Gordy's Garage

My son is a poor college student. I would guess the poor college students outnumber the rich college students by about 100 to 1, but the company doesn't make the misery any easier.

One reality of this (hopefully temporary) income-challenged status is that college students drive older vehicles. My son's ride is a 1997 Chevy with about 140,000 miles on it. This Blazer runs well and has plenty of new parts, but three of its tires were losing air slowly ... and this had been going on for more than a year.

I consulted my favorite mechanic, who guessed the aluminum wheels on the vehicle (factory original) had corroded inside the tires, causing slow leaks.

We took all four tires to the shop, and when they were removed from the wheels there was indeed corrosion on the aluminum where the tires seal to the wheel lips.

A small grinder was used to remove the corrosion and smooth the aluminum tire-sealing surface of all four wheels. This whole process cost $100 for four wheels and tires.

The mechanic said the way to prevent FUTURE corrosion in this area would be to fill the tires with nitrogen instead of air.

Many tire shops have a large tank of nitrogen like this ...



... and will fill your tires for five to ten bucks each. The nitrogen is supposed to be much more stable than air, which means tire pressures change less as temperatures change. There is also a lot less moisture in the nitrogen, so the corrosion problem with aluminum wheels is eliminated.



Airplanes and race cars have had nitrogen in their tires for years.

If you have nitrogen put in your tires, you get these fancy green valve stem caps to let anyone KNOW you have nitrogen.



This is important, so someone doesn't "help you out" by putting air in your tires. Air can be added in an emergency, but the idea is to not dilute the nitrogen -- and its benefits -- once you have made the switch.

The nitrogen pressure is checked with the tire gauge you already have, and if a tire is low you must go to a shop that has nitrogen to add more.

We made the choice not to get the nitrogen in my son's tires right now, but that old Chevy will need some new tires some day. We might make the switch at that time.

I am amazed, as I drive around the Twin cities metro area every day, how many vehicles I see with various lights not working.

I routinely see cars and trucks with two out of three brake lights not working.  Many DRLs (daytime running lamps) are working on only one side of the vehicle, headlights are burned out and some drivers seem to think that working tail lights and turn signals are optional equipment.

As we enter the darkest time of the year (short days and no snow yet) we should all take a moment to check all of the lights on our rides.  You can do this without even getting out of the driver's seat ... the next time you visit any store or strip mall with plate glass windows.  I took these "reflection" shots in the glass door of a gas station service bay.

 

These large panes of plate glass make great mirrors.  Pull up to a window and see if both DRLs are on.  Turn on the low and high beam headlights, fog lights if you have them and then check the left and right turn signals.

 

Now turn the car around and position it so you can see the tail lights, rear signals and all three brake lights. Using the rear view mirrors and looking out the rear window should allow you to see everything "out back."  Be sure to put the vehicle in reverse to make sure the back-up lamps are working.

 

If you do find a burned out bulb or two, it is fairly easy to replace them.  Since they aren't working anyway, you will lose nothing if you remove the old bulbs BEFORE you go to the parts store to get new ones.  Having the old part in hand is always the best way to insure that you will get the correct new part.

If you want to have a shop change the bulbs for you, they will usually do it while you wait ... sometimes they will do a bulb change right in the parking lot.

 

While a non-working light is usually caused by a burned out bulb, it is also possible that a wiring problem or a faulty switch is to blame.  Tracking down these problems is usually a job for a professional.

You may hear from a mechanic that if you are replacing one headlight bulb, you might as well replace both.  I have learned from experience that this is usually good advice, particularly if you have owned the car for a while and know how old the headlight bulbs are.  A matched set of new headlight bulbs will give you a warm and fuzzy feeling ... REALLY!

If you have a question about lights or any other part of your car, drop us a line.  The Garage is always open.

One of my colleagues in the newsroom recently got a new car, so she stopped by this Virtual Garage to ask some real-life questions.

She was mainly concerned about how to drive the car during its initial miles, having heard some “old husband’s tales” of how to “break in” the engine properly.

My advice was (and is) to just drive normally for the first thousand miles or so, but avoid any high-RPM use of the engine... from rapid acceleration or   constant speed greater than 65 or 70 miles per hour.

