Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Cooling System Plays A Crucial Role In the Maintenance of Your Vehicle

Throughout my career of helping sick cars get well, I've notice that customers pay particular attention to such items as brakes and tires. While Thai's all well and good, I've found that less numbers of people pay close attention to their vehicle's cooling system and that can be a major and costly mistake.

Your vehicle's cooling system plays just as crucial a role in the proper operation and maintenance of your vehicle as its engine, transmission or suspension system. Therefore, it's important that you take the time to check your cooling system periodically or bring it here to the Auto Clinic for us to check. Right now is an especially good time to have your vehicle's cooling system checked before the really hot weather arrives.

Often, people don't even think about their car's cooling system until they smell a hot, "chemical-type" burning coming from underneath the hood. This is usually the result of a radiator leak. Antifreeze/coolant drips out onto the hot parts of the engine (such as parts of the exhaust system). The quick evaporation of the antifreeze/coolant can cause this kind of burning smell.

If you think this might be the case, it would be wise for you to carefully monitor the radiator fluid level. If you seem to be losing an unusually large amount of fluid, bring in the vehicle to have its cooling system checked by one of our friendly specialists.

Perhaps the most common experience people have in regards to their car's cooling system is when they notice a small puddle of yellow greenish fluid in the driveway where they park the car. That fluid is your antifreeze/coolant.

First, look to see if the vehicle's radiator hoses have burst, or if a clamp that holds the hose in place has loosened. If so, you can try to fix the hose temporarily, using a new clamp (which we recommend you should keep in your trunk) to secure the hose to its connection until you can drive to the Auto Clinic for a permanent replacement.

If the hoses seem to be all right, your radiator could be cracked, or its petcock (a small valve or faucet which drains off excess fluid) could be dripping. If the petcock is all right, fill the radiator with more antifreeze/coolant. (Again, we recommend that you carry some extra antifreeze/coolant in your trunk.) Drive your vehicle as soon as possible to the Auto Clinic or a service station to have the problem checked out professionally.

Of course, the best advice to follow is to regularly check your antifreeze/coolant level when you check you vehicle's oil, transmission fluid and other key fluids. Before you start the car in the morning, remove the radiator cap and make sure you have plenty of water. You only need to do this once every couple of weeks or perhaps a bit more depending on how much you drive.

As is the case with so many things, a little bit of prevention is preferable to the alternative. If you consistently neglect your vehicle's cooling system, you risk overheating your car's engine. It make a lot more sense and is a lot cheaper to buy a new radiator hose and a couple of gallons of coolant than undergo major engine repair or replacement. If you think you may have a cooling system problem, bring your vehicle in and we'll be glad to look at it.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Why mounting snow chains on a 4x4 on the front-only can be deadly

FROM: jgh@hopper.unh.edu (Jeffrey G Hemmett)
SUBJECT: Re: snow chain - front or rear
ORGANIZATION: University_of New Hampshire

In article <3519e3a6.594202788@news-pnh.mv.net>, Peter D. Hipson wrote:

I would like to get some advice on whether to install snow chain on the 2ront or rear wheels of a 97 Pathfinder 4x4? Of course if I install them on the front wheels, then I should be in 4WD mode. I've asked Nissan and they strongly advice on only installing on the rear wheels.

Any comments?

Sounds like you answered your own question: "Nissan and they strongly advice on only installing on the rear wheels"!

Why do you want them on the front wheels? (I assume you are looking for someone to counter Nissan's comment) Probably there are clearence problems with the front, so be very careful if you try it. Check to make sure you don't destroy the stearing, and other components, or that the chains don't get broken, and then trash your wheel wells.

Excepting for certain conditions, and places, good driving practices are much more important than tire chains! Rather than chains, I'd suggest a more agressive tire might be the best solution for your problem


Want to know the reason to put them on the rear only if you've got
only 1 pair? Going downhill.

You're out on a nice snowy trail, and you put your only pair of chains on the front wheels, since the chains multiply traction like you wouldn't believe. You figure it's sort of like the front wheel drive theory, you'll have the best traction on the turning wheels to pull you through corners. You are right, and you laugh haughtily as you watch your rear chained friends take corners wide, miss corners, and generally not have a lot of directional control. Then you come to a big hill you have to go down. Your rear chained friends go down no problem, except a few missed a turn in the middle and had to get winched back on track. Now your gonna show 'em how it's done, figuring your front drive chains will pull you through the corner. You start down, and notice the hill is a little off camber. Then you notice your back end is swinging out, and catching up to the front quite quickly. You now find you are going down the track almost sideways, and finally enough snow gets piled up next to your sideways sliding tires to tip the jeep over. On your side, you take off sliding down the hill on your sheetmetal, plowing into your friends who are standing in awe in front of their trucks at 30+, killing all of them except one, who was off taking a leak. But before it fully sinks in that you have to find new drinking buddies, you pile into the side of a pickup with those dreaded side tanks and blow up in a firery conflagration. If there is such a word. Anyway, what happened?

