/generators become a generator to produce electricity that can be stored in the high-voltage battery. The generators are attached to the wheels which are spinning because the vehicle is moving. The generators provide resistance to stop the vehicle, and because the generators spin, they produce electricity.

The motors are able to switch from motor mode to generator mode in an instant because they are brushless A/C motors. This essentially means that they use permanent magnets in the armature (the center spinny part of the motor), and electromagnets in the stator or field windings (the part that doesn’t move, that surrounds the spinny part). When the field windings are turned on, the opposing magnetic forces cause the armature to spin and we have a motor. When the field windings are turned off, we are then spinning permanent magnets around inside a conductor, this is a generator.

The Battery can only hold D/C electricity so the A/C that comes from the generators must get converted to D/C in order to be stored in the battery. Then, as the battery feed the electric motors the power must be converted back to A/C. All of this takes place in the power inverter that is found on all hybrid vehicles.

The field windings of a brushless motor from a hybrid

Battery

Early hybrid vehicles used Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries for the high-voltage battery that powers the electric motors. Newer hybrids are starting to use lithium-ion batteries, or lithium-polymer batteries. These batteries function just like other rechargeable batteries, but they are much bigger so they can put out more voltage and amperage. Most of these batteries put out somewhere between 100 and 350 volts. Because of the tremendous amount of electricity that they can store, there are certain precautions that must be taken when working on a hybrid vehicle.

Hybrid HV batteries located under the back seat

These batteries are made up of hundreds of small cells that each put out somewhere between 1.5 to 3.0 volts. All of these cells are wired together in series which causes the voltage and amperage to be multiplied until there are enough cells in the battery pack to put out a great deal of power. Each of these cells is actually quit similar to either a cell phone battery, or a D cell battery in appearance and function. The cells cannot be serviced individually so if enough of them go bad that the battery output is diminished, then the entire battery pack must be replaced.

A complex computer control system is used to monitor and control the state of charge of the HV battery. State of charge is never allowed to be higher than 80% of its actual capacity and it’s never allowed to drop below 20% of its actual capacity. The instrumentation that the driver sees may display that the HV battery is fully charged or fully depleted but it always stays within the middle 60% limits when things are operating normally. Because of these precise controls HV battery service life has proved to be much better than originally predicted.

Just like any other rechargeable battery, it was believed that the hybrid HV batteries would have a definite service life. The average life of your run of the mill car battery is between 3 and 5 years, maybe 6 at the most, and cell phone batteries usually go bad before the rest of the phone does. With hybrids first being introduced 13 years ago by Honda and Toyota, many of these first hybrids have well over 100k miles on the odometer and they are still running around on their original batteries. Eventually they can still degrade to the point where they don’t hold a charge and need to be replaced, but if they last for 15 years and 150k miles, or more, it may not matter if they need to be replaced.

So how do they drive?

Very well, actually. Despite what people say, most hybrid vehicles drive very nicely and have plenty of pep. The amount of power is usually not any different from a similarly sized vehicle. Some of the ways in which a hybrid functions might be very different and require some time to get used to. Every time you pull up to a stop the engine will shut off if it has been running. This is the idle stop function and it helps to save fuel. When you are waiting to turn left across traffic and the engine isn’t running it may seem a bit unnerving at first, but as soon as you lift your foot off the brake pedal to hit the accelerator the vehicle will move and the engine will start up right away if it is required.

Prius controls require a bit of explanation.

Some hybrids such as the Honda Civic Hybrid or Ford Escape Hybrid feel very much like a normal car. All of the controls are familiar and no special instruction is needed to get the car started and moving down the road. Hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt are a bit different and may require a new driving lesson. Once you are moving down the road however, all hybrids handle well and drive nicely.

Weighing the Cost

One of the great debates surrounding hybrid vehicles is whether or not the owner of a hybrid will actually save enough money on fuel to make up the extra cost involved in buying a hybrid, versus buying a normal gasoline powered car. All of this depends on how many miles the vehicle is driven in a year. Using the Civic hybrid for an example we can look at some numbers to figure this out. The reason that the Civic Hybrid is a good example is because we can compare the exact same car in hybrid form, regular form, a high fuel economy HF version, and just for the fun of it, we can look at the natural gas powered Civics as well.

