Keeping Your Car Up and Running

You just bought your car and now you want to make it last as long and as effectively as possible. To do so, there are some things you can do to keep your car well maintained.

1. Watch Your Oil - For normal driving, many automakers recommend changing the engine oil and filter every 7,500 miles or six months, whichever comes first. This is sufficient for the majority of motorists. For “severe” driving--with frequent, very cold starts and short trips, dusty conditions, or trailer towing--the change interval should be shortened to every 3,000 miles or three months. (Check your owner’s manual for the specific intervals recommended for your vehicle.) Special engines such as diesels and turbocharged engines may need more-frequent oil changes.

2. Air Filters - Check the air filter. Remove the air-filter element and hold it up to a strong light. If you don’t see light, replace it. Regardless, follow the recommended service intervals.

3. Joint Boots - Check the constant-velocity-joint boots. On front-wheel-drive and some four-wheel-drive vehicles, examine these bellows like rubber boots, also known as CV boots, on the drive axles. Immediately replace any that are cut, cracked, or leaking. If dirt contaminates the CV joint it can quickly lead to an expensive fix.

4. Exhaust System - Inspect the exhaust system. If you’re willing to make under-car inspections, check for rusted-through exhaust parts that need replacing. Also tighten loose clamps. Do this while the car is up on ramps. If a shop changes your oil, have them make these checks. Listen for changes in the exhaust sound while driving. It’s usually advisable to replace the entire exhaust system all at once rather than to repair sections at different times.

5. Brakes - Look at the brakes. For most people it makes sense to have a shop check and service the brakes. If you handle your own brake work, remove all wheels and examine the brake system. Replace excessively worn pads or linings, and have badly scored rotors or drums machined or replaced. The brakes should be checked at least twice per year; more often if you drive a lot of miles.

6. Fluids - Check the fluids. On many newer cars, the automatic transmission is sealed. On cars where it is not sealed, check the transmission dipstick with the engine warmed up and running (see the owner’s manual for details). Also check the power-steering-pump dipstick (it’s usually attached to the fluid-reservoir cap) and the level in the brake-fluid reservoir. If the brake-fluid level is low, top it up and have the system checked for leaks.

7. Radiator - Clean the radiator. Prevent overheating by removing debris with a soft brush and washing the outside of the radiator with a detergent solution.

8. Battery - Check the battery. Check the battery’s terminals and cables to make sure they are securely attached, with no corrosion. If the battery has removable caps, check its fluid level every few months--especially in warmer climates.

9. Windshield Wipers -Check the condition of your blades, and replace them if split, perished or not wiping your windscreen properly. If you live in dry and hot climates, the wipers may need to be replaced yearly.

10. Tires - Incorrect tire pressure can reduce the life of your tires, and may make your car less safe to drive. Check and adjust pressure when tires are cold. You'll find your car's correct tire pressure on the tire placard on the inside of your glovebox, fuel cap filler, or inside the driver's door opening.

You should check for a minimum tread depth of 1.5 mm on any part of the tire surface that comes into contact with the road. Tires have indicators in their tread pattern, which show (as lines across the tread) when worn down to 1.6 mm.

Check your tires for abnormal wear or damage (such as cracks, bulges or tears). By routinely rotating tires you can eliminate this problem and extend the life of your tires by approximately 20 per cent.

In some cases this is not practical due to directional or different sized tires, which are only suitable to a particular side or particular position on a vehicle. Always refer to your owner's handbook and follow the instructions.

Longer term maintenance, that is things that need to be done every two to four years include:

1. Drain and flush the cooling system. Considering the hassle of collecting and safely disposing of old antifreeze, you may want to leave this to a shop.

2. Change the automatic-transmission fluid. Many models require that you replace the fluid and filter every 36,000 miles--sooner if the normally pink fluid takes on a brownish tint. With some cars the fluid and, if applicable, the filter can go 100,000 miles or more. With other late models, the transmission fluid never needs to be changed. Check your owner’s manual for this information.

3. Replace the drive belts and hoses. Do this every two to three years, even if they don’t show any wear. If a belt becomes noisy, have it adjusted. Look for any frayed, damaged, loose or disconnected wiring. If you find any, notify your mechanic. Check the top and bottom radiator hoses, heater hoses, fuel lines and any pipes associated with power steering or brakes.

