Archive for February 2022Pinch Petroleum Pennies! (Fuel Saving Tips)Posted February 27, 2022 8:57 AMIf you saw a dollar bill on the ground, you'd pick it up, right? Well, whether you find that dollar on the ground or in savings at the gas pump, money is money, and here are some ways to hold on to more of it. Slowing down is the easiest way to save fuel, especially for every speed increase over 50 mph/80 k/hr. Tone down the speed, turn up the cash savings. Drive smoothly (not like a race car driver) and you'll also save money in fuel. Aggressive, fast-start, jerky-stop habits are just pulling the bucks out of your wallet about a third more than if you drove just a little more gently. Oh, and cruise control can help with that smooth, steady speed, so use it on the highway. Bonus! Are you hauling around a set of dumbbells or a box of books? That extra weight is costing you dough. Store them somewhere else. When's the last time you checked to see your tires were inflated properly? That's another money saver and makes your vehicle safer. An idle thought… don't idle any longer than you have to. If you will be idling for more than 30 seconds you'll save money by turning off the engine and re-starting it. More and more of the latest vehicles now do this automatically. Some like it cold. But air conditioning uses a lot of extra fuel. If you can live with the cabin at 72 on a hot day rather than turned down to arctic freeze levels, you'll save some cool cash. Turn off the A/C all together can save you from 5-20 percent The key to a fuel-efficient vehicle is keeping it well maintained. If your spark plugs are old, your belts frayed and your brake pads worn, you're just throwing away fuel. Try a few of these gas-saving suggestions and while you're at it, you'll be helping to reduce your carbon footprint that will help everyone on Planet Earth. Lakeside Certified Auto PCV Valve: What Is It?Posted February 20, 2022 12:09 PMMost Willoughby drivers know something about preventive maintenance on a vehicle. We know we should routinely replace the oil and wiper blades and other fluids. But have you heard of a PCV valve ? This little car part needs to be replaced regularly or it can cause some serious problems in your vehicle engine. Lakeside Certified Auto What's in a Number? (What Tire Numbers Mean)Posted February 6, 2022 10:31 AMYou've probably never paid much attention to the writing on the sides of your tires, but they contain a wealth of information. There's a long combination of letters and numbers that can tell you a whole lot about what tires your vehicle was designed to be riding on. Let's check out this example found on an SUV: P245/70R17 108T. The first letter, P, means it's intended for passenger vehicles. If there's no letter, it means it's a metric tire. If there's an LT at the beginning or end that means a tire designed for light trucks. Moving on to our example, the 245 shows how wide the tire is in millimeters from sidewall to sidewall. The number that follows in our example, 70, means the height of the tire is 70% of its width. The letter after that in our example, R, describes the type of tire (on this vehicle, radial). Following that is the diameter in inches, in our SUV example, 17 inches. How much load the tires' sidewalls are designed to take is what that next number is all about (108 in our example). The higher the load index, the more weight the sidewalls can take. And the last letter is the speed rating of the tire, in our example, T. The further along in the alphabet that letter is, the higher its speed rating. So now you know what those letters and numbers mean. But why are they important? When you are getting ready to replace those tires, those numbers are telling you what the original equipment was when your vehicle was new. Sticking with the same rated tires is always a good idea. If you don't know what you're doing, trying different sized tires and wheels can cause real issues when it comes to performance and safety, considering all the computerized systems now found on vehicles. When in doubt, consult your service advisor when it comes to buying new tires. He or she knows what those tire numbers and letters mean… and a whole lot more. Lakeside Certified Auto | ||
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