Top 10 Everyday Things People Do To Ruin Their Cars

Two thirds of all Americans aged 18-24 cannot find Iraq on a map; 33% couldn’t identify Louisiana; 47% couldn’t find India; 75% think English was the most widely spoken language in the world. People are idiots, and this isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon, it’s worldwide. The majority of human beings on Earth are stone dumb. Being dumb, most people do dumb things, like unknowingly destroy their car.

So we’ve assembled the top 10 everyday things people do to ruin their cars, to help guide you through your own stupidity, into the light. Check it:



1. Not Using The Parking Brake



It’s a little pedal near your left leg, or a lever on your right. Yes, that mysterious device that you’ve never used is actually valuable. When you park on an incline, or even on fairly steady ground, without using the parking brake, you’re putting all of the stress of the car on your transmission. The only thing inside that transmission holding your car steady is a little pin called a parking pawl. By using the parking brake, you lock up the non-drive wheels as well as the drive wheels and take the stress off of the transmission. It’ll add years of life to your cars transmission. Just remember to disengage it before you start driving again.



2. Not Coming To A Complete Stop Before Shifting



So you’re in a rush, and you pull out of a parking space and shift into drive while the car is still coasting backwards. You’ve just added months of wear to your transmission in seconds. Inside your transmission is a complex set of gears, when you shift without stopping like that, you’re asking those gears to work as your brakes, which puts an amazing amount of stress on such a small area. You can also damage your drive shafts, the things that send power to the wheels, by shifting that way. After a while, it’ll lead to sloppy suspension handling, and a worn out transmission.



3. Riding The Brakes Down A Hill



If you are driving on a hill that goes on for a while, you’ll want to avoid riding the brake the whole time. Alternate between braking and letting off the brake so you don’t heat up and wear out your brake pads. It’s a common mistake, because it feels like the safest way to maneuver down a hill, but if the hill is sufficiently long, you can end up almost totally wearing out your pads, since as they heat up, they wear faster.



4. Forgetting To Change The Oil



You need to change your oil every 5,000 miles at the most. That’s really all there is to it. I actually read a blog online that said you can wait until your oil light comes on to change your oil. I’ve worked in the automotive business… by the time your oil light comes on, the oil inside your engine has turned into jet black molasses and is of no use to your engine. In the short term, I suppose it’s not that important, but more frequent changes can actually double the life of your car and greatly increase its performance.



5. Pressure Washing The Engine



I can respect a person’s desire to want a clean engine. It gets grimy under there and a guy with a pressure washer is a dangerous thing for grime - you want to point it at anything even slightly dirty. But a grimy engine that runs right is better than a clean engine that doesn’t run at all. And if you spray a high powered jet of water around rubber seals and hoses and electrical bits, you’re bound to dislodge something important. A modern engine is a complex thing, all manner of sensors and wiring harnesses and components, and it’s no place for a jet of high pressure water. A regular garden hose is OK if you want to wash it down, just be careful with the high pressure business.



6. Starting Your Car The Wrong Way



It seems simple, but you can make a big difference by turning off your radio, wipers, climate control, all of those accessories, when you start the car. Most of the wear on the engine happens when you start the car, and by turning off those accessories, your engine doesn’t have to work as hard when starting.

Another thing people do is revving the engine in the winter. This actually doesn’t help “warm up” the car. Although it does technically make the engine hotter, it’s not the kind of “warming up” that you want. Revving your engine in the winter causes extreme temperature changes right away, which is actually the opposite of what you want. When you start the car, the oil hasn’t yet worked its way through the system, so the engine is working without lubricant. The right way to do it is just let the car sit and idle for about 30 seconds to a minute at the least.



7. Ignoring Your Car’s Sounds



Every sound your car makes means something, if you pay attention, your car can usually tell you exactly what needs fixing. Those squeaking brakes mean you need new pads, and if you ignore that sound, eventually you’ll hear scraping metal, which means you need new rotors, and if you ignore that, you’ll eventually hear the sound of your own scream as you lose your brakes completely and fly off a cliff in a spectacular fireball of death. It’s more common than you think. Listen to your car.



