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  Contents

  Pop Quiz: Test Your Auto Care IQ

  Can you tell the difference between an auto myth and a car care fact?

  Introduction

  The story of my auto airhead past—and how I became a certified #shecanic

  Part i

  GET TO KNOW YOUR VEHICLE

  Changing Your Vehicular Relationship Status

  A fresh start for you and your car

  Must-Know Facts About Your Car

  The essential 411 for your specific make, model, and year: a handy guide and write-in form

  Get to Know Your Dash

  Decoding your instrument cluster and all those mysterious lights

  Your Primary Care Technician

  The different types of auto shops and how to choose a mechanic that’s right for you

  High Maintenance

  Why maintenance isn’t optional: a master schedule for car care

  DIY #1: Under the Hood

  DIY #2: Check and Add Windshield Washer Fluid

  Part ii

  EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HOW CARS WORK

  Anatomy of a Modern Car

  A simple overview of the four major systems in a modern car

  The “Three E’s”: Engines, Exhaust, Emissions

  The engine, exhaust, and emissions systems—and oil and coolant, the engine’s lifelines

  DIY #3: How to Check and Add Oil

  DIY #4: How to Check and Add Coolant

  Motion Electric: The Electrical Systems and Computers Inside Your Car

  Batteries, alternators, starters, and onboard diagnostics—how they work, and how to keep them working for you; buying and maintaining electric cars and hybrids

  Transmission: An Orderly Transfer of Power

  Rear-wheel drive, front-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and more: understanding and maintaining your transmission system

  Brakes: The Most Important System in Your Car

  The parts of your brake system, the magic of ABS, and diagnosing common brake issues

  DIY #5: How to Check Brake Fluid and Power Steering Fluid

  Keep ’Em Rolling: Tires and Wheels

  All about psi, wheel alignments, and common wheel and tire problems

  DIY #6: How to Check Air Pressure and Tire Tread

  DIY #7: How to Change a Tire

  Steering: Navigating Your Chariot

  Anatomy of the power steering system, common repairs, and signs of a power steering issue

  Suspension: Giving You That Smooth Ride

  A piece of your car that goes bump in the night

  Heating and Air-Conditioning: Keeping It Cozy

  Low maintenance, high cost: a brief look at climate control

  Gas: The Joys and Pains

  Choosing your grade, and good habits at the pump

  Part iii

  COMMON ROADSIDE PROBLEMS (AND A MINI BUYER’S GUIDE)

  Buy, Sell, Ditch: How to Avoid a Clunker (or Tell When Your Car Has Become One) and Buy a Car You Can Afford

  How to buy a car you can afford to maintain, and where to buy it; buying used without fear; test-driving like a boss; understanding warranties; and when to say good-bye

  What to Do in an Emergency

  Collisions, overheated engines, loss of brakes, flat tires, nonstarters, and must-have emergency tools and supplies

  DIY #8: How to Jump-Start a Car

  Graduation Time

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  DIY Index

  To Edwin Regis of Guy’s Auto Clinic—all in.

  Pop Quiz: Test Your Auto Care IQ

  Ready for a test of your auto care know-how? Don’t worry—you’re not going to be graded. The main purpose of this little quiz is to show that when it comes to car care, there are loads of myths, misconceptions, and downright dangerous ideas out there. Some are just plain false. But others were once best practice—rules that applied to older cars and are no longer true. As technology has changed, so have the facts. No wonder we wind up confused.

  Can you identify some of the myths and half-truths that have stood the test of time? Let’s see if you can figure out whether the following statements are myths, facts, or something in between—an old-school tip your dad, husband, boyfriend, or brother still tells you to do! This last category is my favorite. When women come to me with car care misconceptions they’ve picked up from the men in their lives, I set them straight. Then I have them call up the perpetrators and tell them how it really is.

  1. A hair dryer/plunger can be used to remove a dent.

  MYTH

  FACT

  2. You must change your engine oil every 3,000 miles.

  MYTH

  FACT

  3. You should inflate your tires to the air pressure shown on the tires’ sidewalls.

  MYTH

  FACT

  4. If regular-grade fuel is good, premium must be better. Better for the engine and better for the drive.

  MYTH

  FACT

  5. Topping off the gas will save you money and trips to the gas station.

  MYTH

  FACT

  6. Driving your car in cold weather without first warming it up for several minutes will damage your engine.

  MYTH

  FACT

  7. To keep your car warranty valid, you must perform regular maintenance at the dealership where you purchased your car.

  MYTH

  FACT

  8. Keeping your car’s windows down in the summer instead of using air-conditioning saves money on gas.

  MYTH

  FACT

  9. You should buy an SUV, because bigger cars are safer than smaller cars.

  MYTH

  FACT

  10. You should replace your tires in pairs when one of them fails.

  MYTH

  FACT

  11. Talking on your cell phone while pumping gas can cause a fire or explosion.

  MYTH

  FACT

  12. You’ll get more gas for your money if you fill up in the morning.

  MYTH

  FACT

  13. You must winterize your car for cold weather.

  MYTH

  FACT

  14. Fuel and oil additives help with your car’s performance.

  MYTH

  FACT

  Answers

  1. A hair dryer/plunger can be used to remove a dent.

  FACT! Yes, a hair dryer or plunger can sometimes be used to remove minor or small dents in the body, hood, or bumper of your car. However, this trick will not work on all cars or in all instances. A dent’s location, as well as the material on the affected area (aluminum, carbon fiber, plastic, fiberglass, or steel), might make at-home dent removal difficult. For instance, hair dryers or plungers won’t work at all on aluminum cars.