2012 Civic Hybrid

All of the cars that we are comparing here are similarly equipped as far as the normal whistles and bells are concerned. They all have automatic transmissions, power windows and door locks, similar audio systems and other creature comforts, but they are not exactly alike. According to Honda’s website the pricing and the estimated fuel economy breaks down in the following manner:

•          2012 Civic EX (the normal gas powered Civic)             $21,505    39 mpg
•          2012 Civic Hybrid                                                        $24,505    44 mpg
•          2012 Civic HF (the high fuel economy model)               $19,455    41 mpg
•          2012 Civic GX (natural gas powered)                           $26,155    38 mpg

With these figures and some arithmetic you can see that if the driver puts 15,000 miles on their car per year, and gas is $3.00 per gallon, it will take 25 years to save the extra cost for the Hybrid. This shows us that buying the Hybrid is not worth it. The hybrid version only saves the average driver about $100 a year on fuel cost but the Hybrid purchase price is about $2500 more than the EX. The HF is probably the best value of all of the Civics because the MSRP is lower than that of the normal EX, and it gets better fuel economy.

A civic that runs on natural gas is more practical than the hybrid.

The GX is the compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Civic. This one is the most expensive but the fuel is only about $1.50 per gallon, cheaper in some places, more expensive in others. The time to make up the difference with a CNG powered civic under the same terms is about 10 years. If, however the cost of gasoline goes back up to $4.00 per gallon, and you live in a place where natural gas can be purchased for $1.05 per gallon, and your drive 20,000 miles a year, it would only take 3 years to make up the cost difference.

Plug-In to Better Fuel Economy

Plug-in hybrids represent the next evolution of the hybrid vehicle, and this feature may be the thing that allows hybrids to become a very legitimate alternative. The thing that makes a plug-in hybrid different is the fact that they can typically run much faster and much farther on electric motors only. The Chevy Volt for example can go about 40 miles at speeds up to 40 or 50 mph on the electric motor only. This means that the gasoline engine would never come on. If your daily compute is 20 or 30 miles round trip, you could drive to work and back, maybe run a few errands along the way, and never use any gasoline. When you get home you could plug your car in for the night and in the morning it would be all charged up and ready to go.

The Chevrolet Volt is actually a hybrid and not a true electric.

If you want to drive a longer distance, the gasoline engine comes on as needed to generate power for the electric motors and to provide mechanical assist to the electric motors. This means that you could drive the car for several days on electric only, and then just use gasoline on the weekends for a road trip. Fuel economy numbers have been difficult to calculate because of the way these things work but estimates are generally somewhere between 50 and 100 mpg.

Currently the Volt is the only plug-in hybrid on the market but Toyota will be releasing a plug-in Prius, and Ford will release a plug-in Fusion Hybrid sometime in 2012. Most other manufacturers that currently offer hybrids will be adapting a plug-in feature to their models at some point.

The Volt carries an MSRP of about $41,000 which is pretty steep for a small sedan, and makes regular hybrids look like a good deal. Chevy released the car to market after the federal government had taken over the bankrupt GM. The Feds will give you a $7500 tax credit if you buy a Volt. That only brings the cost of a new Volt down to $33500 which is still a lot of money for this type of car. Having U.S. tax payers fund a certain percentage of your new car purchase also seems somewhat immoral. If you are wealthy enough to spend over 30k on a new car what entitles you to receive another $7500 from your neighbors?

Plug-in Prius.

The new Prius plug-in will carry an MSRP of $32,000. The tax credit that this car will qualify for is probably going to be about $2500 (why less than the Prius?) bringing the cost of the car to the purchaser down to $29,500. Better than the Volt but still a lot to pay for a small car such as this. Pricing for the Ford Fusion 

plug-in has not yet been announced.

Plug-in hybrids sound great but considering the cost it’s hard to justify buying one as well. Whne they bring the cost down then maybe we will have something worthwhile. The other thing to consider is that the electric power charged to the batteries when the car is plugged in has to come from somewhere and still has to be paid for.

