Auto Repair For Dummies
Overview
Auto Repair For Dummies, 2nd Edition (9781119543619) was previously published as Auto Repair For Dummies, 2nd Edition (9780764599026). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.
The top-selling auto repair guide--400,000 copies sold--now extensively reorganized and updated
Forty-eight percent of U.S. households perform at least some automobile maintenance on their own, with women now accounting for one third of this $34 billion automotive do-it-yourself market. For new or would-be do-it-yourself mechanics, this illustrated how-to guide has long been a must and now it's even better. A complete reorganization now puts relevant repair and maintenance information directly after each automotive system overview, making it much easier to find hands-on fix-it instructions. Author Deanna Sclar has updated systems and repair information throughout, eliminating discussions of carburetors and adding coverage of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles. She's also revised schedules for tune-ups and oil changes, included driving tips that can save on maintenance and repair costs, and added new advice on troubleshooting problems and determining when to call in a professional mechanic. For anyone who wants to save money on car repairs and maintenance, this book is the place to start.
Deanna Sclar (Long Beach, CA), an acclaimed auto repair expert and consumer advocate, has contributed to the Los Angeles Times and has been interviewed on the Today show, NBC Nightly News, and other television programs.
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About The Author
Deanna Sclar is an acclaimed auto repair expert. She has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV shows, including NBC's Today show and the NBCNightly News. Sclar lectures internationally on the ecological impact of vehicles and is active in promoting residential solar energy programs. Sclar is also the author of Buying a Car For Dummies.
Sample Chapters
auto repair for dummies
CHEAT SHEET
Following some basic auto repair safety rules and a monthly maintenance schedule will keep you safe and prevent auto problems later. Disassembling auto parts and putting them back together is easier if you stay calm and avoid distractions.Auto repair safety rulesWhen you’re repairing your car or doing basic maintenance, practice these safety methods to avoid injury to yourself and damage to your automobile and to be prepared in case of a mishap:
Don’t smoke while you’re working on your vehicle.
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General Car Repair & Maintenance
Following some basic auto repair safety rules and a monthly maintenance schedule will keep you safe and prevent auto problems later. Disassembling auto parts and putting them back together is easier if you stay calm and avoid distractions.Auto repair safety rulesWhen you’re repairing your car or doing basic maintenance, practice these safety methods to avoid injury to yourself and damage to your automobile and to be prepared in case of a mishap:
Don’t smoke while you’re working on your vehicle.
When you’re repairing your car or doing basic maintenance, practice these safety methods to avoid injury to yourself and damage to your automobile and to be prepared in case of a mishap:
Don’t smoke while you’re working on your vehicle.
Never work on your vehicle unless the parking brake is on, the gearshift is in Park or Neutral, and the engine is shut off (unless it has to be running for you to do the work).
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Regular maintenance is absolutely imperative if you want a diesel engine to last, and every diesel owner will probably encounter some pitfalls and problems.
Although diesel engines require no ignition tune-ups and tend to last longer without major repairs than gasoline engines, they do require regular low-cost maintenance, mostly in the form of frequent oil and filter changes.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You can get your car windows crystal clear and your mirrors and chrome sparklingly reflective without a lot of extra hassle. Because they have characteristics that the rest of the car's body doesn't — namely transparency and reflectiveness — the soap you use on the rest of the car isn't going to cut if you want invisible windows, gleaming mirrors, and sparkling chrome.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your car is having problems, and you think that your engine is getting enough air and fuel, you’re probably having ignition system trouble. On traditional vehicles, the “fire” that lights the fuel/air mixture is really electric current that’s stored in the battery, replaced by the alternator, monitored by sensors, and directed by the ECU to the spark plugs in the cylinders at the proper time.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Diesel fuel can easily become contaminated by water because diesel fuel absorbs water more than gasoline does. For this reason, many diesel vehicles feature a gadget called a water separator that collects water from the fuel. It’s usually located on or near the fuel filter. If your vehicle doesn’t have one, you can have one installed.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Just like regular gasoline engines, diesel engines require regular maintenance that involves changing the lubricating oil that keeps your vehicle's parts running smoothly. If you can change the oil on a gasoline engine, you can change the oil on a diesel — just be aware of a few differences.
