The Mechanic

[nihil-goddess]

Time to Cool Off

When you hop in your car in the summer, there is nothing you want more than for the cold air to start blowing. It would be tragic if your AC gave out on you. Sometimes driving with your windows rolled down just does not cut it and you need that ice-cold AC blowing in your face. I worked for years as a landscaper in Nevada. During the summers, I would be completely drenched in sweat when it was time to get off work. Hopping into my truck and cranking the AC felt amazing.

Sadly, your AC is just like anything else on your car and it can fail on you. Sometimes you get lucky and this happens to you in the winter. Then you can put off getting it fixed for a little bit. If it quits on you when it’s hot though, odds are that you will want it fixed as soon as possible. AC systems are very difficult to work on at home. The main reason for this being that your AC system is full of a refrigerant that is illegal to release to the atmosphere. It must be sucked out of the system using a machine that can store the coolant in a tank. AC systems can also be daunting to work on as many people do not understand how they work.

Major AC Components

Your AC has a few major components that are crucial to the way that it operates. We found a great video to explain how this works. Check this out to get a basic idea.

Here is a list of the major components and their basic functions:

Condenser- Transfers heat from inside of the vehicle to the outside.

Compressor- Pumps the refrigerant throughout the system

Evaporator- What makes the air cold

Dryer- Removes moisture from AC System

 Even with a basic understanding of how your AC system works, it is still difficult to work on it yourself. The main reason being the lack of proper equipment needed. It is usually recommended that you take your vehicle in to a trained professional to have them perform the necessary work on it.

A/C Recharge

If your AC is not working like it once did, an AC recharge is an option. This means to put extra refrigerant back into the AC system. Be aware, that this is not a fix to your problem. If your vehicle is low on refrigerant, that means that there is a leak somewhere. Your AC system is completely airtight and should not loose refrigerant. This leak could be very slow and by doing an occasional recharge, you can maintain a cold-blowing AC for a long time before repairs are needed.

AC recharges can be done both at home and at a shop. Many different stores sell bottles with the fittings needed, with gauges installed, so that anyone can recharge their own AC. These will come with instructions that are simple to follow. To do so you only need to connect the hoses to the low side of your AC system. Turn your AC on and you will be able to monitor on the gauge the pressure inside of your AC system. You can add refrigerant by pulling the trigger. Continue to do this until you are close to 40psi but be careful not to overcharge the system. After doing so, you should have noticeably colder AC.

Many shops will also do this for you. They have much larger machines for doing so. Generally, they will remove all of the refrigerant from your system and then pump it back in to the appropriate level. Whether you decide to do it yourself or have a mechanic do it for you, is totally up to you.

A/C Repair

Oftentimes, your AC system will need more than just a recharge. Different components can fail or start to leak. When things like this happen, it is generally better to leave this to a trained professional who has the proper equipment. If your AC compressor fails, this is really not a hard component to remove and replace. The difficult part of this is draining the AC system so that the refrigerant isn’t released into the air. It is also important that the right amount of oil is placed back into the system afterwards.

So, unless you have the proper equipment or know someone who does, it is best to leave AC repairs to the professionals. Find a nearby mechanic who you can trust and take your AC problems to him.

Proper Refrigerant

The AC systems in our cars have evolved a lot over the years. With improvements in technology to increase the performance and comfort of our AC’s and also with improvements to make them more environmentally friendly, your AC system is a lot more advanced than most people realize. One thing that has changed majorly over time is the refrigerant used in cars.

Originally, a refrigerant known as R-12 Freon was used. This worked the same as our modern-day refrigerant but with one major difference. The R-12 refrigerant was terrible for the environment and actually depleted the ozone layer. In 1994 it was officially outlawed. Today, R-134a Freon is used in cars. This performs the same function but is much safer. Many shops will convert your older cars R-12 AC system into an R-134a system.

Good to Know

I hope you got something out of reading this article. If you are driving around this summer and your AC isn’t working like you want, you hopefully will have an idea what’s wrong now. Your car might only need a simple recharge to get it blowing ice-cold again. You might be in need of some new parts as well. Whatever your car is in need of, I hope you now know what to do when this happens. 

When it comes to AC systems, it is almost always best to take it in to a trained professional who knows how to properly deal with the refrigerant. They can keep your AC blowing cold and our planet’s atmosphere clean.

Please see our article entitled “Engine Tune-up”.