  2. You must change your engine oil every 3,000 miles.

  MYTH! Advances in technology mean that most cars can be driven at least 5,000 miles before an oil change is required.

  3. You should inflate your tires to the air pressure shown on the tires’ sidewalls.

  MYTH! To be honest, I’m not sure how this misconception started. But at some point, tire
manufacturers made the decision to print the maximum allowable pressure on the tire’s sidewall, and ever since people have thought that this number represented optimal air pressure.

  4. If regular-grade fuel is good, premium must be better. Better for the engine and better for the drive.

  MYTH! Your engine is designed to burn fuel at a certain temperature. If it was designed to burn 87 octane or regular gas at a lower ignition temperature, there is no advantage to be gained by using 93—you will only be wasting money.

  5. Topping off the gas will save you money and trips to the gas station.

  MYTH! Do not top off the gas tank when you are filling up. You could be causing damage to your emissions system and wasting money.

  6. Driving your car in cold weather without first warming it up for several minutes will damage your engine.

  MYTH! One of the greatest myths in car care is the notion that you must warm up the car on cold winter mornings for five to ten minutes before you slide that puppy into drive. This myth made me hate winter that much more, and I even shelled out for a remote starter once. But warming up your car is no longer necessary. On modern cars (anything made in the past twenty years), you’re not doing the engine any harm by taking off from a cold start. All you’re really doing by “warming up your car” is wasting gas and making yourself late for work. So spend that extra ten minutes getting some coffee or getting more sleep.

  Please be warned, this isn’t an excuse to hit D, then take off like you’re racing Jeff Gordon. Slowly take off and drive gently. Essentially, you are warming up the car during your first few minutes of driving.

  Disclaimer: If it’s crazy cold out, like 20 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, warming up your car for two minutes helps the oil circulate through the engine.

  7. To keep your car warranty valid, you must perform regular maintenance at the dealership where you purchased your car.

  MYTH! This is a huge misconception, one that can make you feel locked in to going to a dealership for maintenance and repairs. As long as maintenance is performed on the schedule specified in your owner’s manual, you can take your car to any shop. Don’t forget to document all work in case you run into any warranty issues. And make sure you understand your car’s warranty before you buy it.

  8. Keeping your car’s windows down in the summer instead of using air-conditioning saves money on gas.

  MYTH (somewhat). I suffered so much as a child, my legs sticking to a searing leather seat in the heat of an East Coast summer. I thought I was going to faint in the hot car my mom’s boyfriend drove us around in somewhere between July and Hell. If only I knew then what I know now. . . . Yes, it is correct that the AC uses gas. But driving with the windows down at speeds greater than 35 miles per hour causes the car to use more gas than if the windows were up. At faster speeds, the car is cutting through wind resistance as it drives, causing it to drag or slow down if windows are down. The engine has to work hard to cut through wind resistance at these speeds, and that requires more gas.

  Cars are aerodynamically designed to reduce drag, but only if we keep the windows closed. Plus, the amount of gas used by the AC system is not significant. Be comfortable, and don’t let your passengers suffer like I did.

  9. You should buy an SUV, because bigger cars are safer than smaller cars.

  MYTH (somewhat). History has shown that bigger cars fare better in head-on collisions than smaller cars. But this doesn’t mean that lighter vehicles are unsafe, and today’s small cars are safer than ever. Choose a car that has performed well in the various government and insurance industry crash tests.

  10. You should replace your tires in pairs when one of them fails.

  FACT! Many shops and mechanics recommend replacing tires in pairs to ensure that all tires have the same tread depth. I know, I know—tires are expensive. So you could get away with replacing just one, especially on front- and rear-wheel-drive transmission models and/or if your other tire has a lot of remaining tread depth or is fairly new. But it is best practice to match your replacement tires to the brand, size, and speed rating of the original tires on the car. All-wheel-drive vehicles require all four tires to be replaced, and I recommend replacing tires on four-wheel-drive vehicles in pairs.

  11. Talking on your cell phone while pumping gas can cause a fire or explosion.

  MYTH! The rare exploding cell phone with a malfunctioning battery may trigger massive recalls, but there is no evidence that a normally functioning cell phone can ignite fuel vapors. Don’t smoke at the pump, though!