Well, you forgot that your rear tires weren't passively following, like on a true front wheel drive, they were spinning. Spinning without much traction. This leads to sliding. Your front tires, with the chains, had great traction, and weren't going anywhere. The off camber nature of the trail (and if not that then the corner would have) caused gravity to push your sliding rear end down; you were an upside down pendulum, with the pivot being your front tires and not enough traction in back to keep your rear from coming around. If you could go perfectly straight down a perfectly even trail, with no off camber, your rear would have stayed balanced behind your front. If you find a trail like this, let me know. Your rear chained friends, had they lived, would have explained to you that their pivot was on the back, and so going down hill kept them in a stable position. Going uphill they are at a disadvantage, but they have the added control of being able to turn the front wheels and control to some degree the direction they are spinning, and therefore the sliding. But not a whole lot (in a chained rear wheel drive car the front tires aren't spinning, so altough still a bitch in snow up steep hills, not nearly so bad).

Anyway, upon returning from bleeding his lizard, your sole surviving friend surveyed the scene and did what any intellignet person would do: he took a pair of chains from one of his (now dead) friends rigs. With chains all around he was stable up and down hills, had chains pulling him around corners, and also generally enjoyed a whole lot more traction than he had before.

- Jeff



From: MTSOBCZAK@aol.com
Subject: Tire Chains Tips #21/MS (Long)
To: landcruisers@tlca.org

Prior post summaries on the use of chains I thought might be good to review - Stay Safe for the holidays!!!

Chains - All four chained is obviously best, however, if you are going to run just one pair, generally put them on the front for increased directional control. On a steep slippery hill, you definitely want the chains on the uphill end. Control is more important than traction. In the event the unchained end loses traction, you want it to be the lower end of the rig so that it doesn't try to pass you as it slides down the hill. The average speed should be well under 10 mph and usually 20 - 30 mile per hour on dry roads. For even better performance, try two chains on each tire with the cross chains offset. You could also double up the cross chains on a single unit. Chains that are as TIGHT as possible will get maximum life at 30 mph or less. 40 mph is about 57% chain life and 50 mph drops it to 31% chain life. If the chains are loosened by just one link, each side gives you 50% life at 30 mph 16% at 40 mph and 7% at 50 mpg. Do not deflate the tires to install the chains. After installing them, driving about 1/4" mile, stop and re-tighten the chains and never use them on "all
cable" type.

Regular tire chains (the kind that are shaped like ladders when they're spread out on the ground, with only two runners and a whole bunch of rungs) have little or no effect on lateral traction. There are certainly designs (such as "Diamond chains") which will keep more chain between your tire and the ground, but plain old ladder chains do provide lateral traction as well. If your tire is not turning, but is instead sliding, and the cross chains are spaced and located in such a way that none are on the ground, then it's true they can't help much. So long as the tire is rolling, and you have at least one cross chain in contact with the ground, the chains will help your directional control.

Anyway, if you're getting one set, you're probably best off to put them on the back, because they won't make your steering worse than it would be without them.


For almost all use, especially on road use, if you run only one set of chains on a four wheel drive rig, you should run them on the front. First of, because the chains WILL HELP your steering, not hinder it..Secondly most of you braking force is available at the front wheels, not the rear. At the low speeds that chain use is appropriate for, this is where you want the bite to slow down. And lastly, in low traction conditions, a chained rear end and an unchained front end will tend to allow the rear axle to push the front in a turn. This will result in under steer behavior. Sometimes extremely so. And it will not be constant, or predictable. About the only time you should put chains on the rear only of a Cruiser is for descending a steep slippery grade (mud, snow, ice or whatever). In this situation you want to have your traction ability weighted toward the rear. Otherwise you may find yourself in a situation where the tail end simply will not stop when you apply the brakes. The front end will, but and ruts or irregularities in the surface will allow the rear of the rig to slip to one side or the other. Once it does, it will continue sliding downhill and spin you right around. (Assuming that the slope is not steep enough to cause you to tip over when you get turned sideways to it.) When climbing a steep slippery slope you will of course get more traction advantage from the chains if they are mounted on the rear. However if the traction capabilities of the front tires are degraded enough by the snow, ice or mud, you may find the front end sliding back downward if you get crossed up at all. And if you don't make the climb, and have to back down, you are now in a similar situation to before, where you want to have the most grip with the uphill axle. An improvement I have seen done to ladder style chains is to purchase additional cross chains (normally sold for repair purposes), and double up the number of cross chains. This gives much more traction, both in the direction of wheel travel, and laterally as well.