Because diesel fuel is sometimes called diesel oil, be aware that the oil you have to change is not the fuel oil but the oil that lubricates the engine.
The basic difference between a diesel engine and a gasoline engine is that in a diesel engine, the fuel is sprayed into the combustion chambers through fuel injector nozzles just when the air in each chamber has been placed under such great pressure that it’s hot enough to ignite the fuel spontaneously.
Following is a step-by-step view of what happens when you start up a diesel-powered vehicle.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You know you should change your oil at regular, reasonable intervals to make sure your car runs smoothly, but a common question remains: How often should you change your oil? What is a reasonable amount of time — or mileage — between oil changes?The traditional recommendation is that you should change your oil every 3,000 miles or six months, whichever comes first.
If your tires appear to be low, check the pressure and note the amount that they’re underinflated. Then drive to a local gas station and add air. It’s easy, but be sure to bring some change (usually quarters) with you for the air dispenser. (Forget about things being “as free as air” — at many stations it isn’t!
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your car has a coolant recovery system, you can check the level of liquid on the side of the plastic reservoir. You just open the cap on the reservoir to check whether the coolant looks as though it needs changing or to add water and coolant.
Many vehicles have a pressurized coolant recovery system called an expansion tank that makes opening the radiator unnecessary.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Exhaust coming from your vehicle's tailpipe should be clear. If you see smoke coming from your tailpipe, pay attention to the color of the smoke; you can use it to troubleshoot engine problems. It can tell you whether you have a leaky gasket or give you hints about your air/fuel mixture:
You see white vapor on a cold morning: Disregard it if it stops after the vehicle warms up.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Car smells mean trouble, but you can use them to diagnose problems. The only odors you should smell inside your vehicle should come from smelly things that you’ve put in it. If you smell any of the items in the following list, take immediate action to correct it:
You smell rubber burning under the hood: One of your hoses may have come loose and landed on a hot part of the engine.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You can actually read your spark plugs for valuable “clues” about how your engine is operating. If your plugs indicate that something is seriously wrong with your engine, ask a professional for an opinion.
To read a spark plug and assess engine troubles, you first have to remove it. Use a spark plug wrench with an extender.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your vehicle makes mysterious squeaks, rattles, or vibrations, troubleshoot the problem yourself first before taking it to an auto shop. You might save some money by checking and tightening the following items before seeking professional help:
Loose screws and bolts: Check both inside the vehicle and under the hood.
If your vehicle has squishy-feeling brakes, the way to get the air out of the lines is to bleed the brakes. To do the job, you need either a brake bleeder wrench or a combination wrench that fits the bleeder nozzle on your vehicle, a can of the proper brake fluid, a clean glass jar, and a friend.
If you have ABS, EBD, BA, or another sophisticated brake system, you should really have a professional bleed the brakes for you to avoid getting air into the actuator.
To buy the proper spark plugs for your vehicle, you must know its specifications. Your owner’s manual may have specifications for buying and gapping the spark plugs on your vehicle.
If you don’t have an owner’s manual, or if yours lacks the necessary information, you can find the correct spark plugs and spark plug gap in a general “Tune-Up Specification Guide” (called a “spec sheet,” for short) at an auto supply store.
You should flush and replace the brake fluid in your brake system every two years. You can change your own brake fluid, but service facilities now do this with brake flushing machines. If you find have a brake fluid leak or you have to bleed your brakes, you’ll have to restore the brake fluid in your master cylinder to its proper level.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
On most modern vehicles, the air filter is under the hood inside a rectangular cold air collector box that’s located up near the front of the engine compartment. (Other vehicles, including those with carburetors, have big round metal air cleaners that are hard to miss.)
The air cleaner has a large air inlet duct (also called the air intake hose) connected to it.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Changing the filter on a fuel-injected vehicle can be tricky. On fuel-injected vehicles, you need to disable the fuel pump to relieve the pressure on the fuel lines, which may be secured to the filter with clamps, threaded fittings, or special quick-connect fittings.
Lines with threaded fittings require a special flare-nut line wrench.
No matter how well your vehicle is working, if your battery dies and can’t be recharged, you’re stranded in a vehicle that you can’t drive in for service. You need to know how to change a car battery.