This question has some historical context, because for many decades new cars came with very specific instructions for breaking in the engine: owners were told how far to drive, and at what speed, and then to park the car until the engine cooled.

This was done to allow the piston rings, cylinder walls, valves and valve seats to seal properly.  NOT following the break-in instructions “back in the day” could leave a new engine running badly and consuming engine oil.

These days, with modern advances in metallurgy and computer-aided engine design, new vehicle engines are pretty much “good to go” right off the dealer’s lot.

A question about the new car’s finish also came up: should she wax it right away?  There is no other answer but an enthusiastic “yes.”

A coat or two of good quality wax (the cheap stuff is better than no wax) not only makes the new vehicle look good, it protects the paint from tree sap, bird droppings, road tar and the salt spray we will experience soon enough.  Simply put, wax makes the bad stuff easier to remove from the paint.

Wash the vehicle when it needs it, and use CAR WASH SOAP if you do the job at home.  This soap will help the wax on the finish last as long as possible.  Laundry detergent and dish soap are hard on a wax job.

I am also a fan of seat covers for new cars, unless the vehicle has leather seats.  Covering fabric seats protects them from all kinds of dirt, crumbs and spills.  A clean interior will make the car worth more when you eventually want to sell it or trade it in.  Car seat covers can be washed with the laundry as needed.

With winter on the way, it is also a good idea to protect the new carpet of a new vehicle.  I like to put paper grocery bags or old towels UNDER the floor mats.  When the bags or towels get wet from melting slush, get them out right away... and replace them with clean, dry material.  This will help keep the carpet dry, which is almost as important as keeping it clean.  

It seems “Mother Nature” is trying to make up for the five-inch rainfall deficit we are experiencing around here in 2009. It seems to be raining a lot lately, and wet snow will soon follow.... which makes this a good time to check your vehicle’s wiper blades.

I had the wiper blades replaced on my WCCO news car recently, because they were leaving big streaks on the windshield. Wiper blades deteriorate gradually, so they usually get pretty bad before you realize it.

This car (2006 Toyota RAV4) takes two different size wiper blades, which surprised me. In fact, I had been driving this car for three years and never knew this little detail.

As you can see in the photo ...

 

... the blade for the driver’s side is 24 inches long, and the passenger’s side takes a 17-inch blade.

Car makers do this so the driver’s side of the windshield gets a bigger “sweep”... but when you see the wipers working, it appears they are the same length.

If you need new wiper blades, and you plan to replace them yourself, be sure to bring BOTH the old wipers into the parts store to get exact replacements.

Do not try to get the cheapest blades.

As you can see from the photo ...

 

... of this receipt, a pair of good wiper blades will cost at least 30 bucks. Beware of stores that will try to sell you the entire WIPER ARM assembly. This will be really expensive, and usually a waste of money. After many years, the spring in the wiper arm that holds the rubber blades snuggly to the windshield can wear out... but this is really rare.

Our last photo ...



... is from a blog in 2007, but the information is still good:  before you get new wiper blades, try cleaning the ones you have with alcohol prep pads from a first aid kit.  You could also use rubbing alcohol on a paper towel.  Either way, you may be surprised how much better the wipers work with the “glaze” of dirt and road grime removed.

Got a question about your car?  We can probably get you an answer here at The Garage.

A few blogs back we had some pictures of a car show in Germany.... sent in by our friend Dean.

This time we get to share some photos from WCCO-TV Photojournalist Dave Bissonnette, who caught a small car show while vacationing in France recently. Dave says this event was in a small town northwest of Paris.

Here is a slide show of Dave’s photos.

Remember all those people who bought new cars through the "Cash for Clunkers" program this summer?

They are now getting used to all the new gadgets on their new cars, including the Tire Pressure Monitoring System or TPMS.

The federal government mandates a TPMS on all vehicles built after 2007. Some car makers put the systems in their cars and trucks before that date.

Some systems use the ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) wheels speed sensors to detect an under-inflated tire: an under-inflated tire is "shorter" than a properly inflated tire and runs at a different speed.