Probably the biggest mistake that people make with chains is driving too fast. If conditions are slippery enough that you really need chains on your 4x4, then 30 mph is TOO FAST. I seldom travel over 15-20 when the rig is chained, whether on the road or the trail. Higher speeds will also wear your chains at a geometrerically faster rate. Mark Whatley

Ice driving - I drove in low range and had very good luck in using the low range in conjunction with compression braking, double clutch downshifting and some gentle squeezing of the brakes (threshold braking). I was able to stop in conditions where I was not able to in high range, two wheel drive mode.


From: Trey
To: landcruisers@tlca.org
Subject: Re: Tire Chains Tips #21/MS (Long)


MTSOBCZAK@aol.com wrote:


Prior post summaries on the use of chains I thought might be good to review - Stay Safe for the holidays!!!

For even better performance, try two chains on each tire with the cross chains offset.


Tire chains were not meant for this. If you can't get to where you need to go with one good pair (or all 4s chained), then you really don't need to be there. This is an unsafe idea.


You could also double up the cross chains on a single unit.


MUCH better idea. Have done this many times...


After installing them, driving about 1/4" mile, stop and re-tighten the chains and never use them on "all cable" type.


Never use "rubber adjusters" on "all cable" type.


Regular tire chains (the kind that are shaped like ladders when they're spread out on the ground, with only two runners and a whole bunch of rungs) have little or no effect on lateral traction. There are certainly designs (such as "Diamond chains") which will keep more chain between your tire and the ground, but plain old ladder chains do provide lateral traction as well.


No offense but you contradict yourself. Your first sentence say's ladder chains have "no effect on lateral traction" and the you say "plain old ladder chains do provide lateral traction as well".


If your tire is not turning, but is instead sliding, and the cross chains are spaced and located in such a way that none are on the ground, then it's true they can't help much.


You must have the wrong size chains for your tires then. A correct sized chain will have 2 cross chains touching the ground when spaced correctly.


Anyway, if you're getting one set, you're probably best off to put them on the back, because they won't make your steering worse than it would be without them.


This is sniped from you first sentence.....


"All four chained is obviously best, however, if you are going to run just one pair, generally put them on the front for increased directional control."


Then you say...


For almost all use, especially on road use, if you run only one set of chains on a four wheel drive rig, you should run them on the front.


Your confusing...


First of, because the chains WILL HELP your steering, not hinder it..Secondly most of you braking force is available at the front wheels, not the rear. At the low speeds that chain use is appropriate for, this is where you want the bite to slow down.


Off road it will help steering and traction. As for breaking force, if the front doesn't "grab" then your chained rear will.


And lastly, in low traction conditions, a chained rear end and an unchained front end will tend to allow the rear axle to push the front in a turn. This will result in under steer behavior. Sometimes extremely so. And it will not be constant, or predictable.


Slow down. We drive in snow and ice 5 + months a year :-)


About the only time you should put chains on the rear only of a Cruiser is for descending a steep slippery grade (mud, snow, ice or whatever).


Or daily driving on pavement.


When climbing a steep slippery slope you will of course get more traction advantage from the chains if they are mounted on the rear.


I disagree. I'd prefer the "pulling" tires to have the traction in this situation verses the "pushing" tires for the very reasons you state below.


However if the traction capabilities of the front tires are degraded enough by the snow, ice or mud, you may find the front end sliding back downward if you get crossed up at all. And if you don't make the climb, and have to back down, you are now in a similar situation to before, where you want to have the most grip with the uphill axle.



An improvement I have seen done to ladder style chains is to purchase additional cross chains (normally sold for repair purposes), and double up the number of cross chains. This gives much more traction, both in the direction of wheel travel, and laterally as well.


This is the best and safest way. Please do not double up tire chains (2 sets on 1 tire).


Probably the biggest mistake that people make with chains is driving too fast. If conditions are slippery enough that you really need chains on your 4x4 , then 30 mph is TOO FAST. I seldom travel over 15-20 when the rig is chained, whether on the road or the trail. Higher speeds will also wear your chains at a geometrerically faster rate. Mark Whatley


I couldn't have said it better myself :-)




FROM: "Jarhead"
SUBJECT: Re: Tire Chains
NEWSGROUPS: rec.autos.4x4

"David & Ann" wrote in message
news:3C63459A.69CD8A76@mediaone.net...