A battery usually has a sticker on it that shows when you bought it and how long you can expect it to survive.
Having a flat tire and not knowing how to change it can leave you feeling helpless. With a few simple tools, you can do it yourself. Changing a tire is easy, and everyone should have a general idea of what's involved. Watch this video or follow the steps below:
Secure the vehicle so that it won't roll; and roll the spare tire to the scene of the action.
If your stereo goes dead, your turn signals don’t blink, a light goes out, or some other gadget stops working, it’s often just the result of a blown fuse. You can change fuses yourself, easily and with very little expense.
Many vehicles have two fuse boxes: one under the hood as shown here:
A fuse box located under the hood
The other is under the dash.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Not every vehicle has a PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) valve. If yours has one, and your engine has been idling roughly or a malfunction indicator light goes on, check the PCV valve to make sure that it isn’t clogged with sludge from the contaminants in the exhaust fumes or stuck in the wide-open position.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Changing oil is usually easy. Unless it’s impossible to reach your oil filter and/or oil drain plug, it’s cheaper to change the oil yourself. All you have to do is unscrew a plug and a filter, let the oil drain out, replace the filter and plug, and pour in some new oil.
Before you begin work, be sure your gearshift is in Park or Neutral with the parking brake on, and set out all your tools and equipment.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your vehicle hesitates when your automatic transmission shifts gears, check the transmission fluid level before you let any mechanic start talking about servicing or adjusting your transmission or selling you a new one. To check your automatic transmission fluid, look for a dipstick handle sticking out of your transmission.
You should check disc brakes and disc brake linings every 10,000 miles — more often if your brakes suddenly start to squeal or pull to one side, or if your brake pedal flutters when you step on it. Don’t confuse the fluttering with the normal pulsing of ABS brakes when they’re applied in an emergency stop.
Today, most vehicles have four-wheel disc brakes.
You have to remove a bunch of stuff to get to a drum brake. The steps here explain how to check drum brakes and what to look for when you finally get to them. Follow these steps to check drum brakes:
Arrange to do this work in a well-ventilated area, wear an inexpensive but protective paper mask, and be very careful not to inhale the dust from the brake drum.
If the fluid level in your master cylinder remains full, you don’t need to check your brake lines. However, if you’re losing brake fluid, you need to check for a leak in the wheel cylinders or the brake lines.
The easiest way to check brake lines is to put the vehicle up on a hydraulic hoist, raise it over your head, walk under it, and examine the lines as they lead from the hood area to each wheel.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Essentially, when you check your master cylinder, you’re making sure that you have enough brake fluid, which is stored in the master cylinder. When you step on the brake pedal, fluid goes from the master cylinder into the brake lines; when you release the pedal, the fluid flows back into the master cylinder.
To check the brake fluid in your master cylinder, follow these steps:Open the brake fluid reservoir on top of your master cylinder.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You should check your tires for wear at least once a month and before and after long trips. You check them to determine whether you need to buy new tires, have your wheels balanced, have your wheels aligned, or change your driving habits.
Underinflated tires wear out faster, create excessive heat, increase fuel consumption, and make your car harder to handle.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You should check your car's oil at least once a month to make sure that there’s enough oil and that it isn’t contaminated. Oil reduces the friction in your engine and keeps it running smoothly. When you check your oil, if it is dirty or smells of gasoline, it's time for your oil to be changed.You should also check the levels using the oil dipstick ― if you’re oil is clean but only reaches the “Add” part of the dipstick, you’ll need to add more oil.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Many cars have accessory belts that drive the alternator, the power-steering pump, the air conditioning compressor, the water pump in many cases, and other parts of a modern vehicle. Newer cars have a serpentine multi-accessory drive belt, as shown here.