What about the Horse and Buggy?

While it seems fairly obvious that hybrid vehicles are probably still impractical for the most part it helps if we put things into perspective. Imagine the year is 1900. It has been 14 years since Karl Benz built his motorwagen, which is considered to be the first modern car powered by an internal combustion engine. Other upstarts have been around for just a few years and Henry Ford is doing a lot of experimentation, but the Model T is still 8 years away. Some of the wealthy are just beginning to run around town in these noisy little horseless carriages from names such as Ransom E. Olds and David Buick.

At this point, many say that these might be the future, but such a thing is hard to imagine and here are some of the reasons why. These little motor cars are slow, expensive, reliability is dubious, and no real practicality can be seen in owning one. When they break down and you take it to the blacksmith shop they aren’t going to know how to work on them. They are so complicated compared to what we are used to that it makes no sense to say that this will one day be the standard. Those that currently own them are trying to make a statement about themselves, or they are just trying to show off and act like they are ultra-modern.  Some might say, “Just give me a good team of horses and a sturdy wagon or buggy and I can get around just fine for the rest of my life.”

Now reread the above paragraph and substitute the word blacksmith with mechanic, and the words, team of horses and a sturdy wagon or buggy, with normal car, and you could apply the message to some of the negative viewpoints surrounding hybrids today. The bottom line on hybrids is that this technology is new and still unproven, and still needs to develop further. Current hybrids are not good enough to be the future of transportation, but a future hybrid that is much better and much cheaper might be. Let’s sit back and see what happens.

Porsche Cayenne Hybrid

The Rubber that Meets the Road

Saying that tires come in all shapes and sizes, isn’t exactly right. They do come in all sorts of sizes but the shapes are pretty much the same, round with a hole in the middle. They are all black and they all use air pressure to keep them working properly, although with all of the strange things that automotive designers have done over the years to change the style of the cars and trucks we drive, it’s kind of funny that they haven’t had cars with blue tires or red tires. The only thing they have ever tried is varying thicknesses of a white stripe around the sidewall.

Tires are an extremely important part of the car and yet they are always neglected or forgotten. Without decent tires a car turns into an instrument of death and chaos. That may sound silly but it’s pretty much true. The tires keep the car in control and sticking to the road at all times. When it’s going straight, and when it’s turning, when it’s on smooth clear pavement, and when it’s on rough, bumpy or slippery surfaces. The tires also contribute substantially to the ride quality. When considering that the tires are bouncy air cushions that the entire weight of the vehicle is resting on, it’s easy to see that a tire problem is going to affect the way the ride feels and the way the vehicle handles.

A very interesting tread pattern. Each row of tread is different
and grips differently from the rest.

Tires are meant to provide a way for the vehicle to stick to the road. The rubber compound that makes up the tire is what does the sticking. The depth of the tread doesn’t have much to do with causing the tire to grip. The tread on the tire is only there to move water and snow out from under the tire so that the rubber can meet the road. Some tread patterns are not meant for use in snow and ice and some are designed specifically for that purpose. If you drive your car in all types of whether then all-weather tires are what you want. They will give you adequate performance in all conditions, but they will not give you the best performance in any conditions.

Tire Sizes

The most confusing thing about tires is perhaps the way that tire sizes work. If you have ever looked at the sidewall of the tire you might have seen something such as P215/65R15 89H. Most of this seems like nonsense but numbers of course, mean things. Starting with the letter at the beginning, this is usually a P or an LT. P stands for “passenger” meaning the tire is intended for passenger cars. The LT stands for “light truck” and is intended for; you guessed it, light trucks. This is any truck or truck like SUV even if it’s a full size truck it is still only a light truck.

The number 215 is a direct measurement of the width of the tire in millimeters. This is pretty easy to understand but the next number 65, is the aspect ratio. This ratio is the measurement of the height of the sidewall of the tire expressed as a percentage of the width. So in this case the side wall height is 65% of the width of the tire.

