Automotive | All About Automotive

Started with a thud on right front if even hit a small bump in the road, and continually got worse. Now there is a rattle to accompany the thud, sounds like dice in a wooden box rattling around. Tires wear bad. Have had it in three times, mechanics cannot find anything to blame it on to fix. Very irritating noises especially when traveling down the highway. Starts feeling like it is thuding on my last nerve. Approx 72K on speedometer. Any ideas that I can send the mechanics on the right road to fix.

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Check your Struts. That is ...... Read Entire Article

My van starts fine, drive it about 10 miles and the  check engine light comes on. After I shut it off, it takes forever to start again. I have already replaced fuel filter, fuel pump relay, and throttle body sensor. What else can it be? I'm tired of throwing parts at it.

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(NUI) - What's in your neighborhood recycling bin? If you are like most diligent recyclers, yesterday's newspaper finds its way atop a curbside pile that includes aluminum cans, glass jars and some two-liter soda bottles. And that's pretty much where most consumer recycling efforts end.

But consider the lowly battery - something to which most people don't give a second thought until this important device stops powering their cell phone, hand-held vacuum and especially their car.

According to AAA, more than 100 million automotive batteries were sold last year in the United States alone, and while most found their way back to recycling plants, several million did not. With the number of vehicles currently more than the number of licensed drivers, the number of junk batteries in search of a final resting place has the potential to increase.

So, what can you do? For starters, don't toss your car's old battery into a bin with your household recyclables and leave it on the curb. An automotive battery, also referred to as a lead-acid battery, contains about 21 pounds of lead, three pounds of plastic and one gallon of sulfuric acid. These items can be toxic if handled improperly.

If you are the do-it-yourself type, take your spent battery to a quality auto parts retailer that is committed to battery recycling.

Each year, AAA handles some 5 million road service calls in North America for battery-related issues. Now, with the advent of new mobile battery service, its members have an option for an "on the go" solution to a dead battery. The AAA Battery Service, available in most municipal areas in North America, can test, diagnose and replace batteries on the spot for members. And each time a new battery is installed, the old one is returned to the manufacturer for recycling.

If you prefer to take your vehicle to a repair shop when it is time to replace your battery, consider one of the more than 5,600 auto service businesses inspected and approved by AAA as part of its approved auto repair program. AAA-approved shops are environmentally aware and will make sure your spent battery is disposed of properly.

To learn more about battery recycling and AAA's efforts to help motorists protect the environment, visit www.aaa.com or www.aaa publicaffairs.com.

By Carjunky

(NAPSI)-As levels of traditional air pollutants like smog and soot continue to decline, regulators are setting their sights on the regulation of benign gases claimed to cause climate change-like carbon dioxide, usually referred to as CO2.

California's regulators recently passed new rules that aim to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of the Golden States' motor vehicles. The evidence suggests the California Air Resources Board's new rule, like its electric-car mandate of the 1990s, offers great economic pain for no environmental gain.

The board's latest decree sets a much lower standard for the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted by each model year's new cars beginning in 2009. Ultimately, the required reduction in vehicle carbon dioxide emissions for the fleet of vehicles sold into California will reach a stiff 30 percent below current levels by 2016.

Unfortunately, the benefits of this low carbon dioxide diet don't amount to much. The required 30 percent reduction in CO2 won't even put a dent in global warming. Even taking every car in California off the road would reduce current global emissions of carbon dioxide by less than ¹/4 of one percent-a reduction that would have virtually no impact on the climate.

In fact, at current emission levels, reducing all motor fuel emissions in the entire United States by 30 percent would reduce global carbon emissions by only 1.5 percent.

With CO2 emissions in developing countries like China and India far outpacing those in developed countries, the environmental impact of the new rules are likely to be undetectable in the long run.

The costs of the new proposal border on the prohibitive. When the regulators proposed the new rule, they argued that motorists would save big at the gasoline pump-an estimated $1,703 over the life of each new passenger car sold in 2016.

When taking out all of the regulators' unsupportable assumptions, a study by Sierra Research found that new car buyers in 2016 would lose $3,357 over the lifetime of the vehicle compared to a no-regulation alternative.

While the new rules apply only to California, they're likely to increase new car prices for new car buyers throughout the United States since 20 percent of new-cars are sold to Californians.

With that big a market at stake, automakers will have little choice but to apply the requirement to virtually every car sold in the U.S. rather than go to the trouble and expense of fragmenting their production for two separate markets-California as one and the remaining 49 states as the other.

Unless one is gullible enough to believe that changing human actions through government coercion will save the Earth from the global warming disasters envisioned in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow," California's new CO2 regulations are ill-advised. Their costs are too high and their benefits nearly non-existent.

Kenneth Green directs the Centre for Studies in Risk, Regulation, and Environment at The Fraser Institute a research institution in Vancouver, British Columbia.

by Kenneth Green

Everyone wants to learn how to drive, in fact, most of us have to learn how to drive.

We may need to drive for work, or drive to get us to work, but for one reason or another most people get their license.

When I got my license, we had one car in our family and my Dad gave me driving lessons in that car.

For a time lots of young people had driver's ed in school, but many of those "extra" programs got tossed out with budget cuts. Today many people prefer to use a driving school.

Learn It Right The First Time

When you are taught to drive, those first lessons will always stay with us. This is the main reason when you learn something, you should make sure you are learning to do it correctly.

If you learn it right, you will know all the basics and they will guide you. If someone in your family is going to teach you to drive, you should consider a couple things.

Do you listen to everything that person tells you to do? Are you very comfortable with that person? Do you think that person is always right? If not, they should not teach you how to drive. If you don't listen to them now, you will not listen to them when they are your driving instructor.

It would be a good way to save some money, but to get the most out of your lessons I recommend that you use a driving school.

It's becoming an American standard that a teenager will go to a driving school. A driving school provides the student with a teacher who is qualified to teach you the rules and regulations of the road. A trained driving instructor will teach you to drive correctly. Your family members will most likely tell you all the short cuts they take while driving. Not a good idea. When you drive a vehicle that weighs tons and you make a mistake, you are putting yourself and others in danger. Everyone in the car with you, and people in others cars could get hurt if you make even a small mistake. So you can't afford to make a mistake, can you?


Once you know how to drive, using the correct skills taught to you by a driving instructor, you will be able to form your own style of driving, one that includes all the focus you can muster, and one that keeps your attention on road signs, other drivers and the driving laws.

The Other Advantages Of Learning To Drive In A Professional School

By taking a driver training course you can earn yourself a discount on your auto insurance policy. Insurance companies trust the professional driving instructors will teach you the correct way to drive, and all the rules and regulations that go along with driving a car. This savings in important to you because today car insurance rates are higher than ever.

Sometimes having a certificate from an American driving school can make it easier to get an international drivers license in other countries. This could be a big plus if you plan to travel to other countries and would like to drive a car while your there.

Another plus about going to a driving school is they will help you to prepare to take your written driving test as well as your physical driving test.

After a few driving lessons with a professional driving instructor you will begin to notice the confidence you have about your diving ability, and when it comes to test taking you won't be any where as nervous as you would have been had you studied on your own.

Yes driving instruction can be expensive, but for every penny you spend, you will be paid back in full by learning the proper way to maneuver a car, by learning the rules and regulations of driving and vehicle use, by being able to drive confidently and with care.

You will be paid by back by the safe way you drive, protecting yourself, your passengers and your fellow drivers.