  12. You’ll get more gas for your money if you fill up in the morning.

  MYTH! A few years ago I saw this gas myth floating around on Facebook in several memes. Yes, gas does turn into a vapor when it’s hot (i.e., during the day), but once it’s in your fuel tank, vapor collection systems send any vapors through a carbon-filled canister and then back into the engine. Also, gas is pretty much the same temperature no matter what the time of day, because a gas station’s tanks are underground. A related myth? You shouldn’t pump gas while a tanker is delivering at the station. Deliveries from tanker trucks do stir up particles of dirt and sludge in gasoline storage tanks, but this isn’t much of an issue for our cars. Gas stations are required to install filters to trap dirt and sludge, and modern automobiles are also equipped with fuel filters, so a bit of stirred-up dirt doesn’t have much potential to adversely affect your car. What can do damage to your fuel pump is leaving your gas tank below a quarter of a tank often. Moral of the story: Buy gas when you need it—there is no right time of day.

  13. You must winterize your car for cold weather.

  MYTH! Unless you live somewhere that gets monster snowstorms, there isn’t much, if any, winterization that falls outside a normal maintenance schedule. Maintenance on brakes, tires, windshield wipers, and fluids should be performed on schedule, no matter the season. M+S (mud and snow) tires are all-season tires and work fine in most areas with light snow and ice. Snow tires and chains are for people who live in Wisconsin. But batteries hate to start in the cold, so if your battery is getting to the end of its life (four to six years), yes, you may want to be proactive and replace it before winter hits.

  14. Fuel and oil additives help with your car’s performance.

  MYTH/FACT! Fuel additives are really only useful for high-performing sports cars—skip them if you don’t have one. Engine oil additives and synthetic oil (see page 97 to find out more about the differences) won’t prolong the life of the engine, but may provide added protection if you tend to wait long amounts of time between oil changes, or as the car ages. Transmission oil additives can be useful if you are having issues with a transmission slipping.

  How did you do? If you bombed, there is absolutely no shame in your game. With all these car care myths, rumors, and half-true memes making the rounds, it’s no wonder so many drivers are confused about the best way to care for their rides. But even if you aced this little quiz, I hope you learned a few things as well. The mission of Girls Auto Clinic is to educate female drivers, whatever their starting auto IQ.

  Now buckle up and let’s ride.

  Introduction

  My name is Patrice Banks, and I’m a former auto airhead.

  Not too long ago, when it came to my relationships with cars, I was a hot mess.

  I’d always been a confident driver, the kind of aggressive lane changer and high-functioning parallel parker who’d burn rubber and curse out your grandmother to shave a couple of minutes off a ride through city traffic. But as far as auto maintenance and repairs, I was clueless. I was the walking stereotype of a female automotive consumer, a grown woman who needed a man to help her anytime anything went wrong with her car. Not just the mechanic at the shop, but also the boyfriend or father figure or friend who’d have to tell me it was way past time to get my tires changed or my engine looked at, and keep on badgering me about it until I finally dragged myself to the shop. I once drove around for four months in a heap that was straight-up leaking oil
and smoking. Sure, I was putting myself through college and couldn’t afford an expensive repair. But generally, I was the kind of driver whose stomach would drop anytime a dashboard light came on or a loud rattle escaped from under the hood. Instead of dealing with it, I’d say a silent prayer willing the problem to magically fix itself.

  What’s amazing about my auto airhead past is that I spent my pre–Auto Clinic career as a materials engineering consultant for one of the world’s largest chemical companies. Part of my job was performing root-cause failure analysis on Million-dollar pieces of manufacturing equipment. But was I interested in the root causes of failure in the cars I drove into the ground? Not so much.

  “Car needs an oil change, but I’m going to get a mani-pedi instead.” That’s a Facebook status I posted one day back when I was still working at my job full-time. Knowing my silly little post would provoke some spirited dialogue, I headed off to my mani-pedi with a bounce in my step. Sure enough, I got back to my desk to find comments like “This is why women shouldn’t drive,” “Patrice, you’re going to get stuck on the side of the road with a blown engine!” or “Whatever, at least she’ll look cute when she’s thumbing it for a ride.” Of course the ladies had my back.

  At the time I thought this was hilarious. I still do. But that anecdote has also become part of the story I tell about my transformation from auto airhead to bona fide #shecanic [she-kan-ik].

  Back then, a regular day on the job for me was climbing up towers a hundred feet in the air in coveralls, a hard hat, and steel-toed boots to check on huge tanks filled with hydrochloric acid. Yet I was so intimidated by my car that I prioritized getting my nails done over protecting a $25,000 investment.

  Sounds bad, right? But if you bought this book, I’m guessing it might also sound familiar.

  Women generally don’t have the happiest, healthiest relationships with their cars, or with their mechanics. This might not cause real stress until that check-engine light comes on or a cloud of white smoke starts blowing up from under the hood. But our discomfort around the topic of our cars manifests itself in all kinds of little ways on a regular basis. For many of us, it takes the form of a pattern of avoidance that can result in costly repairs down the line.