How to prepare your car for a road trip

Follow this schedule to head off several common road-trip headaches

Many people have concerns about taking their cars on long trips, especially if their cars are getting on in years or mileage. Truth is, long trips are actually easier on your car than day-to-day driving -- but a breakdown far from home can really ruin your fun. A few simple checks will stave off many common problems. As with most things, it's best to start early.

Two to four weeks before you go

Get any major repairs done. If your car needs major repair or maintenance, do it at least one month before you go. That will allow plenty of time for any problems related to the repair to pop up.Check the coolant. If your destination is a lot warmer or cooler than home, check (or have your mechanic check) the coolant's mixture of antifreeze and water to make sure the car is properly protected. If the coolant needs to be changed, do it (or have it done) now.
Check the tires. Make sure your tires are inflated to the proper pressure. Low pressure can cause extra heat buildup that can lead to a blowout at high speeds. Follow the instructions for checking tire pressure in your owner's manual. While you're down there, check the tire tread and if the tire is worn out for replacement.
Check the spare tire. Make sure the spare is fully inflated and that the jack, wrench, and other tire-changing bits are in the trunk. If your car has wheel locks, make sure you have the adapter for the lock-nut.

One week before you go

Get any scheduled maintenance done. If you think your car is going to come due for an oil change or other maintenance during your trip, get it done now. Check the tires again. The tire pressures should be about the same as they were last time you checked them.
Clean out your car. The more stuff you haul, the more fuel you burn. Clean mercilessly.
Check the air filter. A clogged air filter reduces fuel economy. They're inexpensive and easy to change. If your current air filter has been in the car for more than 10,000 miles, it's time to clean it or change it.
Buy a road atlas. If you don't have a current road atlas, get one. Hours and hours of expressway can get boring. Getting off the beaten path can add an entirely new dimension to your trip.

One day before you go

Wash and vacuum your car. Before you pack, give your car a good scrubbing and vacuuming. Clean cars always seem to run better. Besides, who wants to travel in a dirty car? Check and change the tire pressures. Yep -- tire pressures again! Many cars have two recommended ratings, one for light loads and one for heavy loads and/or high speeds. If you're taking the whole family, visit your local gas station and inflate the tires to the higher setting. You will find this information in the owners manual or on a sticker in the door jamb or fuel filler flap. Remember: Set the pressures when the tires are cold.
Fill the gas tank. Might as well get it out of the way now. Besides, gas is often more expensive on the road.

The day of your trip

Look at what you've packed. Open your suitcases and take one last look -- do you really need all that stuff? If there's anything you can do without, then do without. Load evenly and carefully. If you're carrying lots of heavy objects, position them forward in the trunk and distribute the weight evenly side to side. Cars don't have unlimited carrying capacity, so don't overload.
Relax! Unexpected things can happen, but if you've followed these guidelines, you've headed off a lot of potential problems. Relax and enjoy your trip!

How To: Polish Your Car Like a Pro

Keeping your car’s finish looking new doesn’t require a paycheck’s worth of equipment or a professional detail shop. “Wheeling”—i.e., polishing a vehicle with a rotating wheel, just like a pro detailer would—works by temporarily heating the paint’s clear coat until it softens into a viscous liquid that fills in and dissipates blemishes. To prevent permanent damage to the paint, limit this method of polishing to once a year and wax your car every couple of months. Follow these steps, and your ride will have a like-new shine in a matter of  hours.

STEP ONE: Start by  washing your car by hand in a shaded area. Rinse the vehicle thoroughly but do not dry it.

Technique Tip: Wheeling is a messy process, so cover items (such as other cars, pets, and nearby walls) that you don’t want to clean afterward. Use softer pads and polishing compounds on dark-colored cars, as they are especially sensitive to swirl marks. More-aggressive compounds and
pads can be used on lighter hues.