A serpentine multi-accessory drive belt
If you drive an older car, you have to check the separate belts, as shown here.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
To check your car's brake fluid, you have to find the reservoir. Its location depends on the type of car you have. The brake booster is on the driver’s side of your vehicle, usually up near the firewall. Just in front of that, sitting on and connected to the brake master cylinder, is the brake fluid reservoir, usually a plastic canister like the one shown here.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The radiator in your vehicle cools your engine and needs water and coolant (antifreeze) to function. Keep the following points in mind as you check the level of the liquid in your cooling system and add more, if necessary: ©iStockphoto.com / bandit2523
Rather than open the cap on the radiator, just check to see whether the liquid reaches the "Full" line on the side of the coolant reservoir shown here.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your automatic transmission hesitates when you change gears or shifts with a “clunk,” first check your transmission dipstick. Your transmission fluid may be low or dirty.
To check your automatic transmission fluid, look for a dipstick handle sticking out of your transmission toward the rear of an in-line engine on vehicles with rear-wheel drive:
Finding the transmission dipstick on an in-line engine
If your vehicle has front-wheel drive, you will find it sticking out of the transaxle:
Finding the transmission dipstick on a transverse engine
If you have a manual transmission, the fluid level must be checked with the vehicle on a hoist to enable the technician to reach a plug in the bottom of the transmission.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You can check your car's wheel bearings to see if they need to be repacked. Wheel bearings usually come in pairs of inner and outer bearings. They allow your wheels to turn freely over thousands of miles by cushioning the contact between the wheel and the spindle it sits on with frictionless bearings and lots of nice, gooey grease.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your vehicle has been running roughly or losing power, there may be a lack of pressure in one or more cylinders. To determine whether pressure is escaping from the engine, you need to check the compression in the cylinders with a compression gauge, which measures the amount of pressure that the piston exerts on the fuel/air mixture before the spark plug fires the mixture.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If you don’t have a pressurized coolant recovery system, you have to add liquid directly to the radiator. If you must add liquid to the radiator if the engine is still warm, always do so slowly with the engine running. This way, the cold liquid joins the stream of hot water that’s circulating through the system rather than falling all at once into the system when you start the engine again.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
In most newer, fuel-injected vehicles, the air filter is found inside a rectangular box called a cold air collector box. The air filter is usually close to the front of the vehicle, near the inside of one of the fenders. Air that’s scooped up by the front of the vehicle moves through an air intake tube into the air filter inside the box.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
A battery, like other parts of your vehicle, is subject to wear and tear and should be checked regularly. In particular, pay attention to the battery’s trouble spots, shown here. A battery that’s kept clean lasts longer than a cruddy one. The parts of the battery to check
Before you work on your battery, be sure to read all of the safety measures involved.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Not every vehicle has a PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) valve. If yours has one, and your engine has been idling roughly or a malfunction indicator light goes on, check the PCV valve to make sure it isn’t clogged with sludge from the contaminants in the exhaust fumes or stuck in the wide-open position.
The PCV valve is a vital part of the emissions control system on most vehicles.
The various types of motor oil on the market are designed for different purposes. To choose the proper type of oil for your vehicle, you need to understand the significance of the oil additives, viscosity ratings, and classification codes.
Oil additives: To help the oil keep your engine cool, clean, and corrosion-free, refiners blend in various additives, which can account for as much as 25 percent of the cost of the oil.
Many car owners never bother to deal with the dirt under the hood. There are practical reasons for removing a gross accumulation of grease, oil, fuel, and dirt from under the hood and for making an effort to keep things under control from then on.
Most engines are made of metal and depend on rubber hoses, gaskets, and wiring if they’re to work properly.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
A convertible is a joy to drive with the top down, but if you don’t take care of it properly, you may find yourself cold and wet when the time comes to put it back up. Proper care can protect and prolong the life of a convertible's cloth tops (affectionately known as ragtops) and vinyl-covered hardtops.
If you have a convertible with a cloth top, keep that top clean by vacuuming it often or by using a whisk broom to get the dust out of the areas around the trim.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Keeping your car’s interior clean is more than a matter of pride; dirt contains grit and chemicals that can eat away the surfaces of your car’s interior. Generally speaking, the same procedures and products that you use at home work quite well in your car.