But most new cars and trucks use a TPMS sensor inside the tire, connected to inside of the valve stem, which sends radio signals to the vehicle's computer. If a tire is under-inflated, a dash warning light tells you. This is a dash light that can't be ignored, since it usually means a tire has a leak, which can lead to a crash.

This is a picture of a typical TPMS sensor ... this one is from a Toyota.



You can see that it is not much bigger than a couple of quarters, but this little bit of technology costs $110 to replace. If you do need a new one, you also have to pay another $30 to have the vehicle's computer programmed to work with a new sensor.

Why should you care? Because some day your new car is going to need new tires, and there is a chance that the shop that mounts the new tires will ruin the TPMS sensor.

This is a picture of one those sensors after a tire shop couldn't get it to separate from the wheel.



What you need to know is that SOME shops leave the sensors mounted to the wheels and carefully install the new tires ... while OTHER shops believe the sensor should be disconnected from the wheel and dropped into the tire to avoid tire machine damage. (A tire machine is used to put tires on and take tires off the wheels.)

Before you get new tires (or a flat tire repair) on a TPMS-equipped vehicle, you should discuss with the mechanic whether they will pay for the cost of a damaged sensor. Check with the dealership as well as a tire shop.

If "Billy Bob's Tires" has the best price on new tires but ruins a TPMS sensor, you will spend more than you planned. If a dealership charges more for tires but replaces a damaged sensor for free, it might be the better deal.

The important thing is to have the discussion BEFORE any work is done.

Rusty parts on our cars are part of the price we pay to live in this part of the world. Rusty bolts make things difficult to disassemble, even something as simple as a license plate.

I saw a nice Mercedes Benz the other day in Minneapolis, and the first thing I noticed were how the four rusty license bolts were beginning to stain that fine Minnesota plate.



Why do we attach plates to expensive new automobiles with cheap steel bolts that rust so quickly? 

Even if you don’t care about the aesthetics of the very visible rusty bolts, there is a practical reason to be concerned: I once could not get a rusted license plate bolt out of a fairly new Toyota, and the bolt broke in the hole.  I had to drill it out, and it was very time consuming.

I replace the license bolts on my cars with stainless steel versions like the one in the picture. They will never rust, which means they will look better AND work better when you have to (eventually) replace the plates.



Any good hardware store will have the stainless steel bolts, but make sure to bring in one of the old bolts so you can match the length and the threads-per-inch count.

I also like to get the bolts that have a hex head instead of the screwdriver head most license plate bolts have. This allows the use of a socket wrench to get the bolt a little tighter, and a hex head allows you to get more leverage when you want to remove the plate.

Also, people who want to steal your plate are less likely to have the proper size socket wrench with them... they almost always have a screwdriver.

There is a parking lot in a Twin Cities suburb that recently had the lines on the blacktop repainted, including the blue areas that help indicate handicap parking spaces.



But it turns out that these spaces are not legal handicap parking places unless there is a sign "visible from inside a motor vehicle parked in the space" according to Minnesota statute 169.346. The blue paint means nothing without the sign, and the sign means everything ... even without the paint.

The store had moved its handicap parking spaces to a different part of the parking lot, and used the proper signage, but the people who did the painting saw the old blue areas and made them new again.



What I find interesting is that almost no one knows about the law, and therefore no one parks in these spaces. That may change as soon as there is an inch of snow on the ground ... which I'm sure is the reason Minnesota says a handicap spot is not a handicap spot without the proper sign.



The paint does serve a valuable function, though, when used WITH the sign. Handicap spots have to be a lot wider that normal parking places, to allow the deployment of a wheelchair ramp or lift.

WCCO reporter Darcy Pohland uses a wheelchair, and gets to her stories in a station van equipped for her needs. Our photojournalists who work with Darcy know how important it is to have room for that ramp to deploy.

I would never park in a properly signed handicap spot, because it isn't right ... and there is the $200 fine.

I do park in the blue-painted spots at my local store that are not really handicap spots anymore. But I also have a copy of the law in my car to share with anyone who might think that I parked illegally.

I got to go "four-wheeling" with members of the Minnesota Four Wheel Drive Association at their event last weekend. My son and I got into what could be called "extreme" four-wheel-drive events in 2001, with an old truck I got from a neighbor for $200.