STEP TWO: Place a clean, slightly damp pad on the polishing wheel and put a moderate amount of compound on one body panel. Spread the polish with the wheel, using a medium speed. The key is to keep the spinning pad parallel to the car’s surface to avoid swirl marks. Apply constant pressure and work back and forth over the entire surface of the panel.  As the clear coat heats up and the paint becomes warm to the touch, scratches will begin to disappear. When the compound and water are thrown aside and absorbed by  the foam pad, the brightened finish will become visible. Stop. Move to the next panel and repeat.

Technique Tip: Keep the area wet and use just enough polish for each panel.

STEP THREE: As necessary, stop and rinse off the foam pad with a hose or a power washer to prevent it from becoming saturated or gummed up with compound.

Technique Tip: The outer edge of the pad moves faster, generating more friction than the center, and it usually carries less polish—a recipe for a burned finish. So be especially careful around intricate trim areas, such as washer nozzles, mirrors, emblems, and complex bumper contours that can be polished using only  the outer edge of the pad.

STEP FOUR: Wash and rinse the car again by hand when finished, including the door, trunk, and hood jambs. Dry  thoroughly.

STEP FIVE: Applying a coat of wax to the paint will help mask swirl marks and cover up most remaining surface imperfections. Mount a soft foam pad on an orbital sander and apply an approximate 60:40 mix of paste wax and a fine finishing polish onto the pad. Use the sander at a medium speed to spread the wax onto the vehicle in a back-and-forth motion and with light but steady pressure. Leave just enough of a waxy haze to be visible when dry.

STEP SIX: While the wax is drying, clean the other areas of the car (windows, interior, etc.) and then remove the wax with a microfiber towel—bath towels or rags may mar the surface.  Apply touch-up paint to chips and any lingering scratches as needed. Move the car into sunlight for a final inspection. Crack a cold one and enjoy.

Overheating Causes and Cures

Overheating Causes and Cures

 

Internal combustion engines run on heat. Chemical energy in the fuel is transformed into thermal energy when the fuel burns, which produces mechanical energy to push the pistons, spin the crankshaft and drive the vehicle down the road.
As efficient as today’s engines are, they still waste a lot of the heat energy they produce. The average gasoline engine is only about 22 to 28 percent efficient. That means over two-thirds of the heat produced by each gallon of fuel either goes out the tailpipe or is soaked up by the engine itself. Diesels squeeze a little more bang out of each buck’s worth of fuel with efficiency ratings of 32 to 38 percent, but even that leaves a lot of waste heat that must be managed and carried away by the cooling system.
Ironically, the hotter an engine runs the more efficient it becomes. But there’s a limit because aluminum pistons and heads can only get so hot before they start to soften and melt. The same goes for cast iron. Engineers have been tinkering with exotic ceramic materials and metallic-ceramic alloys in an attempt to build high-temperature, super efficient engines. They’ve realized some significant gains but ceramics are still too expensive for everyday applications.

How Hot Is Too Hot?
Most engines today are designed to operate within a "normal" temperature range of about 195 to 220 degrees F. A relatively constant operating temperature is absolutely essential for proper emissions control, good fuel economy and performance.
Anytime temperatures climb beyond the normal range, the engine is running in the danger zone.

Consequences of Overheating
If the engine overheats, the first thing that will happen is a gasoline engine will start to detonate. The engine will ping and start to lose power under load as the combination of heat and pressure exceed the octane rating of the fuel. If the detonation problem persists, the hammer-like blows may damage the rings, pistons or rod bearings.
Overheating can also cause preignition. Hot spots develop inside the combustion chamber that become a source of ignition for the fuel. The erratic combustion can cause detonation as well as engine run-on in older vehicles with carburetors. Hot spots can also be very damaging and burn holes right through the top of pistons.
Another consequence of overheating may be a blown head gasket. Heat makes aluminum swell almost three times faster than cast iron. The resulting stress can distort the head and make it swell in areas that are hottest, like those between exhaust valves in adjoining cylinders, and areas that have restricted coolant flow like the narrow area that separates the cylinders. The typical aluminum head swells most in the middle, which can crush the head gasket if the head gets hot enough. This will cause a loss of torque in the gasket allowing coolant and combustion leaks to occur when the head cools.