Clean the interior before you do the exterior. The most effective thing you can do is vacuum the seats first, remove and clean the floor mats, and then vacuum the carpets.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your car won’t start and you left your lights on after you turned off the engine, your battery is dead. But your conventionally fueled vehicle may not start for a number of reasons. The following list outlines the most common circumstances and tells you what action you can take to try to remedy each situation:
The car is silent when you turn the key in the ignition: Check the battery terminal cable connections.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Pay close attention to leaks from your automobile's engine. Running a vehicle that’s drastically low on a vital fluid can cause severe damage. After you find the source of the leak, the following information will help you decide whether you can handle it yourself or you need professional help.
If water is getting into your vehicle’s passenger compartment, check the rubber gaskets and weather stripping around the windows, doors, and sunroof.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If the engine turns over but doesn’t start running, the first question you need to answer is whether your fuel tank is empty. Even if your fuel gauge says that you still have some fuel, the gauge may be on the blink. When did you last fill the tank?
Sometimes the problem is too much fuel. If you open the hood and find that everything is covered with gasoline, don’t try to start the engine!
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The best way to clean up spilled oil is to cover the oil with a generous layer of kitty litter, let it soak up the oil for a few hours (it will even pull some up out of the concrete or asphalt), then sweep up and properly dispose of the oil-soaked stuff.
Next, squirt some liquid dishwashing soap onto the stain and scrub with a stiff brush; or on unpainted concrete, scrub the area with a solution of half laundry soap and half bleach.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Many compounds are on the market for filling small holes, dents, and creases in the surface of your car. Most kits contain at least two substances: the filler and a hardener that you mix with the filler before you use it. Check carefully at the auto supply store to find the kit with the easiest instructions that can do the job for you as simply as possible.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
In addition to keeping the water and coolant level where it needs to be, you can prevent trouble in your car's cooling system by keeping an eye out for leaks and replacing old or damaged hoses. The common trouble spots in the cooling system — the places where you should check for coolant leaks— are shown here.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If you’ve decided to replace your car's battery yourself, the first thing to do is to buy the right one. Unless your vehicle has a shield over the battery that’s difficult or dangerous to remove, it shouldn’t be hard to replace it yourself. If installation and disposal are included in the price of a new battery, there may be no advantage in undertaking the job.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your vehicle’s owner’s manual has instructions for draining the liquid from the cooling system, follow them to perform your own coolant flush. If you don’t have a manual, or if it lacks such instructions for performing a coolant flush, follow these steps to flush and change the coolant without endangering the environment.
The gap between the center and side electrodes of a spark plug must be an exact distance; otherwise, your plugs don’t fire efficiently. Adjusting the distance between the two electrodes is called gapping your spark plugs. You need a feeler gauge to gap your spark plugs properly.
Gap new as well as old spark plugs, even if the package says that the new plugs are “pre-gapped.
When you're changing your vehicle's spark plugs, work on one spark plug at a time: Remove it, inspect it, clean it, and — if it’s salvageable — gap the spark plugs. Then replace it before you move on to the next spark plug in cylinder sequence order. To maintain the proper firing order, each spark-plug wire must go from the spark source to the proper spark plug.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Faulty or old weather stripping should be replaced to prevent whistles and leaks inside your vehicle. If your car's interior or trunk gets wet when you wash the car or when it rains, use a garden hose to locate the areas on the weather stripping that let the water in. If the windows whistle when you drive with them closed, check the weather stripping for the cause of the sound effects.
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If your car battery has died, you may be able to use jumper cables to jump-start it with the help of some good Samaritan's vehicle. If you can safely use jumper cables on your vehicle, make sure that the battery on the good Samaritan's vehicle has at least as much voltage as your own.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Even though diesel-powered vehicles can have dual batteries or one oversized battery, it’s possible to jump-start a diesel from the battery on a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. If your diesel won’t start due to a dead battery, follow the steps here to jump it safely.
To avoid confusion, these instructions call the vehicle with the dead battery the disabled vehicle and the one you’re jumping the start from the source vehicle.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If you've ever locked your keys in the car, you know how frustrating it can be. Here are a few tips on how to open a locked car door.Get your spare key
One obvious way to get into the locked car is to have a spare key handy. Those little magnetic boxes that stick to the metal surface of the vehicle body or frame work great, but be sure to place your box in an obscure and hard-to-reach area where it can't jiggle loose and fall out.