Those days are gone, and so is the old truck. After many upgrades (and some left to do) I have given that 1974 Dodge to my nephew, and have built this 1996 Dodge. It has Ford one-ton axles, a shortened frame, and 39-inch tires.

 
In spite of how "unstoppable" this truck looks on the trailer, I had all I could do to keep up with the two guys in these two red Jeeps. Paul is standing there talking to John. Paul's Jeep, in the background, has 35-inch tires and a manual transmission. John's Jeep has 33-inch tires and a 9,000-pound winch (winches are rated by pulling power) which he used to extract my truck from soft sand on a log-strewn hill climb. I got stuck where John and Paul drove right up the hill and over the logs.

 
The fact that these guys go everywhere, over every obstacle on the trail, and do it in street-legal vehicles that they drive to and from the event, is a testament to their off-road skill and experience. It also proves that the biggest truck with the biggest tires is not always "the best" off-road machine.

We saw another red Jeep driver who did not do well on a different hill climb, and rolled the Jeep over on its side. The rules of these four-wheel-drive events mandate roll bars or steel roofs on all vehicles, and this is why.



Getting this Jeep off its side required a winch pull from this blue Jeep. The synthetic winch line (looks like blue rope but is much stronger) was run through a pulley attached to a tree and over to the rolled Jeep. A special wide nylon strap, called a tree saver, is used to connect the pulley to the tree, preventing tree damage. A slight tug from the winch line had the red Jeep "shiny side up" in about 60 seconds. The engine started right up, body damage was minimal, and the guy continued up the trail.



This picture was snapped a few seconds AFTER the big Chevy truck was spinning all four of its 40 inch tires in this mud hole. In spite of the sign that says the hole is "not very deep," it looked like this truck was not getting out of the hole without a pull from another truck "on shore"-- but it did crawl out. 



And then Paul drove his much smaller Jeep with much smaller tires through the same mud hole -- with absolutely no drama and no tire-spinning.

Jim came by The Garage on Thursday morning, and it’s a good thing he did not have to rely on his 1997 Volkswagen Cabrio for the trip... because “that dog won’t hunt.” Or in this case, “that ride ain’t running.”

This fun little convertible has a melted spark plug, which Jim’s mechanic attributes to bad piston rings in that cylinder.  The car has 80,000 miles on it, and the mechanic recommends a rebuilt engine at a cost of about $2,000.

Jim doesn’t want to spend that kind of money on a twelve-year-old car, and “cash for clunkers” is not an option because this VW, with its four cylinder (115 horsepower) engine is not a gas guzzler.  A quick Web search indicates this car would be worth about $5,000 if it were running normally.  It would be nice if Jim could find someone to give him $3,000 for the car “as is” but that is not a realistic expectation.

Here are some things I think are options for Jim in this situation:

1) Install a new spark plug in place of the one that melted, and see if the engine runs.  Even if it runs badly (which you would expect with a serious piston ring problem) it could at least be moved around.  I think it would be easier to sell a rough-running car than a non-running car.  If it runs, it could be driven to another mechanic for a second opinion.

2) Offer the car “as is” on Craig’s list.  The ad is free, and talking to potential buyers is also free.  Maybe somebody wants to trade Jim a different truck, boat, or garden tractor for the VW.  Also, Jim could look on Craig’s list for someone selling similar car with a smashed body but a good engine.

3) See if there is an auto repair class at a local tech college that could fix the existing engine for less than the $2,000 cost Jim’s mechanic is estimating.  The car might be tied up for a longer period of time, but it isn’t going anywhere as it is.

4) Contact the Twin Cities VW Club. These folks are into older and collectible Volkswagens, like first generation bugs and micro-buses, but I’ll bet there is more than one VW mechanic (pro or amateur) in the club who might have an idea for Jim.

5) If all else fails, and Jim can get the car (driving or towing it) to an automotive component recycling facility (OK, a junk yard) they should give him at least $200 for it.

This is why so many guys are willing to “tow away your junker for free”... there is a $200 check waiting for them at the end of their trip.

If anyone else has any ideas for Jim, please let us know.