Wait, there’s more. If the coolant gets hot enough to boil, it may cause old hoses or an age-weakened radiator to burst under the increased pressure. Pistons may swell up and scuff or seize in their bores, causing serious engine damage. Exhaust valve stems may stick or scuff in their guides. This, in turn, may cause valves to hang open which can damage pistons, valves and other valvetrain components. And if coolant gets into the crankcase, you can kiss the bearings and bottom end of the engine goodbye.
A HOT warning lamp should never be ignored. Though a few high tech cars like Cadillacs with the Northstar engine can disable cylinders to "air-cool" the engine and keep it running at reduced power in the event of coolant loss, most engines will suffer serious damage if they overheat. Turn the engine off, let it cool down and try to find and fix the cause before risking further travel.

Causes of Overheating

                                       

                                        Overheating can be caused by anything that decreases the cooling system’s ability to absorb, transport and dissipate heat, such as a low coolant level, loss of coolant (through internal or external leaks), poor heat conductivity inside the engine because of accumulated deposits in the water jackets, a defective thermostat that doesn’t open, poor airflow through the radiator, a slipping fan clutch, an inoperative electric cooling fan, a collapsed lower radiator hose, an eroded or loose water pump impeller or even a defective radiator cap.

One of nature’s basic laws says that heat always flows from an area of higher temperature to an area of lesser temperature, never the other way around. The only way to cool hot metal, therefore, is to keep it in constant contact with a cooler liquid. And the only way to do that is to keep the coolant in constant circulation. As soon as the circulation stops, either because of a problem with the water pump, thermostat or loss of coolant, temperatures begin to rise and the engine starts to overheat.
The coolant also has to get rid of the heat it soaks up while passing through the block and head(s). So the radiator must be capable of doing its job, which requires the help of an efficient cooling fan at slow speeds.
Finally, the thermostat must be doing its job to keep the engine’s average temperature within the normal range. If the thermostat fails to open, it will effectively block the flow of coolant and the engine will overheat.

What To Check
• Thermostat - Severe overheating can often damage a good thermostat. If the engine has overheated because of another problem, the thermostat should be tested or replaced before the engine is returned to service.
One way to check the thermostat is to start the engine and feel the upper radiator hose (or use an infrared noncontact thermometer to read its temperature). The hose should not feel uncomfortably hot until the engine has warmed-up and the thermostat opens. If the hose does not get hot, it means the thermostat is not opening.
Another way to test the thermostat is to remove it and dip it into a pan of boiling water (it should open). The exact opening temperature can be checked by using a thermometer.