[nihil-goddess]

Your Car’s Shoes

For anyone that owns a car, having to get new tires can be a painful and expensive process. A tire can cost you anywhere from $40-$400. Not only that but your car needs four tires. That can be a lot of money. That is why it is so important that you take good care of your tires to make sure that they last as long as possible. A good tire can last you anywhere from 3-5 years if taken good care of.

No one can ever predict unfortunate events taking place. If you are to runover a nail, that could cost you your tire. Sometimes things like that just happen. Maybe a stick will poke through the sidewall of your tire. These events could happen to anyone at any time. That is not what we are talking about in this article. We are trying to help you get the absolute most life out of your tires. This will save you money down the road and help your car be safer as you are driving it around. You can take that money you save on tires and buy yourself something nice instead.

Tire Rotation

One of the simplest and best ways to take care of your tires is to rotate your tires. This is as simple as it sounds, switching your tires around on your vehicle. The tires in the front do not wear the same as the tires in the back. There is an uneven amount of weight on the front tires as compared to the back tires. As the engine and all other under-hood components are generally in the front of the vehicle, a large amount of weight rests directly over the front tires.

This will cause them to wear differently than the rear tires. By rotating the tires, all of the tires are able to get a turn in the front and back. This ensures that they are able to wear evenly. This prevents two of your tires from wearing out very quickly. As tire rotations are very simple, an individual with a jack and some jack stands can easily do this. If not, a shop will also happily do it for you for a very fair price.

Wheel Alignment

Another great way to increase the life of your tires is wheel alignment. Over time, as your vehicle hits bumps and as the suspension components wear out, your tire alignment will be off. This could result in your tires dragging. This will wear them out very quickly and can result in you buying tires very soon.

A poor wheel alignment can also make a vehicle to drive unsafely. You may notice that the vehicle pulls to one side or that the vehicles steering is strange. These are both problems that can be caused by poor wheel alignment.

Wheel alignment is tougher to fix by yourself. An accurate wheel alignment requires a large machine which will tell the mechanic information about the tires. From there, the mechanic can make proper adjustments to ensure that the wheels are properly aligned. After adjustments are made, the machine will then confirm that the wheels are aligned or indicate that further adjustments are necessary. The three things that are adjusted on your vehicle are called toe, camber, and caster. We will explain exactly what those are.

Toe, Camber, and Caster

Toe is the angle of the toes as you are looking from above. This is used to see whether the tires are pointed outwards or inwards. Generally, the owner wants the tires to be pointed as straight as possible. If your tires are pointed outwards that is known as toe-out and if they pointed inwards that is toe-in.

Camber is the angle of your tires as you are looking at them from straight on. As the top of the tire leans in towards the vehicle, that is known as negative camber. As the top of the tire leans away from the car, that is known as positive camber. A perfectly straight tire will have zero degrees of chamber.

Caster is by far the most difficult to understand of the three. Caster has to do with the steering axis as related to the vertical axis of the wheel. This may not make much sense. We have found a video that explains very well what caster is and also that uses a great example to help visualize what caster is. Take a look!

Proper Inflation

Another very simple way to increase the life of your tires is to make sure that they are always inflated to the proper levels. Over-inflated and under-inflated tires will wear unevenly, resulting in you having to buy new tires. A tire that is over-inflated will not sit flat on the road. Instead, only the very center of the tire will contact the road due to the excessive pressure. This will wear out the middle of the tire very quickly.

Driving on an under-inflated tire will cause the tire to sag. This will cause the edges of the tire to wear very quickly. Neither one of these two conditions is good. They will both force you to buy new tires. Something as simple as making sure that your tires are always at the correct pressure can save you hundreds of dollars.

On top of that, many cars now have systems which monitor the pressure of each of your tires. If any tires pressure gets too low, the car will then alert you. You can also see the real-time pressure of each individual tire while driving.

Save Yourself Some Money

Tires can be expensive, and no one wants to have to buy them more often than they already need to. By taking proper care of your tires, you can make sure that they last a long time. Rotating tires and checking the tire pressure are both very simple tasks that an individual can do themselves or that a mechanic will do for a very low cost. Alignment, although not expensive, requires special equipment and is best done by a professional. These simple things will help you get the most out of your tires.

Please see our articles entitled “Engine Tune-up” and “Time to Cool Off”.

