How To Maintain Your Car’s Battery
The failure of a battery always comes at the worst time. This is one reason the experts recommend that car batteries be checked every three to six months, regardless of where you live.
Batteries Plus, which sells batteries of all kinds, is offering free car battery and electrical system testing. In an article at Search Auto Parts the battery company's CEO, Russ Reynolds, said that problems with batteries are not confined to cold weather climates.
"Heat and humidity can cause battery problems, too," he said. He offered some battery inspection and maintenance tips after a warning about the use of eye, hand and body protection when working around the acid and corrosive chemicals surrounding the explosive environment of the car battery.
Hold Downs - A battery is subject to vibration if it is not securely mounted to the battery tray on which it rests. A bracket at the top of the battery usually "holds down" the battery to the tray with the help of a couple of rods that attach to the tray. With the battery firmly mounted to the tray, you won't shake loose active material from the plate grids inside the battery, which will extend the its life.
Minimize Corrosion - Terminal connections should be corrosion free and tight at the point they connect to the battery. Reynolds recommends professional assistance if corrosion is observed. If the battery cable ends or clamps have accumulated a white powdery substance, they can be cleaned with a solution of water and baking soda. You can retard future corrosion by spraying the exposed metal parts with an anti-corrosion product.
Visual Inspection - If you observe any bulges, cracks or vents in the battery's case, it is an indication that the battery is failing and that you should replace it. While inspecting the battery try to keep it clean, since dirt can lead to a power leak resulting in "uncontrolled discharge and power loss."
Car batteries are surprisingly temperature sensitive. Reynolds recommends giving the battery a break from excessive heat by parking your car in the shade or in the garage. In cold weather he recommends keeping your battery fully charged but not overcharged. He also warns against attempting to charge a battery that is colder than 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which can cause a violent explosion.
Some batteries exceed their warranty period by many months while others fail prematurely, it may be one of the great unanswered automotive questions. Hopefully, the next battery that you replace will be out of concern for its advanced age.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Five Features Every New Car Should Have…Though Many Don’t
As well as driving a lot of cars, we spend a lot of time reading here at TheCarConnection.com. And a recent drive report of the 2010 Suzuki Kizashi by Detroit News columnist Scott Burgess sparked a lot of office chat.
It wasn't his review--we liked it, he liked it--but his list of features he thought every car ought to have. We surveyed our own editors, debated our lists of five, and finally settled on a more-or-less consensus.
In order of importance, here are the five items every new 2010 car ought to have (though most of them usually don't):
(1) Auto-up-and-down windows. Our Number One peeve when it's not there, a feature automakers usually roll into pricey options packages that ought to be standard on every car. Auto-down costs almost nothing; auto-up requires a little more equipment. Should be mandatory.
(2) Fold-down rear-seat head restraints. Visibility is bad and getting worse on new cars (see our 2010 Chevrolet Equinox drive report), and fixed rear-seat head restraints get a lot of the blame. Mercedes-Benz rear head rests fold or slide; we think all of them should. The floors of our test cars are littered with the ones we've removed so we could see out the rear-view mirror.
(3) USB port. C'mon, folks! It's 2010, fer crissakes. Hundreds of millions of drivers globally own MP3 players, and we want to hear our own music. Not hate-laced talk radio, or those same 100 songs on the oldies station, or "light contemporary" musical mush. Sheesh. Give us jacks!
(4) Tilt-AND-telescope steering. Not all of us are 50th-percentile humans. One of us is 6'6", and one of us has a mum who's now 4'10". For them, a steering wheel that adjusts not only for height but distance is a necessity for safe driving. More and more cars offer tilting; why not add telescoping too?
(5) Sturdy cupholders, and NOT over the MP3 player. Even professional auto journalists are known to sip sodas while driving. Cupholders have gotten better, but some makers (you know who you are) still don't make 'em sturdy enough to withstand the occasional heavy object impact. And ... for the life of us ... do NOT put them above where we store our iPod! That's just tempting the devil.
(BONUS PERFORMANCE FEATURES) Oil pressure gauge; Off switch for traction control. Our more enthusiastic drivers insisted on a pair of of items that may be less relevant to everyday drivers, but make performance driving far more rewarding.
An oil-pressure gauge is the alert driver's first indicator of serious engine problems, but most cars now offer only warning lights. And the ability to turn off traction control gives skilled drivers more control in everything from racing to breaking loose a car stuck on ice.
As for Burgess, for the record, he listed his five as: (1) Three-blink indicators. (2) Auto-up-and-down windows. (3) USB & Bluetooth connectivity. (4) Key fob & pushbutton start. (5) Auto headlights.
We don't necessarily agree with his choices, but we thank him anyway for inspiring us.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Building A Virtual Racetrack For Stay-At-Home Drivers
We don't like to admit it, but there's nothing really new about racing videogames. They've been a staple since the days of mall arcades, Atari 2600s, and the Carter Administration; in the interim, they simply gotten faster, sharper, more complex, and more exciting. But the folks behind iRacing.com -- an online, subscription-based racing service -- have something bigger in mind: "a vision of Internet racing as a recognized competition with its own global sanctioning body, a place where an amateur racer can have a fulfilling career and where professional drivers can hone their skills". Which sounds awesome, but we're still buying Forza Motorsport 3. [NYTimes]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Volvo Brings High-Tech Convoys Into The 21st Century
Robot butlers may still be decades away, but Volvo has announced some equally awesome technology that could be prototyped as soon as 2011: a system that can electronically link up to ten cars into a convoy controlled by one professional driver. The nine trailing cars would link up via laser beams (!!!) and fly down the highway at speeds of up to 70mph while only three feet apart, leaving drivers to watch TV or read or, more likely, chew their nails to the quick in terror.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