The next letter R refers to the type of construction. In this case R stands for “Radial” meaning that it is a radial tire. A radial tire is a tire that has the steel cords inside laid out in a radial pattern. All common tires today are radial tires so it is really pretty rare to see something other than an R in this spot. Old tires might have a B for bias belted, or a D for diagonal bias.

The number after this letter refers to the diameter of the rim in inches. Why they size part of the tire in millimeters and part of the tire in inches makes no sense but that’s the way it is. Many old tire sizes were all in inches and some off-road tires can still be purchased this way. Something like 31X10.5 R15 would be an example of a tire size in inches. The total diameter of the tire is 31 inches, and the width is 10.5 inches, made to fit on a 15 inch rim.

The next number, in this case 89, refers to the load rating of the tire, or how much weight the tire can safely carry on a regular basis. The number is kind of an arbitrary value, the higher the number the more load the tire can carry.  These standards are set by the Department of Transportation and will normally range from 70 to 110.

The last letter which is an H on this tire, refers to the speed rating of the tire. A tire with a speed rating of H can safely be driven at speeds up to 130 mph without centrifugal force ripping the tire apart. The highest speed rating is Y which means the tire is safe up to 186 mph. Many people think that Z is the highest rating but the letter ratings skip around a bit. On very high speed tires a Z is added before the R so the tire will be called Z rated but this is not the case. The Z in this position indicates it is a tire that is intended for use over 149 mph but the actual speed rating is still at the end of the tire size number. A good example of this is 285/35ZR19 99Y. This is a Y rated tire not really a Z rated tire. Exceeding a tire’s speed rating is very dangerous and can lead to a high-speed blowout which may lead to a loss of control of the vehicle. Some light truck tires might have a P or Q rating which is somewhere between 90 and 100 mph. The vehicle these tires are mounted on may easily go faster than this. Driving a vehicle with one of these tires faster 90 to 100 mph would not be a good idea.

One more marking worth a mention, all-weather tires will either say all-weather or all-season on the side, or they will be marked with M+S which stands for mud and snow. Unless you live in a place like Phoenix, Arizona or your vehicle is only used under certain weather conditions, all-weather tires are probably the best option.

Tire Maintenance

Of all of the important systems on a car that require maintenance, tires are probably the easiest and the cheapest to maintain. All that really needs to be done is regular pressure checks and an occasional tire rotation. Despite the fact that this stuff is cheap and easy, most people do not have these things routinely performed on the cars that they drive. That’s their choice but remember the instrument of death and chaos? That is what results from a lack of maintenance.

Every vehicle on the road should have a tire pressure gauge in the glove box so that tire pressure can be checked a couple of times a month. Most gas stations have an air hose that can be used to inflate the tires if needed, and probably 25% of those air hoses are actually in proper working order so you should be able to find a place where you can check your own tire pressure, and top them off if needed. Checking tire pressure with a run of the mill tire pressure gauge requires no skill, and neither does filling the tire with air. Most automotive technicians will gladly charge you to check your tire air pressure for you, and maybe they will even do it for free, but guaranteed they will mock your laziness or ineptitude behind your back because you cannot check them yourself.

Wear indicator between the tread blocks touching the
pavement. This means that the tires are worn out.

In order to find out what your tire pressure should be you can look in the owner’s manual, but if this is lost, or just too confusing, the other place that you can look is on the tire information label. This label is usually posted somewhere on the inside edge of the driver’s door or driver’s door frame. If the label is not there it could also be on the inside of the glove box on under the lid of the center console. Do not look on the side of the tire. This will only tell you the maximum pressure that the tire can stand before it becomes dangerous once it gets hot.

Tire rotation is something that you could easily do yourself with a few simple tools but since the car must be lifted you may just want to have this done by a professional. Tires should usually be rotated about twice a year. This usually works out to be about every 6,000 to 7,000 miles. Some special off-road tires or snow tires with very soft tread may need to be rotated more often.

The reason tire rotation is important is that it allows the tires to wear more evenly. The front tires on a vehicle with front wheel drive will wear out the front tires much faster than the rear tires because the front tire both steer and propel the vehicle. Vehicles with rear wheel drive usually wear the rear tires a bit faster than the front. If the wheel alignment of the vehicle is not perfect the tires will wear even more unevenly. Sometimes the tires on a particular vehicle just won’t wear well even if the alignment is good. Proper rotation will always make the tires last longer.