I've got a set of tire chains on the rear wheels of my '89 Toyota 4WD pickup so I can get up the snow and ice covered hill in my back property.

The question is, can I put another set of chains on the front wheels? I've had a couple of people tell me that you should never put tire chains on the front wheels. Is that only because of wheel well clearance issues or is there some other reason? I've got 35" mud tires and 7" of lift so there are no clearance issues on my truck.

Also, has anybody had any problems running tire chains with a Detroit Locker? When I make tight turns in my driveway, I can hear the inside wheel skipping over the chains and I'm worried I might break an axle or something.

Thanks.

- David


30 years ago when I taught school on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, one of the El Paso Natural Gas guys clued me in on how they ran in the Oil bearing Shale gumbo in that area.(Grey dirt that turned into Axle grease after a rain).
First of all they ran tall,narrow tires and when needed they ran front chains ONLY. Also, they added extra heavy cross chains between the regular cross chains and left them loose so that the chains would clean themselves as they rotated. Rubber Bungee tensioners were used by some. Others had an extra set of wheels with the chains permanently mounted and put on tight before the tire was fully inflated. ( The cross chains were still loose). Most of the Jicarilla had 2WD PU's with the latter arrangement.

When they were confronted with a real narrow place that mandated that they kept it in a straight line he said to grab a few clicks of emergency brake. This shifted enough power to the front so as to drag the rear straight behind the front wheels. This worked on my '69 Scout and later with my HD Half 1100 Series IH PU. This kept me from certain disaster several times.
Never heard of anyone having trouble with the chains damaging anything underneath the trucks. None of them had lift kits either.
--
Jarhead


FROM: Roger Brown
SUBJECT: Re: Tire Chains

David & Ann wrote:


Thanks, everyone, for the advice/experience. I'm only running with the chains on the snow covered trails (and my driveway when I turn the truck around). I wouldn't be able to get up my hill without them. So far, I've been able to climb the hill with just the rear chains, but the snow isn't very deep yet. I may need to add another set of chains to the front if we get more snow. I'll make sure to check the brake lines for clearance first.


Airing the tires down can help, too. I find that running around 18-20 psi does wonders for snow and ice traction and you can still do freeway speeds if needed.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Engine Compartment Cleanup

Here's one area where the racers can benefit from a good detailing as much as or more than the show guys. In a race car, reliability is everything. Having a part fail at the wrong time means the end of the day for you. The gauges in the cockpit can only tell you so much & the laptop monitoring your systems can't see everything. The only way to see if a belt is about to cut loose, or a hose is developing a bulge where it shouldn't or cracks around a fitting is by visual inspection. But if your engine bay is a greasy mess, how can you see what's really going on in there?

For a show car, what do you think would happen if the judges give your car high marks, only to open the hood and find more grease than on the bottom of a barbeque grill?

I'm going to figure worst case, there's more grease and oil under your hood than in a small middle eastern country. Have any of you ever heard the term 'fight fire with fire'? In this case it means we're going to start cleaning your engine bay with more oil. Two of my favorites are WD-40 and PB Blaster. Both of these are highly refined oils and very thin - designed to penetrate. These oils will penetrate the grease and sludge covering your engine and turn them into a more liquid form which is easily rinsed off. For a first time cleaning on a really bad engine, you'll want the engine hot (operating temperature). This softens the sludge, making the process easier by giving you a head start.

One of the side benefits of using WD-40 or PB Blaster as a cleaner, is that they're safe for the electrical connections in the engine. I usually start with the underneath of the hood. That way I don?t have crud dripping onto my clean engine like I would if I cleaned the hood last..

The underside of the hood is easy enough. Spray the WD-40/Blaster liberally over everything. When I say everything, I mean it. All those openings in the hood, use the little tube supplied to direct the spray into the crease behind the leading edge of the hood. This is where most hood rust starts, so cleaning it out is really important. You may even consider removing the insulation from the hood so you can get behind it. Extra bad spots should be scrubbed with a soft bristled brush.
Once this 'heavy' cleaning is done, hit the hood with a strong stream of water and rinse off the grease & oil residue. Now things get a bit more conventional. Simple Green is a great cleaner. Safe, biodegradable and non-toxic. Best of all, it works. I normally re-spray the underside of the hood with Simple Green and let it soak. Then I use an old wash mitt and a bucket of water with DAWN dish soap. Rinse by directing a strong stream of water over the surface, taking extra care to try and flush out all the hidden areas. This combination removes all the remaining residue, leaving the hood perfectly clean.

