Motor Age

Motor Age Museum

Heaters are standard equipment on all cars and light trucks today, but at first they were aftermarket options. The first heaters were the same portable gas burners carried over from the horse-and-buggy days, usually supplemented by a heavy lap robe. By 1917, a system of bolt-on exhaust pipes was routed inside the cabin, but this was not very effective.

Tech 'A' Says

The correct answer is B. The outward movement of the caliper piston during brake application cause the piston seal to distort.

Factory Bulletins

SUBJECT: MIL illumination with P0461, P0462 and/or P0463 indicates problems with the fuel level sensor. If any of these codes are present, the bulletin instructs to change the fuel level sensor. The sensor is mounted in the fuel pump module and can be changed separately. Although there are two different fuel pump modules, the same sensor is used on both.

In Control

To maintain such a tight window, the ECM must calculate precisely how much fuel to add to any given air charge ingested by the engine. The fuel side of the equation is easy enough. The ECM knows how much fuel the injectors will flow and simply adjusts the amount of time the injector is open to control fuel quantity. That time is called injector pulse width. What the ECM needs help in determining is how much air is getting in. This information allows the ECM to calculate a base pulse width (BP...

More Power

Coaxing a spark to jump across a spark plug gap, especially with the increased cylinder pressures modern engines produce, requires a lot of voltage. Upwards of 40,000 volts push current through the spark plug wires to create an arc that initiates the combustion process. The actual amount of voltage required depends upon variables such as compression, engine speed, shape and condition of electrodes and spark plug gap. The more current pushed across the plug gap, the better the chance for more ...

Pump It Up

So how do you get an engine that has (literally) half the amount of cylinders as a typical production V8 to provide equivalent performance? While it's been obvious for decades in Europe, it recently has become a sobering reality here in the states: You pump it up with a turbocharger. With one-third of GM's North American engine volume being four-cylinders by 2011, and 21 percent of the four-cylinder volume will be turbocharged (a seven-fold increase over today's volume of turbo engines), turb...

Stopping a Stock Car

What are the challenges in designing a NASCAR brake system? A vehicle in motion accumulates kinetic energy proportional to its mass and to the square of its speed. So to stop that vehicle or to even just slow it down, that energy has to be transferred somewhere else. The easiest method is to convert that kinetic energy into heat, and that's exactly what braking systems do through friction between the pad material and the rotor. The vehicle they're designing for is a 3,400-pound, 800 hp rocket...

Testing Parasitic Draw: Taking On a New Approach

So how do we locate the offending circuit without powering down that same circuit using the older power disconnect test methods? We measure the voltage drop across each of the fuses. That's right, even a fuse has some resistance when heated due to current flow across it. This means the fuse that has current flowing will have a measurable voltage drop across it. Simply set your DMM to the millivolt scale and place the test leads across the fuse as shown in Figure 1. A maxi fuse has a fatter cu...

Faced with a Delayed Reaction Failure

This serves as a reminder that repairs done wrong can be devastating, and some of these situations happen because some shops tend to hire people that haven't been properly trained. The service manager of the local GM dealer says he turns down applications fairly regularly from people who fiddled around and built a 350 or two in their backyard and think they're ready for the shop floor in his service department. But there's no way to tell exactly what happened in the Honda's case. The conseque...

Send the Recalls Back to the Dealers

Zurich encourages you to follow manufacturers' advice on recalls. Your shop's plan should include maintaining detailed service and repair records, and properly backing up and storing them. Records should indude who fixed the vehicle, what procedures and tests were completed and by whom, when they were completed and a confirmation of the work by the service manager to verify it was done correctly.

Watch Out for Tax Time Scams

The IRS reports that it does not send taxpayers unsolicited e-mails about their tax accounts, situations or issues. According to the IRS Web site, IRS impersonation schemes flourish during filing season.

Shops Ready to Fly in and Be Heard

The 2010 event will be paired with an Automotive Management Institute (AMI) Leadership Conference, allowing attendees to participate in two additional three-hour workshops focusing on ethical leadership. The workshops are designed to enhance attendees' business and personal success, ASA reports.

Building Long-Lasting Relationships

"The biggest benefit that we receive from doing events like this is we operate on a conviction that we're not here just to fix cars, we're here to serve customers," says Rebecca Zanders, vice president of Heritage Auto Repair in Meridian, Idaho, which hosted the pre-football game event. "And so having car care fairs and the way that the National Car Care Council has it set up and the materials that they provide, it really allows the business to convey that message to their community and to th...

Service Jacks

OTCs new premium 5206 and 5210 HD (heavy duty) service jacks incorporate a safety "dead-man's" control system that prevents a load from lowering without...

Executive Interview: Rich White * Executive Director, Car Care Council

White: It's just a good thing for the community. Many of these shop owners will say, "It's a way for us to give back to our community." It's a way to establish themselves as good business people and good community supporters in the area in the community. They could partner with the local vo-ed school and get students. They could partner with non-profit groups, anything they want. The other thing is it's good for employee morale. A lot of the shop owners and store owners will say, "Gosh, our f...

Service Is the Profit Center for Dealers

"Cash for Clunkers did exactly what a stimulus program was supposed to do. It caused additional sales, additional production over the next five months," [Paul Taylor] explains. "When we look at the data from people who made the clunker transition, we find that we convert confirmed used car buyers into new car buyers." "Has the government pushed the mix of production capacity too far to the cars that the government wants you to drive, and are we too far from the cars customers typically want t...

Pennzoil Makes Case for Clean with New Oil

Tt doesn't matter who you are or what car you drive, every engine gets dirty, and contaminants are many," adds Debbie Van Schalkwyk, Pennzoil global brand manager. "If you do have an engine that does have sludge, this is the oil that's going to work to actually clean up that sludge." "We have not seen issues with older vehicles. As you might know, if sludge is holding your lifters together, eventually you're going to have a problem with oil getting to your lifters. We want to protect engines,...

Sears Offering Tire Service Centers, Repairs, Retailing to Car Dealerships

"For customers, Sears Auto Centers will be more convenient than ever, with more locations providing our full product and service offerings," [Bill Jackson] says. "This is also a great opportunity for dealers who are currently selling used cars to gain a brand that's nationally recognized for quality and dependability, a resource for buying high quality auto parts and supplies, and access to a proven business model that has been tailored to their needs." "We're thrilled to join the Sears Auto ...

Nastf Spring Meeting Set for April 20

The meeting will take place in conjunction with the Equipment and Tool Institute's ToolTech. "The Spring meeting is usually held in cooperation with the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit," says Charlie Gorman, NASTF chairman. "However, this year the SAE could not accommodate...