Tire Problems

Uneven wear is the most common tire problem. When the tread doesn’t wear the same across the entire tread surface on the same tire, it is called uneven wear. Things that usually cause this are wheel alignment problems or tire inflation problems. Wheel alignment problems can be caused by a lack of proper adjustment, or worn out or damaged parts. This must be diagnosed by someone who knows what they are doing. If the tires are worn more heavily on one edge of the tire compared to the opposite edge then there is an alignment problem. If the wear in the tire appears wavy or if individual tread blocks seem to be wearing on an angle then this is probably an alignment problem.

This tire has good tread over most of the surface, but the
right side is so work out the steel cords are poking through.
This is a major alignment problem.

Tire inflation problems that cause uneven wear can be easily diagnosed by anyone. If the center of the tread around the circumference of the tire is worn more than the outside edges of the tread then the tires have likely been run while overinflated. This is common because many people don’t use a pressure gauge when they put air in their tires. They put air in and just look at the bulge in the sidewall where it sits on the ground to come up with a guess as to when to stop pumping the tire full of air.

If you see the opposite condition, wear on the outside edges but not down the center, then the tire has been underinflated. This is common because it means that the tire pressure is never checked and the car is driven without enough air in the tires. If either one of these inflation conditions is caught before the difference in wear is extreme then the pressure can be corrected and monitored and the tires will usually even themselves out.



The tire on the left is underinflated. The tire in the middle is overinflated.
The tire on the right is normal.

 Other problems or forms of tire wear are an indication of a defect in the tire, or the inner carcass of the tire coming apart. If the tread of the tire seems to be worn around just a portion of the circumference, but the rest of the tread along that same line around the tire looks better, then the tire is experiencing tread separation. This means that the tread layer of the tire is detaching itself from the carcass. Another condition that may be noticed with tread separation is a vibration that begins around 30 to 35 mph but then disappears around 50 mph. Sometimes this is mistaken for an imbalance but it is not. An imbalance in the tire and wheel assembly will cause a vibration that will usually begin at a higher speed but will only get worse as speed increases, and will never just vanish. Tread separation is very dangerous and the tire must be replaced to correct this condition.

Major tread seperation. Notice the big deep crack on the right side.
This is a very damgerous tire, not to mention that the ride quailty of this
vehicle was terrible.

A true tire blowout of the worst kind.

A bulge in the sidewall is also a dangerous yet common condition. This means that the steel cords in the sidewall have broken allowing the air pressure in the tire to cause the bulge in the rubber. This is a weak spot that will be prone to complete failure at some point, but will most likely fail at high speed when the tires are their hottest and the pressure is the highest. Many times the broken cords are the result of the vehicle taking a curb shot. If the car is driven into the curb or slides into the curb in the winter, the sidewall gets pinched and it can break the steel cords. A tire with a bulge in the sidewall must also be replaced and cannot be repaired.

A Doughnut You Can’t Eat

If the tires are very neglected, the spare tire is even more so. The main thing to remember with the spare tire is to check the pressure once in awhile. Many times people find a flat tire on their vehicle and go to put the spare on only to find that it too is flat or at least very low. The other thing is that spare tires are usually meant for temporary use and should not be used for extended periods.

If you are lucky, the spare tire on your vehicle is a regular full size tire and not one of the temporary doughnut spares. These compact spares are now the standard on most cars because they are cheap, they are light, and they are easy to stow. Anything that manufacturers can do to make a car cheaper, lighter, or easier to package, will be done, even if it comes as a compromise. The problem with these little spares is that they are not meant for speeds much above 55 mph. They are only meant to get you to a tire shop in the next town. The problem is that this is not very convenient because stopping at a tire shop in the next town isn’t always convenient.

Some four-wheel-drive vehicles and SUV’s will have a doughnut that is full-size. These don’t have quite the same restrictions as the small ones but they are not the same thing as having a regular full-size tire for your spare. If you do have a regular tire and if the rim matches the rest of the rims on the vehicle, you can rotate your spare through the regular rotation. This will allow you to actually use that tire and it will make all of the tires last a bit longer.