The actual engine bay is a bit more difficult than any other part of the car simply because it has so many tight areas, electrical parts and connectors. Not to mention the multitude of different materials (different types of plastic, rubber, aluminum, steel & painted surfaces) inside. On most cars, the only thing you really need to remove is the stock air intake. If you want to get really serious, There are places that rent engine hoists. Once the air intake is removed, your throttle body is wide open. Obviously mass amounts of water aren't good in here. You can use either aluminum foil, or plastic wrap & a rubber band to seal off the opening. For the major electrical components (alternator, fuse & power distribution boxes, wiring harness connectors etc.) you may decide that you want these items covered before cleaning to prevent their exposure to large amounts of semi-high pressure water. For these items, aluminum foil works best. It's relatively durable, completely water and detergent proof and best of all, stays where you put it.
I personally don't feel the need to cover parts of the engine (other than the TB opening) prior to washing. My way of thinking is that as soon as I'm done, take the car out for a 15-20 minute drive. The combination of engine heat, and airflow from driving will quickly remove most of the water. Driving through a puddle, or driving in the rain will leave more water than what remains after the wash.
How deeply you dig into the engine bay to clean is completely up to you. If you like, divide it into sections to be done on different days. Inner fenders one day and fire wall, radiator support area the next and the actual engine another day. Splitting the job up will help keep you from 'burning out' and lets you do a more thorough job.

For the engine, hoses and other misc. parts, plan on getting pretty dirty yourself. 'Splash back' is going to be a factor here, as will reaching deep into the engine bay to get the lower sections of the engine & firewall.
You will want to use the old wash mitt and make sure you get all sides of the hoses, brackets and other parts. Trust me if you miss something during the cleaning you're going to find it when you next work on the car when you stick your hand in there and it comes back all grimy from an area that didn't get cleaned, or the nice chrome part you're installing winds up covered in crud.

Once you think you've gotten it all, rinse the motor with the garden hose. Start with a strong stream and hit everything. Once the big stuff is gone, switch to a medium spray. This will 'float' the remaining gunk away without splashing it all over the place. There is no way you're going to clean the engine without getting over-spray of cleaners & gunk over the rest of the car (especially the windshield). Occasionally rinse the whole car to remove the crud and prevent it from sticking where it shouldn't.

Once this 'heavy' cleaning is done, stick your head back into the engine bay and look for anything you missed, use your hands to check under and behind parts. This is also the time to check for worn hoses, belts, frayed or melted wires etc. The majority of the dirt & grime are gone, and since you're doing a close inspection of the whole engine anyway? For the racers (or anyone for that matter) having a clean engine lets you spot leaks right away, and it's much easier to tell where the leak is if you can see where it's coming from instead of looking for fresh spill amid a bunch of old grime. Too, if a competitor happens to look in, they're going to see a tight engine compartment and know you're serious about your stuff. Not to mention if something IS broken, you're going to have to stick your hands in there & why get dirtier than you have to?

If you find that the whole engine is now clean (or as clean as you want it) take it for the 'dry off' drive. If not go after the remaining dirt with the wash mitt or other tool needed to reach that area. When you're done with the drive, you'll need to give your car a quick wash of the visible surfaces to remove any residue that splashed onto it from the engine cleaning.

Now is the time to decide if you're going to use dressing on the engine. Some people use a water based protectant (usually a very thin product) and spray the entire engine bay, others use something like BLACK MAGIC, applying it with a cloth to all the proper parts instead of spraying everything in sight. I personally apply wax to the painted areas I can reach and use BLACK MAGIC (cause the wife bought a ton of it at the discount store for me) on the wires, hoses & other plastic parts.

Tips & Tricks:
I haven't tried this, but some have said that on a mildly dirty engine, you can soak the engine & engine bay with ARMOR ALL then let it soak over night. The next day, spray everything down with a strong stream of water. This is supposed to wash away the grime & excess ARMOR ALL and leave a nice gloss.

Make sure to clean the fan blades (electric or belt driven), dirty blades don't flow air as well and may contribute to overheating. After an intense cleaning make sure to re-lubricate the hinges, you just stripped them clean of grease.
A wet/dry vacuum with a crevice attachment can also be used to dry the engine, as can compressed air. Be careful with compressed air though, it can force water where it doesn't belong.

When you are cleaning your engine with just soap and water, you want it cold. Otherwise the soap will dry out too fast, forcing you to use even more soap and making things harder than they have to be.