Saturday morning, you pull up to the local lumber yard with your list of supplies needed to finish the deck, replace those busted sprinkler heads, or whatever you have been putting off for months. Your shopping cart is loaded down with tons of home-repair goodies. You reach for the handle…
Let’s talk tools. You’ve probably got a few basics for the house, right? Hammer, wrench, pliers? You should have a basic car toolkit, too. Oh, sure, there’s whatever’s in the trunk that came with the car — probably enough to change a tire — but you should have more than…
“They still work, they’re just a little dim. What’s the point of replacing them before they burn out?” You probably know someone who says or thinks that about their barely-lit headlights or brake lights. You may even be that person. We need to fix that. Your vehicle’s headlights are like…
Changing your oil regularly is the cornerstone of good car maintenance. It’s not the cleanest job, but just about anyone can do it. So read up on some tips and tricks to make the job easier, then gather the following tools and supplies and get to it. Safety First Accessing…
Spring is here and it’s the perfect time for a drive! But there’s a little car maintenance you should do before you hit the road. You never know when that first beautiful spring day will come, and you want to be prepared. Here are five things to do to get…
Everyone knows frequent oil changes are a vital part of vehicle maintenance, but usually replacing an oil filter occurs at the same time as an oil change, assumed to be basically equal parts of the one procedure. And while this is generally the case, there may, on rare occasions, come…
The process of removing air from the hydraulic brake system is called bleeding. Air is compressible, and any air in the system will be compressed during brake application, causing a spongy pedal. When bleeding brakes, using the proper sequence is recommended. It saves time and ensures that the entire system…
For most of us, mowing the lawn is a necessary chore that we must undertake every couple of weeks in order to keep the grass under control and the Homeowners Association hawks at bay. Unless you hire a service or a neighborhood kid to take on this task, it is…
Just like a good tailgate party, your engine requires three basic things to get cooking, fuel, oxygen and heat. In your engine — hold the bratwurst — oxygen is delivered by the intake, heat by spark or compression, and fuel by the fuel pump. Before fuel gets to the cylinder,…
Tire balance and wheel alignment are often micro adjustments with macro consequences. Beyond being a part of routine tire maintenance, keeping everything rolling smoothly affects steering, suspension and ride feel. So it’s worth learning about and keeping an eye out for when things might be out of whack. Rough and…