You Get What You Pay For

When buying new tires it goes without saying that you should buy tires that are the same size as the ones that the vehicle came with. Changing the size of the tire will change the way the vehicle rides, handles, and it will also cause your speedometer and odometer to read inaccurately. Sometimes some custom rims can add a nice look to your ride and this is okay to do as long as the overall diameter of the tire remains the same. So if you vehicle came with 16 inch rims and you want to put 18 inch rims on it,  change the tire to something with a smaller aspect ratio. The new aspect ratio must be 1 inch shorter which will add two inches to the inside opening of the tire.

The other thing to remember when buying tires is that you get what you pay for. Don’t buy cheap tires, it’s not worth it. This doesn’t mean that the most expensive tires are the best tires; it just means that you should always try to spend a little extra. The problem with the cheap tires is not just that they tread wears out quickly, but they usually suffer from other problems before the tread wears out. Things like vibration problems, tread separation, conicity issues (a condition that can cause the vehicle to exhibit problem with wheel alignment when really there are none), and other things render the tires useless while there is still tread left.

Stay Connected

To the road that is. There are a few systems on your vehicle where you never want to see failure while driving, and the tires are one of them.  If your engines blows up while driving down the road, no big deal. If your transmission falls out on the freeway, it doesn’t matter. If one of your tires gives up at 80 mph, or if you have no tread left and you hit a big puddle at high speed, then watch out because you may not be able to keep it under control. Take care of your tires; remember that your life is riding on it.





Safety Recalls and Real Safety

When an auto manufacturer releases a new model to market there is usually no doubt about the fact that they bear a certain amount of liability when it comes to product performance and safety. Every car company selling any kind mainstream automobile spends a great deal of time and money on research and development of safety and quality.

No matter how careful any company might be, sometimes they come up with an automotive system, or part of a system, or some other function that becomes troublesome once the car hits the market. Sometimes this is related to poor design, but usually it is related to poor quality parts. Durability can be hard to predict, except that usually parts that don’t cost as much, are the ones that are likely to fail. Considering how much influence accountants have in determining the composition of the final product, manufactures will take some short cuts here and there in the name of fiscal responsibility, only to have that decision come back and bite them.

This seems like a serious issue and in many ways it is. The automobile is a big expensive machine that we rely on tremendously. When it’s working properly we routinely take it for granted. When it isn’t working properly, it will ruin our day and lead to frustration. At its worst the dysfunction of the automobile leads to injury and death. This end is much more common than we seem to remember.

The number of things that can go wrong with a car and cause massive failure is so great that perhaps it is best the auto driving public doesn’t really understand. Whether a car is well built, or poorly built, it is just a machine and it is perfectly capable of failing in spectacular ways at any moment, yet we continue to drive them without giving all things proper consideration. We even bring problems on ourselves when we let them run out of gas while driving in traffic. Should we sue people that run out of gas, or maybe have them hauled to jail for public endangerment?

As an experienced automotive technician I can think of many problems related to the design and function of many makes and models that cause them to fail regularly, and sometimes while in traffic. This is extremely common and sometimes the problems are much worse than an ignition switch going open circuit in the middle of the road. If an ignition switch fails you can still steer the car to the side of the road.

Some Volkswagen and Chrysler products have major front end problems that can cause the front suspension to come apart while driving down the road. This is extremely dangerous because you might very well lose control of the vehicle, not because you panic at the failure but because the vehicle becomes physically impossible to control. Some of these models were recalled and some were not, and some might not fail in this manner until they have well over 100k miles on them. Do we not care about failures that occur outside the warranty time frame? Do we not care about failures on high mileage vehicles because only poor people drive those pieces of junk? Where do we draw the line, if indeed one must be drawn.