Ask your mechanic to replace any hoses that are very soft, kinked, swollen or cracked.

4. Change the timing belt. If your vehicle has a belt instead of a chain, stick to the manufacturer’s recommended replacement interval--usually every 60,000 to 80,000 miles. Check the owner’s manual or consult a dealer. Failure to change the timing belt can result in a very expensive engine repair if the belt should break.

Greg Chapman of Greg Chapman Motors is a knowledgeable and leading provider of used cars, trucks, and SUV’s. Since 1959, Chapman motors has supplied reliable used cars in Austin and the surrounding area and is known as one of the bad credit car dealers in Austin. For more information please visit http://www.gregchapmanmotors.com.

Diesel fuel made from algae?

Fuel can and is being made from just about anything today. Algae is no exception.

Why are algae preferable over corn? Microalgae has a much faster growth-rate, for one. As part of the photosynthesis process, algae produce oil and can generate 15 times more oil per acre than other plants used for biofuels such as corn and switchgrass. Algae can also grow in salt water, freshwater or even contaminated water, at sea or in ponds, and on land not suitable for food production. This is good news in the sense that we don’t have to waste freshwater to create it.

On top of those advantages in using algae — at least in theory — is that it should grow even better when fed extra carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) and organic material like sewage. If so, algae could produce biofuel while cleaning up other problems.

The difficulties in an efficient biodiesel production from algae lie in finding an algal strain with a high lipid content and fast growth rate that isn't too difficult to harvest, and a cost-effective cultivation system (i.e., type of photobioreactor) that is best suited to that strain.

Another obstacle preventing widespread mass production of algae for biofuel production has been the equipment and structures needed to begin growing algae in large quantities.

Open-pond systems for the most part have been given up for the cultivation of algae with high-oil content. In a closed system (not exposed to open air) there is not the problem of contamination by other organisms blown in by the air. The problem for a closed system is finding a cheap source of sterile carbon dioxide (CO2). Several experimenters have found the CO2 from a smokestack works well for growing algae.

So how will having alternative diesel fuel help our economy? In the United States, oil is primarily used for transportation - roughly two-thirds of all oil use, in fact. So, developing an alternative means of powering our cars, trucks, and buses would go a long way towards weaning us, and the world, off of oil. While the so-called "hydrogen economy" receives a lot of attention in the media, there are several very serious problems with using hydrogen as an automotive fuel. For automobiles, the best alternative at present is clearly biodiesel, a fuel that can be used in existing diesel engines with no changes, and is made from vegetable oils or animal fats rather than petroleum.

One of the biggest advantages of biodiesel compared to many other alternative transportation fuels is that it can be used in existing diesel engines without modification, and can be blended in at any ratio with petroleum diesel. This completely eliminates the "chicken-and-egg" dilemma that other alternatives have, such as hydrogen powered fuel cells.

With biodiesel, since the same engines can run on conventional petroleum diesel, manufacturers can comfortably produce diesel vehicles before biodiesel is available on a wide scale - as some manufacturers already are (the same can be said for flex-fuel vehicles capable of running on ethanol, gasoline, or any blend of the two). As biodiesel production continues to ramp up, it can go into the same fuel distribution infrastructure, just replacing petroleum diesel either wholly (as B100, or 100% biodiesel), or blended in with diesel. Not only does this eliminate the chicken-and-egg problem, making biodiesel a much more feasible alternative than hydrogen, but also eliminates the huge cost of revamping the nationwide fuel distribution infrastructure.

Currently most research into efficient algal-oil production is being done in the private sector, but predictions from small-scale production experiments bear out that using algae to produce biodiesel may be the only viable method by which to produce enough automotive fuel to replace current world diesel usage.

Greg Chapman of Greg Chapman Motors is a knowledgeable and leading provider of used cars, trucks, and SUV’s. Since 1959, Chapman motors has supplied reliable used cars in Austin and the surrounding area and is known as one of the bad credit car dealers in Austin. For more information please visit http://www.gregchapmanmotors.com.