8. Letting The Interior Go



You’re in a rush again, and you eat most of your disgusting egg and cheese bagel, and toss the rest in the wrapper on the passenger seat. Lovely. You know who you are, your car is filthy, never been vacuumed, 15 air fresheners hang on the mirror, and yet, no air freshener made by mortal man can stop the sickening wind within your car. You need to clean it. If you don’t vacuum your carpets and clean out the garbage every so often, you’ll develop a smell that is impossible to destroy. I’ve worked in the auto salvage business, and I know that there exist smells that are so obscene, so inhuman, that no shampoo can vanquish them. The only way to stop them is to never let them develop. Clean your car, for the sake of all mankind.



9. Running Your Car Down To Empty



There’s actually a bit of a debate about this one. The old wisdom says if your car gets down to E, the sediment in your tank will get sucked into the system and foul your fuel injectors. Although some mechanics says thats not true. Either way, running down to E does pose other problems. You cut the life of the fuel pump considerably, since the fuel actually cools the pump.

An interesting note: Most cars can drive another 60 miles+ after they hit Empty, automakers call this extra gas the “buffer zone”. US cars have the largest “buffer zone” of any vehicles. German drivers, for instance, like to know exactly how much gas in is the car, so their “buffer zone” between the gauge’s E and the actual empty tank is much smaller.



10. Driving Past Attractive Women



This is a common mistake, especially among younger male drivers. Attractive women can be incredibly damaging to your vehicle, they can cause the driver to install bizarre over-sized woofers or 22 inch rims, or even spontaneously crash the car into a nearby tree or telephone pole. When you’re driving, be careful to avoid swimming pools, beaches, college campuses, anyplace where beautiful girls assemble in any significant numbers. Your car will thank you.

[via]: ridelust

Two Paths to Clean Diesel

As more clean diesel vehicles begin to hit the market, consumers should be aware that diesel car manufacturers are taking different technology paths. The two main paths mean different responsibilities for car owners, although the goal is the same—to reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen, a key contributor to smog. A great deal of sophisticated technology is used to reduce emissions, but we'll focus on the chief differences between the two systems.

1.Trap and Burn

First, let’s consider the Volkswagen Jetta TDI, which uses a device to trap and store NOx. The system captures the pollutant and periodically changes the engine's air-to-fuel mixture to burn off the NOx.

This reduces NOx emissions by up to 90 percent compared to an untreated engine. And it requires nothing at all from the owner.

A particulate filter further reduces emissions. In the Jetta application, the 16-valve engine produces 140 horsepower and 235 foot pounds of torque. It features a common rail fuel system with high-pressure injectors. The engine delivers “real world” fuel economy improvements of 30 percent compared to a similar gasoline model.

The Volkswagen Jetta TDI Sportwagen, which captures and burns NOx, does not require special fluids or maintenance.

2.Spray with Urea

Meanwhile, the Mercedes clean diesel vehicles requires customers to return to a dealership every 10,000 miles—this could be done during regular maintenance visits—to refill a special tank holding urea. The urea solution is a chemical synthesized from natural gas—not urine.

An instrument panel light will warn the driver if the tank falls below one gallon of fluid. If the urea level gets too low, a counter will appear on the dashboard informing the driver that 20 restarts remain. If the warnings continue to be ignored, the vehicle will not start until the urea fluid is added.

The Mercedes-Benz Bluetec vehicles—including the ML320, GL320, and RL320 models—feature improved combustion from a third-generation common rail system that uses piezo-electric injectors. A tiny squirt of urea solution—which Mercedes calls “AdBlue”—is injected into the exhaust mix before reaching the tailpipe. The average consumption of AdBlue is around 0.025 gallons per 60 miles. The solution is held in a seven-gallon tank in the space usually occupied by a spare tire—so the vehicles will have run-flat tires instead of a spare.

The Mercedes R320 Bluetec, and other Mercedes clean diesel vehicles, must maintain a sufficient level of urea in order to effectively treat NOx emissions.

Urea for Larger Engines, NOx Traps for Smaller

The NOx trap approach is more expensive to manufacture than the urea-based system. Both engines meet the most stringent diesel emissions requirements in the world—California’s Tier II/Bin 5 (or Ultra Low Emission Vehicle) standards. Those standards had effectively outlawed diesel engines in California (and other states following California’s standards) for a generation.

