Tag Archives: maintenance

6 Things to Know Before Junking Your Car for Cash

No matter how well you take care of your car, there comes a time when it just won’t run anymore, at least not without work that will cost way more than the car is worth. At that point, you have several options, one of which is to sell your car to a scrapyard for cash.

Here are 10 things you need to know before junking your ride.

1. What to Remove From the Car

Don’t bring your car to a scrapyard without first going through it and removing all your belongings. Check the glove compartment, the trunk and under the seats.

You should also be sure to keep any documents you have in the glove compartment, as well as your license plate, before you leave your car at the junkyard. Also, you may want to take out any especially valuable parts, which may include catalytic converters, GPS systems, batteries, radios and bumpers.

2. The Preferences of the Scrapyard

Before bringing your car to the yard, ask about their requirements and preferences for how they like to receive cars. Some buyers are pickier than others.

Some, for example, might only take cars that have been stripped down to the bare metal, which means you’ll have to remove the seats, fluids and all plastic parts. Even if this isn’t required, you may be able to make more money by doing some of this work yourself.

3. What Your Car Is Made Of

Before junking your car, take the time to find out what metals it is made of. That way, you can ensure you’re getting a fair price.

Do your best to determine what alloys your car’s components include, and whether any of them are plated with other metals. Electroless nickel plating, for example, protects parts such as cylinders, pistons and fuel injectors. Some parts may even be gold-plated.

4. The Market Price

2014 BMW All-Electric i3 Press Drive.

Once you know what kinds of metals you have in your car, you should find out what the typical market price for it is. Junkyards may list prices on their website, but do some Internet research and call around to various yards to determine what the average rate is. Remember, prices may vary in different parts of the country.

5. Local Scrap Metal Laws

Legal requirements for scrap yards differ from state to state. Some states require them to have active licenses to operate. Look up the laws in your area and check that the scrapyard you’re thinking of selling to is licensed, if necessary. This can help you ensure you’re working with a reputable business and help you avoid potential legal trouble in the future.

6. The Details of Your Transactions

When the junkyard weighs your scrap metal, ask for its weight in pounds. Some yards will give you this measurement in other standards, which can be confusing if you have no reference for how much they are.

Getting the weight in a measurement you understand will help you ensure you’re getting fair compensation. After the transaction is complete, be sure to ask for a settlement report. This document should list the details of all your transactions.

Thinking of junking your car for cash? It can be a smart option if you have an old car you need to get rid of. Just make sure you’re prepared before you head to the local scrap yard.

Four Things That Are Damaging Your Car’s Engine

Nobody wants to damage their car’s engine, but many of us unknowingly do so. Even those who know what to do to keep an engine in good shape sometimes forget to take care of their vehicles when life gets hectic.

Understanding some of the things that most frequently cause engine damage can help you keepyours in top condition. Here are five major problems to avoid.

1. Cold Starts

When you’re in a hurry, it’s tempting to start your car and immediately speed off to wherever you’re heading. These cold starts, however, can cause damage to your starter, battery, alternator, pistons, cylinder rods and more.

The oil in your engine needs time to warm up, thin out and form a protective coat over the engine’s moving parts. This is especially true when your car’s been sitting for a while, or when it’s especially cold out.

Instead of starting your engine and driving right away, let your car run for a minute or two. This gives the oil time to warm up and provide sufficient lubrication.

If you live somewhere where temperatures regularly dip below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, you may also want to invest in an engine heater that connects to your radiators.

2. Not Changing Fluids

You need to change the fluids in your car on the recommended schedule to keep your engine running correctly. These fluids include your oil, coolant, transmission fluid, clutch fluid, steering fluid, brake fluid and windshield wiper fluid.

Letting the oil sit for too long can result in the formation of oil sludge, which blocks oil from accessing the parts it needs and causes engine parts to retain excess heat. Running out of other fluids can also cause severe damage.

To avoid these problems, change your fluids at the recommended intervals. You can find the specific manufacturer’s recommendations in your owner’s manual.

In the past, the standard recommendation was to change your oil every 3000 miles, but today, most auto manufacturers say you can go at least 7500 miles. For automatic transmissions, you should change your transmission fluid about every 30,000 miles. For manual transmissions, you can go between 30,000 and 50,000 miles.

3. Frequent Redlining

On vehicles with a tachometer, the gauge that displays the engine’s revolutions per minute (rpm), there is typically a red line near the higher numbers on the gauge. This line serves to warn you that your engine cannot sustain going above that rpm.