If you find some rust spots on your car, don’t panic. If the rust is underneath the vehicle, on the underside of the body or bumpers where it doesn’t show, or confined to very small areas that can be touched up easily, you can probably take care of the matter yourself.
The paint on your vehicle is there not only for beauty but for protection as well.
How can you check the oil, coolant, and transmission fluid, refill windshield wiper fluid, and check accessory belts if you don’t know how to get the hood of your vehicle open? Opening the hood is easy and uncomplicated — if you know how to do it. Although the location of the hood release may differ from one vehicle to the next, all releases work in pretty much the same way.
After you finish inspecting your drum brakes, you’re ready to reassemble them. Refer to this diagram of a drum brake to make sure that you get everything back in the proper order and direction. The following steps show you how:
Saturate the dirt on the brake backing plate with brake parts cleaner; then wipe it off with a clean, grease-free rag.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
When changing your spark plugs, you may have some difficulty loosening a spark plug for the first time. Grease, sludge, and other junk may have caused the plug to stick in place, especially if it’s been a long time since it was changed. If it feels stuck, try a little spray lubricant. You’ll feel better knowing that after you’ve installed your new plugs by hand, it will be a lot easier to get them loose the next time.
The first step in changing your spark plugs is to remove the old ones. To avoid turning this job into an all-weekend project, remove one spark plug at a time, inspect it, clean it, and — if it’s salvageable — gap the spark plugs. Then replace it before you move on to the next spark plug in cylinder sequence order.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Taking care of little dents and dings on a vehicle is a simple matter. This type of damage may not require much work at all, even on a car's aluminum and plastic parts. Here are some situations that you may want to tackle:
If the paint has simply flaked or has been scratched off the surface: Touch up the paint.
If you have disc brakes, repacking wheel bearings isn’t a difficult job. It’s just that you may not get the calipers back on right, which could cause your brakes to malfunction. If you have drum brakes, go right ahead and repack the bearings yourself. Follow these steps to repack the wheel bearings for drum brakes:Jack up the car and remove a wheel.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Older vehicles have sealed-beam units, which are relatively easy to deal with. If one of your headlights ceases to shine, first consult your owner’s manual to see whether it contains instructions for replacing the bulb. If it doesn’t, the following steps should get you through the job with a minimum of hassle.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your vehicle has been overheating or doesn’t warm up properly, you may need to replace your thermostat. If the thermostat sticks in the open position, it doesn’t keep the liquid in the engine long enough, so you have trouble getting your car warmed up. If the thermostat sticks in the closed position, the liquid isn’t allowed to get to the radiator, and overheating results.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The basic process of changing a hose is quite simple. If the hose is a radiator or heater hose, to catch the coolant and water that will run out of the system, you’ll need a bucket or pan that holds at least two gallons of liquid and will fit under the radiator drain valve (called the petcock) that drains the radiator.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
To keep your cooling system cool, check the fluid level in the system and, if necessary, add water and coolant (see below for how to add fluid directly to a radiator). It’s dangerous to remove the pressure cap from the radiator or coolant recovery system reservoir while the engine is still warm. Because it’s hard to tell just how hot things are inside the engine, follow these guidelines when removing a pressure cap:
Never remove the cap from a radiator or coolant recovery system reservoir when the engine is hot.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The most obvious reason to jack up a car is to change a tire, but other jobs, such as inspecting brakes, may also require you to get under the vehicle. Before you jack up your vehicle, observe the following safety precautions:
Use the jack only to get a vehicle off the ground, never to hold a vehicle in place.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If you're troubleshooting engine problems, air is simple — and probably not the problem. Your vehicle gets its air through the cold air collector box, or air cleaner. Unless the air filter inside it is totally clogged, your engine should be getting enough air to keep it going.
In a worst-case scenario, something has gone amiss with your engine control unit (ECU), and it’s keeping air from mixing properly with the fuel.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Tune-up intervals vary from one vehicle to another. Most older vehicles with non-electronic ignitions should be tuned every 10,000 to 12,000 miles or every year, whichever comes first. Newer cars with electronic ignition and fuel injection systems are scheduled to go from 25,000 miles to as many as 100,000 miles without needing a major tune-up.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The coolant in your vehicle should be changed if you haven’t changed it in a year or in the past 20,000 miles; if your vehicle constantly loses liquid in the system and overheats easily; or if you’ve frequently added plain water to your cooling system to the point where it’s probably lowered the proportion of coolant to less than half the required 50/50 mixture.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Touching up a small scratch on your car with a little bottle of touch-up paint is easy. Before you start the job, mask the surrounding area well and use even, sweeping strokes to apply the paint. (Follow the directions on the can carefully.)