Honda issued an ignition switch recall several years ago that included a few models built in the late 90’s. These ignition switches were doing the exact same thing the GM switches are doing. Nobody ever accused them of covering up the problem but the recall certainly wasn’t big enough because many vehicles built before, and after the particular years included in the recall had, and continue to have problems. I own one of the vehicles not included in the recall and one day while driving down the freeway the car stalled. I pulled over, jiggled the key switch a few times, and the car started. At my nearest convenience I replaced the switch. Is there a lawsuit in there somewhere?

How many cars are on the road right now with bad tires? The numbers are certainly very high, but even worse is the fact that many people who know their car has bad tires refuse to do anything about it. Many times the tires have gone bad due to owner neglect. This is not the fault of anyone with deep pockets, this is simply due to the fact that most people are not meticulous in their car care. Should we sue them? Should the highway patrol setup check points for tires and impound every car stopped that is thought to be running on dangerous tires? What if a tire doesn’t last as long as the manufacturer says it will? What if they claim that tire should be good for 40k miles but it wears out at 35k? We could go on and on looking at these kinds of failures but just the notion of such would be silly.

Never mind defects and breakdowns, even without these things most people have a much higher risk of suffering injury or death due to the careless actions of themselves or others on the road. We however, generally go about our day never really thinking about this with the proper perspective. How many near misses does the average driver experience every year? We literally come closer to death at these moments than we do at any other time in our lives. All we do to handle the situation is honk the horn, exercise our middle finger, and by the time we have made it to our destination we have somehow already forgotten that we almost died just then.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 35,561 people died in traffic accidents in 2012. The number of these deaths where alcohol was involved is 10,322. The number of people who died in a wreck where driver distraction was to blame was 3,328. The number of injuries from accidents related to distracted driving was about 421,000. That’s right, 400k+ end up visiting the emergency room because some moron was on Facebook in traffic.

Why are we so concerned about the possibility of 13 deaths related to ignition switches in the Chevy Cobalt when nearly half a million people were injured last year because we refuse to keep our eyes on the road? It’s almost as if we accept the occasional text message in heavy traffic, but if a car company builds a machine that isn’t perfect 100% of the time, someone must be sued!

How can we attack auto manufacturers when we lost over 10,000 people on our roads due to something as insidious and widespread as drunk driving? Where is the greater evil here? Most of us have known others who have driven drunk and there is not a single solitary instance where we could point to it being a good idea. I have always been completely floored while listening to the casual manner in which a friend or coworker talks about the times they drove drunk. Driving drunk is a mistake every time it occurs just like texting and driving. Once again, some perspective is in order.

Let’s also not forget all of the legal and political issues that surround this latest scandal involving General Motors. GM was owned in large part by the federal government during the time that the cover up is alleged to have happened. Before GM was scooped up by the feds they were legally a completely different company. The GM that put junk switches in their cars is not the same GM that exists today. So the problem here is that according to the law, New GM is not liable for the actions of Old GM, and the government of course answers to nobody. In the case of lost confidence in a private company, consumers can walk away from products they don’t trust anymore, but nobody can escape the government.

Companies such as general Motors with their current ignition switch fiasco, or Toyota with their gas pedal problems from a few years ago, must do everything they can to make sure their cars are safe and work well. We should have some level of confidence in any major auto manufacturer that they will build their products to the best of their abilities. To do otherwise would mean the end of their business, and the end of the jobs of the tens of thousands of individuals who work for them.

So far in 2014 we are on pace to see a record number of recalls from the auto industry. No company is immune. GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, and Volkswagen have all recently issued large recalls. These recalls have for the most part been voluntary, why? Because each company really doesn’t want to lose the trust of the consumer. The sooner they can head off a potential problem, the better off the consumer will be, and the better off the company will be.

The loss of human life is always tragic. When a company causes harm to anyone, they should be held accountable if gross negligence, or conspiracy to keep quiet can be proven. Justice will prevail in the end, and any individual or company that lets self-interest stand in the way of doing what’s right, will pay a price. Even if no inept regulatory agency was there to execute some kind of punishment for the offending company, the company always suffers more when people quit buying their product.

One way or another this will be sorted out. In the meantime, don’t let the media hype get to you. As the old saying goes, “If it bleeds it leads.” Also, the media will always shoot at a big target every time one is presented, GM is just the latest big target on the rotation.