Avoiding the Summer Breakdown Blues
July 7, 2014
School is out, the weather is hot, and we know you’re just itching to hop in your car for a trip to the nearest body of water. Whether you’re heading to the beach, lake, river or pool, you’ll want that vehicle in tip-top shape to avoid the summer breakdown blues.
Follow these tips to prevent a sweltering-hot highway breakdown on the way to your cool summer fun:
Get a Checkup. Find a trustworthy mechanic to inspect your vehicle early on in the summer. This should be done every year to prevent more costly and inconvenient breakdowns. For instance, hoses and belts can become loose, pumps can break, cooling fans take a turn for the worse, and radiators can literally rot away. These issues become even more serious in soaring summer temperatures. If you are motor-savvy and consider yourself a DIY’er, then check out CarTalk’s helpful Summer Driving Tips.
Check Your Battery. Hot summer temperatures wreak havoc on car batteries. Extreme temperatures eat away at the battery acid, which will eventually kill the battery altogether. To avoid getting stranded on the sizzling asphalt, you can have your battery checked at your next checkup or oil change. Or, you can purchase a voltmeter and check it yourself.
Watch Your Tire Pressure. Heat is a menace to tires as well. The high day temperatures and cooler nights cause tire pressure to fluctuate drastically. Uneven tire pressure can lead to lower gas mileage and more tire damage. Prevent tire damage, and the inevitable blowout, by checking your tire pressure regularly.
Change Your Oil. This time of year, your engine can use all the lubrication it can get. So be sure to stay on top of your oil change schedule. The standard recommendation is every 5,000 miles.
By paying special attention to your vehicle’s summertime needs, you’ll have a season of smooth-sailing. Have fun and drive safe!
Gas Mileage Dilemma: AC and MPG
June 3, 2014
There has been a shift in the age-old debate over air-conditioning and gas mileage.
Once upon a time, drivers would roll down their windows on a hot day. They assumed that it would waste less gas than running the air conditioner. Then, one hot summer day, some “experts” told the public that driving with the windows up and the air-conditioning on would result in better gas mileage than rolling the windows down. Their argument: rolling down the windows created more drag, and that resistance used more gas than the AC.
However, it appears that this argument was based more on theory than fact (or possibly they were just sick of being hot). Years of testing by actual drivers, as well as studies done by Edmunds.com, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and Consumer Reports revealed that gas mileage is actually better with the windows down and the AC off. And so, the debate over AC and MPG wages on.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to suffer through the heat wave without any air-conditioning. It would definitely be less cost efficient to have a heat stroke and crash your car than to simply turn on the AC every once in a while. However, if you want to get the most out of your gas mileage then consider cruising with the windows down and dressing for the weather.
For more information on air-conditioning and gas mileage, see the full story below:
http://greenliving.about.com/od/travelinggreen/a/Air-Conditioning-MPG-Gas-Mileage.htm