The techniques used to paint the body of a vehicle can vary depending on the size of the area you’re working on and the original paint and finish.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
To check for brake problems, you step on the pedal and press it down while paying attention to how the pedal feels under your foot and evaluating the sensation. The following steps tell you what to feel for.
Start your engine, but keep it in Park with the parking brake on. (If your vehicle doesn’t have power brakes, it’s okay to do this check with the engine off.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The catalytic converter is a very important part of the emissions control system on your vehicle. It’s usually good for the life of a vehicle, but occasionally it does fail. The best thing you can do is be alert for signs of trouble and head for a service facility if you suspect that the catalytic converter is malfunctioning.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The first sign of a car overheating is either when the needle on the temperature gauge pushes its way into the ominous red zone or the “Check Engine” or “Temperature” malfunction indicator light on the dashboard casts a sinister glow. Left alone, the liquid in the radiator eventually boils over, and steam rolls out from under the hood.
When you flush your vehicle's cooling system yourself, it’s important to avoid endangering children and animals. Because coolant looks and tastes good, a puddle can be hazardous to children. That goes double for thirsty cats, dogs, and wildlife.
Most coolant contains ethylene glycol, which is poisonous when swallowed.
The basic steps to waxing a vehicle are:
Get a high-quality wax, using the information under "Types of Waxes" below as a guide.
Wash your vehicle first to make sure you don't scratch the surface or trap particles of dirt and dust.
Apply the wax or polymer sealant.
Use a terry cloth towel, rubbing in one direction to break up the hazy surface.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You can pack your auto repair toolbox with the best tools that money can buy, but all those fancy gadgets and gizmos won’t do you any good if they’re at home when your vehicle breaks down 30 miles from civilization. Don’t tempt fate: Keep basic tools and materials onboard at all times.
Besides car toolbox filled with the tools you need for quick repairs, be sure to keep the following items onboard:
Rags: Keep a clean, lint-free rag in your vehicle to wipe your oil or transmission dipstick or to clean the inside of your windshield if it clouds up.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Under the hood of your vehicle is a plastic container that contains the fluid for your windshield wipers. Is it full of liquid? If not, you can fill it with any one of a variety of windshield washer solutions — you can even use a home window cleaner. Just don’t use detergent, which can leave a residue that can plug up your lines.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Taking the time for regular under-the-hood vehicle checks will help prevent problems later. Spending 15 minutes every month for an under-the-hood check may prevent 70% of problems that lead to highway breakdowns. Convinced? Then run through the following list once a month or every 1,000 miles:
Check the air filter.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Before attempting to replace or adjust your headlights, you need to know whether you have halogen or xenon headlamps or the old-style sealed-beam units. You can tell which type of headlights you have by looking at them when they’re on at night.
Headlights with sealed-beam units are quickly going out of style. The light they give off is just plain white.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
When you perform repairs, you need a procedure that helps you take things apart and get them back together. The procedure here works for repairs that require you to take something apart and put back together again — flat tires, toasters, bicycles, you name it.
Allow yourself plenty of time. If things get rough, have some water or a cup of coffee.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If you’re considering buying a new automobile, compare the pros and cons of diesel-powered vehicles. Consider these facts to help you decide between an engine powered by diesel fuel and a gasoline-powered one:
PRO: Diesels get great mileage. They typically deliver 25 to 30 percent better fuel economy than similarly performing gasoline engines.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The air filter setup on most diesel engines is the same as on gasoline-powered vehicles, with the filter located inside the cold air collector box located under the hood. Most diesels have two fuel filters: a “primary” filter located between the fuel tank and the engine, which cleans the fuel before it gets to the fuel transfer pump; and a “secondary” filter up near the engine, which gives the fuel a final cleaning before it gets to the fuel injectors.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
The first rule of auto repair jobs is never hurry! If things get rough, take a break. You may get a whole new perspective when you go back to work. Keep distractions to a minimum, don’t answer the phone, keep the kids and the dog away, and relax. Don’t panic if you hit a snag — sit quietly and think about it. If the parts fit together before, they’ll fit together again.