• Cooling system leaks - Loss of coolant because of a leak is probably the most common cause of overheating. Possible leak points include hoses, the radiator, heater core, water pump, thermostat housing, head gasket, freeze plugs, automatic transmission oil cooler, cylinder head(s) and block.
Make a careful visual inspection of the entire cooling system, and then pressure test the cooling system and radiator cap. A pressure test will reveal internal leaks such as seepage past the head gasket as well as cracks in the head or block. A leak-free system should hold pressure for at least a minute or more.
It’s important to pressure test the radiator cap, too, because a weak cap (or one with too low a pressure rating for the application) will lower the coolant’s boiling point and can allow coolant to escape from the radiator.
• Fan - With mechanical fans, most overheating problems are caused by a faulty fan clutch - though a missing fan shroud can reduce the fan’s cooling effectiveness by as much as 50 percent (depending on the fan’s distance from the radiator), which may be enough to cause the engine to overheat in hot weather or when working hard.
Defective fan clutches are a common and often overlooked cause of overheating. The shear characteristics of the clutch fluid gradually deteriorates over time, with an average loss in drive efficiency of about 200 rpm per year. Eventually slippage reaches the point where effective cooling is no longer possible and overheating results. (On average, the life of a fan clutch is about the same as a water pump. If one needs to be replaced, the other usually does too.)
If the fan clutch shows signs of fluid leakage (oily streaks radiating outward from the hub of the clutch), spins freely with little or no resistance when the engine is off or wobbles when the fan is pushed in or out, it needs to be replaced.
With an electric cooling fan, check to see that the fan cycles on when the engine gets hot and when the air conditioner is on. If the fan fails to come on, check the fan motor wiring connections, relay and temperature sensor. Try jumping the fan directly to the battery. If it runs, the problem is in the wiring, relay or sensor. If it fails to run, the fan motor is bad and needs replaced.
• Water pump - Any wobble in the pump shaft or seepage would call for replacement. In some instances, a pump can cause an engine to overheat if the impeller vanes are badly eroded due to corrosion or if the impeller has come loose from the shaft. The wrong pump may also cause an engine to overheat. Some engines with serpentine drive belts require a special water pump that turns in the opposite direction of those used on the same engine with ordinary V-belts.
• Belts & hoses - Check belt tension and condition. A loose belt that slips may prevent the water pump from circulating coolant fast enough and/or the fan from turning fast for proper cooling.
The condition of the hoses should also be checked and replaced if they are over 5 years old.
Sometimes a lower radiator hose will collapse under vacuum at high speed and restrict the flow of coolant from the radiator into the engine. This can happen if the reinforcing spring inside the hose is missing or damaged.
• Radiator - The most common problems radiators fall prey to are clogging (both internal and external) and leaks. Dirt, bugs and debris can block air flow through the core and reduce the radiator’s ability to dissipate heat. Internal corrosion and an accumulation of deposits can likewise inhibit coolant circulation and reduce cooling. A good way to find clogs is to use an infrared thermometer to "scan" the surface of the radiator for cold spots. If clogged, the radiator should be removed for cleaning or be replaced.
Backflushing the cooling system and/or using chemical cleaners can remove rust and hard water scale, but may do little to open up a clogged radiator.
When refilling the cooling system, be sure you get it completely full. Air pockets in the head(s), heater core and below the thermostat can interfere with proper coolant circulation and cooling. If the cooling system has no bleeder valves to vent air, you may have to temporarily loosen a heater hose to get all the air out of the system.
• Excessive exhaust backpressure - A clogged catalytic converter is usually the culprit here, but don’t overlook the possibility of a crushed pipe or a collapsed double wall pipe. Check intake vacuum at idle. If it reads low and continues to drop, inspect the exhaust system.
• Retarded or overadvanced ignition timing (may also contribute to detonation and preignition).
• Overheated incoming air - On older vehicles with a carburetor or throttle body injection, check the operation of the heated air intake system on the air cleaner. If the temperature control valve is stuck so only heated air from around the exhaust manifold is drawn into the air cleaner, it may contribute to detonation and/or overheating. Also check the heat riser valve for manifold heat on older V6 and V8 engines. If stuck shut, it may be overheating the intake manifold.
• Dragging brakes - A caliper that’s sticking or a parking brake that isn’t releasing may be making the engine work too hard.
• Overworking the engine. The cooling systems in many passenger cars today are marginal and have little excess capacity to handle extra heat generated by towing or high speed mountain driving in hot weather.

Common Overheating Problems1. Radiators - Older copper and aluminum radiators tend to get clogged, restricting the flow of coolant. 2. Thermostats - Either installed improperly or sticking closed. 3. Water pumps - Failure to replace older or failing pumps or install a new pump properly. 4. Heater core leaking - A common problem. 5. Coolant leaks from either hose connections or from the cylinder head due to overheating. 6. Bad radiator hoses or belts. Cooling systems are often neglected.  If coolant isn’t changed, the coolant passages can experience buildup of scale and sludge and coolant won’t flow rapidly enough to cool the engine. Coolant should be changed at least every two years or 30,000 miles or it will lose its effectiveness, and the mixture of antifreeze and water should always be 50/50. A mixture with more than 50 percent antifreeze will cause the coolant to not perform properly, and with less than 50 percent, the engine can freeze and crack. Also, the system needs to be flushed when the coolant is changed. Oil must also be changed regularly too. Old, dirty oil won’t flow as quickly and will hamper cooling.