Frequent high revving keeps your engine at a higher temperature than what is ideal for it, which can damage the engine, as well as components such as the transmission and valve train.

To avoid this problem, don’t rev your engine to the point of going above the red line unless necessary. Instead, try to build speed gradually.

4. Neglecting Maintenance

Ignoring regular and one-off maintenance is another common cause of engine damage. You should take your vehicle in for maintenance at regular intervals — your manual will include a maintenance schedule to help you keep your car in tip-top shape.

Routine maintenance schedule should include things like checking the tire pressure, replacing worn belts, cleaning your battery contacts, rotating your tires and changing your spark plugs.

You should also heed the warnings of your check engine light. While it can go off for small things, it can also indicate a serious problem. Always get your car checked as soon as you can when it goes off. Even if it does go off because of a minor issue, a small problem left unresolved can eventually snowball into a much bigger and more expensive issue.

Are any of these four common problems causing damage to your engine? While plenty of things can cause engine problems, paying attention to these four common issues can make a substantial difference in helping you keep your car healthy.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix Weird Noises in Your Bimmer

Most of us drive our cars so much that they become an extension of ourselves — and when they start making a weird noise, we notice almost immediately. The trick with these weird noises is that they can be difficult to locate, especially if you’re trying to figure out where they’re coming from while you’re behind the wheel.

It can also end up being really expensive to take your Bimmer to the shop to have the mechanics there troubleshoot it. Here are some tips and tricks to help you figure out where those weird noises are coming from and fix them without emptying your wallet in the process.

1. Locate the Sound

Between engine noise, road noise, etc., you’re going to hear a variety of sounds when your car is running. Since some engine noises are fairly unavoidable, you may not have a problem at all. If this becomes a nuisance, using heat-resistant barriers for engines is an option for soundproofing those persistent noises.

However, you can usually tell immediately when a sound is not just routine. When that happens, the first thing you need to do is figure out where the sound is coming from.

One tool that can be helpful for locating strange sounds under the hood is a mechanic’s stethoscope. It looks like a doctor’s tool of the same name, only instead of having a flat plate at the end for hearing heartbeats, it has a long thin piece of metal that can easily be threaded into tight spaces to help you identify sounds.

Once you determine what exactly the noise is, take a look online. You can find resources to help you locate and identify it.

Once you’ve located the sound, now it’s time to troubleshoot!

2. Figure out What the Problem Is

There are so many moving parts in your car that nearly any one of them could start making strange noises when it starts to fail. The trick is figuring out what is causing the sound before the part quits completely. Knowing where the sound is coming from helps you narrow down the possible causes. Let’s take a look at some of the most common sounds and their causes.

  • Clunking or Thumping When you Turn the Wheel – This could be a sign that your CV axle, which transfers the drive train power from the transmission to your wheels, is starting to fail. This is an expensive fix – new CVs are pricey – but is a fairly simple one. Simply jack up the car, pull out the old axle and install a new one.
  • Whining Under the Hood – This is usually a sign that a bearing is going bad. Use that mechanic’s stethoscope to locate the whine and replace the offending bearing.
  • Whirring That Changes with Engine RPM – This could be a number of different things. Start by checking your power steering fluid levels and making sure they’re correct. If you’ve got enough fluid, you may need to replace the power steering pump. It could, depending on where the sound is coming from, be a sign of a bad compressor which you will need to take to a mechanic if you don’t have the right tools.
  • Popping from Under the Hood – This is another sound that could indicate a number of problems. It could be as simple as a dirty air filter, or as complicated as an internal engine problem. Start by changing your air filter, and checking your car’s ignition system – plugs, wires, ignition module or distributor depending on how old your Bimmer is.

There are some noises you might hear under the hood that mean you should stop driving your car until it is repaired. Knocking or pinging sounds mean there are moving parts in your engine hitting each other that shouldn’t be, and continuing to drive the car could damage the inner workings of the engine.

3. Repair the Problem

This step is hard to outline without knowing exactly what sounds your car is making, but we do have one tip to offer. Purchase a Haynes manual for your vehicle. These repair manuals will walk you, step by step, through everything you need to do to complete most repairs on your own. They’re available for most cars, regardless of the age of the car, and they cost about $25.

There may be some things you can’t fix on your own, either because you don’t have the knowledge or the tools necessary to complete the job. For these problems, you should definitely take your car to your favorite mechanic. It might be more expensive, but you’ll be sure the job is done right.

You don’t have to run to the shop every time your Bimmer starts making strange noises, though. A couple of troubleshooting steps might point you to a very easy-to-fix problem you can handle in the comfort of your own garage.