Cleaning your car efficiently saves you time and effort and ensures that the vehicle’s body comes out looking great. If you clean haphazardly, the task takes much longer, and you run the risk of scratching the finish, streaking the surface, and leaving the body vulnerable to rust.
Most modern vehicles are painted in a two-step process that produces a clear-coat finish, which can far outlast the acrylic lacquer or enamel used on older vehicles.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
When you find a leak in your engine's cooling system, you must decide whether to handle it yourself or to take it to a professional. The following sections cover the different types of leaks and give you a few pointers to help you decide:
Radiator leaks: If the radiator is leaking badly, go to a reliable radiator shop.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
You probably know how your vehicle sounds when it’s running properly. Listening to your car can help you troubleshoot problems. If you hear a strange sound, pay attention and react accordingly.
You hear a high-pitched squeal that stops when you shut off your engine: Readjust or replace the belt. These belts should have about half an inch of play and shouldn’t be frayed, cracked, or glazed on the underside.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If weird things start happening on the road, how can you tell whether your vehicle's transmission or one of the other parts of the drive train is in trouble? If this is the case, continuing to drive may make the situation worse.
However, a low transmission fluid level or a malfunctioning, inexpensive engine part may cause the same symptoms as a faulty transmission.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Most drivers can expect their clutches to last 40,000 to 60,000 miles, but if you maintain your clutch properly, it can be good for the life of your vehicle, depending on the type of vehicle you drive and how you drive it.
Most newer vehicles with manual transmissions have self-adjusting clutches that require no adjustment, but if you have an older model without self-adjustment, you can cut down on the wear on your clutch disk by keeping your clutch pedal properly adjusted.
Diesel fuel is more efficient than gasoline because it contains 10 percent more energy per gallon than gasoline. But there are a few kinds of diesel fuel. Just as gasoline is rated by its octane, diesel fuel is rated by its cetane, which indicates how easy it is to ignite and how fast it burns.
Diesel fuel is safer than gasoline because its vapors don’t explode or ignite as easily as gasoline vapors.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Because diesel engines require much higher temperatures to fire the fuel, they’ve always been harder to start in cold weather than gasoline-powered vehicles. To warm things up before the engine can run, a variety of heaters have been developed that keep various parts of the vehicle warm and snuggly even when it isn’t being driven.
Hybrid vehicles are called hybrids because they use both a small internal combustion engine (ICE) and an electric motor to obtain maximum power and fuel economy with minimum emissions. How they do this varies from one model to another, with varying success.
What all hybrids have in common is the ability to generate electric current, store it in a large battery, and use that current to help drive the car.
All cars used to run on the same type of fuel, but now gas stations offer not only unleaded gasoline but alternative fuels, such as ethanol, diesel, biodiesel, and others. Ethanol in particular has started showing up at gas stations with more regularity. But what is ethanol?
Ethanol is an alcohol fuel that's distilled from plant materials, such as corn and sugar.
If you plan to do your own car maintenance and repairs, you need a toolbox to keep tools clean, in good shape, and all in one place. Look for a lightweight, plastic toolbox that fits easily into the trunk of your vehicle and fill it with these tools:
Screwdrivers: The difference between a standard screwdriver and a Phillips screwdriver is the shape of the head, as shown here.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
If your vehicle is having a problem while you're driving, try to get to the right-hand shoulder of the road as soon as possible, especially if you’re on a highway. As you pull your vehicle off the road, keep the following safety procedures in mind:
Try to coast along the shoulder until you’re away from any curves in the road behind you.
General Car Repair & Maintenance
Cars overheat most often in very hot weather. It’s rare with modern vehicles, but even a well-tuned automobile can overheat. Although hot weather is the most common cause of overheating, many other factors can cause the same problem. If your vehicle overheats in traffic in normal weather, one of the following may be the culprit:
The water and coolant and water level in the radiator is low.
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