[nihil-goddess]

Engine Tune-up

Unfortunately, no car will run like new forever. They will all eventually wear out, lose power, get worse gas mileage, release more emissions, and potentially a lot of other things. It is very easy to become attached to your vehicle and it hurts to watch it deteriorate.

I once owned a 1996 Geo Metro with the 1.0L 3-cylinder engine. When it was newer it was an amazing car that got outstanding gas mileage. After about 200,000 miles, that car had lost a significant amount of power. I was still getting pretty good gas mileage although it wasn’t as good as before. While the car still ran fine, it was not the same little car I had once owned.

That is where an engine tune-up comes into play. By taking good care of your car’s engine, you can make sure that it runs like new for a long time to come. There are a lot of different things that go into a basic tune-up. A little tune-up helped sustain my little geo metro and it can do the same for your car.

Spark Plugs

One of the most crucial aspects of an engine tune-up is checking the spark plugs. Your spark plugs are what make engine combustion possible. Fuel and air are mixed inside of your engine and then compressed. When compressed, a spark is provided by your spark plug. This ignites the mixture and generates the power which propels your vehicle forward.

Over time, your spark plugs will begin to wear out. They generate a spark by passing an electrical current through two electrodes. This electrical current will have to arc from one electrode to the other. Over time, these electrodes wear out and will slowly grow farther and farther apart.

As the electrodes grow farther apart, a higher voltage is needed to arc across. This can cause them to intermittently spark or not at all. This will cause very noticeable changes to the way that your car drives. Generally, spark plugs need to be replaced every 100,000 miles. This is a long time, so that people often forget about them. Ensuring that your spark plugs are in good shape is one of the best things that you can do to ensure that your car runs like new for a long time to come.

Air Filters

Another important part of an engine tune-up is to change the air filters. Your vehicle will have two different air filters. Your main air filter is for the engine. Air is an essential part of the combustion process in your engine. As your vehicle is taking in air from outside in to the engine, it’s important that the air is clean so that your engine doesn’t fill up with dust, pollen, or other contaminants.

Your air filter is responsible for pulling these things out of the air and only allowing clean air to enter your engine. Over time, your air filter will get dirty and start to get plugged. When this happens, your engine will struggle to breath. The Federal EPA and Department of Energy has stated that a clogged air filter will have negative effects on your vehicles’ performance. Cleaning your air filter can improve acceleration from 6 to 11 percent. That is a significant improvement!

Another important filter is your cabin air filter. This cleans the air that is entering the cabin where you and your passengers are. This cabin air filter functions like any other air filter does. It catches those dust particles, pollen, and other contaminants before they get to the people inside of the vehicle. This will make it so the air you are breathing inside is much cleaner.

Changing out these filters is very simple and can be done in minutes. Despite being quick, they will make sure that your car is running like new. The air inside your vehicle will be as fresh and clean as possible and your will be getting the best performance possible out of your vehicle.

Inspection

There are so many small components in your vehicle that all can have a big impact on the way that it drives. That is why another very important part of an engine tune-up is to perform a thorough inspection. Anything that is loose, cracked, failed, damaged, or unplugged can rob horsepower or fuel economy from your vehicle. Checking to make sure that everything is in good condition will keep things running right.

There are a lot of parts that each need to be periodically inspected. Engines rely on vacuum to function properly. If there is a vacuum hose which is not sealed as it should be, this could cause noticeable negative effects on the way your car drives. By running a simple vacuum test, you can make sure that you have. With simple tools and knowledge, this can be performed. Here is a helpful video that explains how to do this.

It is important that all hoses and belts are inspected as well as oxygen sensors. All of these components can negatively affect the way that your car drives.

Quick and Painless

Auto tune-ups can be one of the simplest things to be done on a car. Changing spark plugs and air filters are both fairly simple tasks. This makes it easy for the average mechanic to do this himself. Many auto repair shops also offer very affordable prices on auto tune-ups to try to attract customers. Whether you would rather do it yourself, or pay a small amount to a shop, it totally up to you. Regardless of what you decide, performing a basic engine tune-up will help your car to run like new again.

Look at Me

That old Geo Metro I once had, ran better than ever after a small amount of work. By cleaning and changing out a few parts, I was able to get some of the lost power back and bring my fuel economy back to almost 50 mpg! If my little geo could come back to life, then so can your car too!

Another article you might be interested in is this one I found on another blog entitled “How Auto Repair Shops Keep Up With Technology”. Please see our article entitled “Your Car’s Shoes”.