The different approaches demonstrated by Mercedes and VW are likely to be used in future engines, with larger engines using the urea approach, and smaller 4-cylinders going without urea.

Auto Detailing: Making A Used Car Look Like New

Auto detailing is a strategy and activity to make any used car look like new. Throughout the years, the practice has transformed into an art itself. Through auto detailing, an old and used car is transformed to look as if it is a brand new car in an effort to win the admiration of car onlookers.

Auto detailing is important to car grooming. In turn, this is very significant especially if the car owner is intending to divest or put up the car for sale. The old or used car definitely would not be attractive to potential buyers no matter what model it is if the overall physical and exterior appearance is not very appealing.

Prior to any auto detailing activity, there is a need to fully evaluate the car. When taking the usual and effective procedures to auto detailing, you surely would be asked to take three auto detailing primers. First and foremost would be the paint evaluation.

The exterior of the used car is the first recognizable and seen part of the vehicle. Impressions are made and unmade just by mere looking at and evaluating the car's exterior. Thus, for auto detailing, the initial aim is always to groom the car through good spray painting.

The second auto detailing procedure would be wheel and tire evaluation. Wheels of old cars usually suffer from black stains caused by the accumulation of tar from brake dust. If the wheels do not receive usual and regular washing and the necessary waxing, chances are greater that you need to spend more effort to groom the car parts.

Third consideration would be the car interior. After you have taken care of the exterior concerns, auto detailing would lastly require you to take care of the insides.

Remember that the car interior is the general indication of how the car has been used and taken care of the user. That is why as much as possible auto detailing would always set it as a goal to make the interior look very superior and in good shape, just like the exterior.

Here are additional simple tips that would surely help make auto detailing a worthwhile and more effective practice.

1. During the auto detailing procedure, make sure the car is in a share, probably a cool garage or a roofed space. This is because majority of usual and effective auto detailing products like paint and wax do not work well when applied to hot surfaces. Thus, washing the car exterior under the sun is not as advisable as well.

2. When washing the car clean from the top first down to the bottom. The law of gravity would be self explanatory.

3. Do not wash or auto detail a car that has just been from the road. When using cold water when washing, remember that cold water can very much damage the car's hot parts, like the exhaust components, the brake rotors and the engine itself. Before auto detailing, let the hot car cool for about 20 minutes to half an hour.

4. Use detailing towel, brush or spray to wipe away excess wax on the car's exterior. It is inevitable that the wax would eventually form residue around the trim. Now you know how to remedy the situation.

As you carry on an auto detailing activity to make your car look new again, remember that through patience and determination, you can really make your car looking elegant and extravagant once again.

How To Get A Budget Sports Car

When buying sports cars, the buyer must not only assess his needs and preferences, but more importantly, he must put everything in the context of his budget. Sports cars are generally priced not less than $15,000. However, there are some options available for buying cheaper but valuable sports cars.

AuctionAn enthusiastic buyer may want to check out the local auctions that are held in his area. Some good sports cars can be bought cheaply in these auctions. However, the auction arena is not made for the faint-hearted buyer. Just like any other kind of auction, it is a stressful and fast environment. One must attend a couple or more auctions before actually trying to purchase a car from this kind of activity.

Another downside of auctions is that there is no opportunity to test the car. In auctions, people buy cars “as they are.”

Car Exchange
Auto Exchange Centers may offer you the best cars at very reasonable prices. Buyers might want to do a little Internet research since car exchange centers do advertise their merchandise on the Internet. Remember that the market for cheap sports cars is a buyers’ market, which means that you hold the aces when negotiating prices.

Private Seller
Buyers may also look for private sellers of sports cars. Some people need quick cash in cases of emergency so they are forced to sell their precious cars at very attractive prices. Be aware and watch out for such quality deals.

The problem with dealing with private sellers is that once the purchase is made, the buyer is left on his own. He cannot run back to the seller to complain.

Good Models that no one wants
There are good sports car models out there that are being taken for granted by the market. Because of trends in sports car demand, some of the good ones are being left out. This is a good thing for buyers who are looking for value for their money. Some Jaguar, Austin-Healey and Morgan car models are out there, up for grabs at great prices.