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Currently you can email us with questions you may
have about your car. We will try to respond in a timely matter and
help where we can. You can also select from the links below as to
questions and topics that have already be answered and discussed.
If you want more info, Check out the Car Care's Council Website:
Email Questions here
Current List of Answered Topics:
Do I really need
to change my oil at 3,000 miles, and if so, why?
How and when and why do I
rotate my tires?
Do I really need to
change my oil at 3,000 miles, and if so, why?
There are a few good
reasons to change your oil on time.
First, a little background on oil. Today's multi viscosity oil
(10w30) has the ability to properly lubricate the engine in all
temperatures. It does this by being able to change from say a 5
weight oil to a 30 weight oil as temperature and load demands
increase. The base manufactured oil could not do this, it simply was
a 30 weight oil (or whatever the design was for that oil 10w, 30w,
50w etc). With the addition of additive packages called Long Chain
Polymer additives, the oil now has the chemical ability to better
lubricating the engine by adjusting itself. As most oils near the
3,000 mile mark, most of the oil additives that were installed
deplete. In addition to not being able to properly lubricate the
engine due to a loss of viscosity changes, it also losses its
ability to keep dirt from settling, keep foaming from happening and
to keep carbon from forming. It doesn't take long for dirty oil to
start doing damage to an engine.
Consider also the
filter.
The oil filter has a pretty simple but important part; keep dirt
from circulating to areas that it should not be in. A couple serious
things can happen if an oil filter becomes clogged or slow to
filter. First, a restricted filter limits the amount of oil that can
flow through it. When this happens to extreme, some manufactures
have built in an oil by pass feature. Dirty oil is better than no
oil, but dirty oil is pretty bad. Second, an aged, dirty filter can
start to deteriorate inside. The paper media used for filtering can,
over time, become completely useless and flow debris right through.
Bottom line, the oil isn't getting filtered.
Its a simple cheap
insurance policy, change your oil.
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How and when and why
do I rotate my tires?
HOW- The Tire and Rim Association has determined that the best tire
rotation for cars and light trucks with passenger type tires is the
Modified X pattern. The rotation is performed by moving the drive
wheels to the non-drive wheels and crossing the non-drive wheels to
the drive wheels (in a FWD drive car, the drive wheels are the
front). If you have 4 wheel drive or all wheel drive the acceptable
method is to cross all for wheel in an X pattern. If you have
directional wheels or rims the only method is to move the fronts to
the rear and the rears straight to the front. some cars with Tire
Pressure Monitoring Systems will need to have the TPMS reset.
WHEN- The normal time to rotate tires is about 6,000
miles. This is easiest because it will coincide with every other oil
change. It wont hurt to do it sooner, perhaps every oil change but
its not necessary.
WHY- Tires on a car experience very different loads
and conditions being in the four different positions. Because of
this, tires need to be rotated to experience the same wear
conditions. This allows the tires to wear as evenly as possibly. Its
always better to buy a matched set of 4 tires than trying to match
up only 2 tires. Having four evenly worn tires allows a car to
operate and handle more properly.
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