Articles by Karla Pincott

We have scoured the internet for some weird and wacky car tips. Read on if you want to find out why you should turn off your radio when driving over a pot hole or why you have to brush up on body language when buying a used car.What is the easiest way to protect your car's appearance and its price? Simply give your car a wash each week. This includes attending to bird droppings as soon as you spot them - the stuff in them can seriously damage your paint job.Also, if you want to be really pedantic, get under the car and clean the chassis of all the grease and grime that's built up from filthy roads. The best way to do it? Kerosene. Sure, it's stinky and you'd better hope no one lights a match while you're doing it, but it does the best job.And if kerosene wasn't strange enough as a car cleaning product, did you know that some people put toothpaste on their alloy wheels? The ingredients in the old Colgate are said to be one of the most effective cleaning products for alloys.These days everyone is looking for ways to save on petrol and the best way to do that is to make sure you take good care of the engine because a well tuned engine means lower fuel consumption. Also, avoid those jackrabbit style starts because not only do they make the car use more petrol, but they are bad for the tyres as well.Gone to pick up a friend and they are not quite ready? Turn off your engine while you wait. One minute of idling uses more fuel than restarting your vehicle again.If you're buying a privately-owned car. brush up on your understanding of sellers' body language.When you discuss the service history, chances are the owner will not always be truthful. But you can pick the porkies from the truth because fibbers tend to touch their ears or cover their mouth, according to behavioral psychologists.If you're buying a new car and wondering wether to go for Arabian Black or Caledonian Blue, remember this - white is the most durable paint colour, the easiest to touch up and the easiest to clean. It also reflects heat and your air-conditioner doesn't have to work so hard, so you save fuel.Finally, why should you turn off your radio before you hit a pothole? When a suspension arm cracks it produces a low pitch sound. You won't hear it if you're singing along to the Top 40.

Many people cause themselves unnecessary expense when something goes wrong with their car simply because they haven't anything handy to see them through until the problem can be fixed properly. Instead, they are forced to call a tow truck or even a mechanic to the scene facing a larger bill than normal down the track.This is not to say every problem that strands you by the side of the road can be fixed by something you have in your boot. Unfortunately, things aren't that simple. This is a list of items you are well advised to carry in the car at all times. Also, some of these remedies are designed as a temporary thing only. Always get your car checked thoroughly.SPARE TYRE Sounds too simple? You'd be surprised how people neglect their spare tyre, particularly on older cars. Then comes the day you need the spare and it's either flat as the tyre you want to replace or not even there.Remember, whenever you have a flat tyre, and you replace it with the spare, get the flat repaired or, if the damage is too bad, buy a new tyre. There's nothing worse than finding you need it and it's virtually useless to you. Also, when you check your tyre pressures check the spare's pressure as well. That will save you having to drive on a partially flat tyre for any distance.TYRE REPAIR KIT If you are unlucky you may have more than one flat tyre (it happens) or you get another flat before you've had time to fix the spare. There are several tyre repair kits on the market — some better than others. The simplest and cleanest is the one that comes in a pump can. It inflates the tyre enough so you can get somewhere to fix it properly. There are also patches and the like. But, whatever you prefer, always have one on hand.PVC TAPE Electrical tape will do. This is to be used if there's a leak or crack in one of the hoses or connection in the engine bay. This is definitely a temporary job. The tape can also be used if things fall of both inside and outside the car (purely cosmetic, of course).LEAKPROOFING SOLUTION This is used in the radiator if there is a small hole or crack. However, it won't be useful at all if the hole is the size of a one cent piece or more. That's a much bigger problem. But remember… leakproofing is a temporary solution. Have any cracks or holes properly repaired at the first opportunity.ANTI-FREEZE, ANTI-BOIL Your coolant should already have this in it but if you've neglected to do so, and you find yourself in very cold or very hot conditions, then these two may come in handy.WATER Always a good idea. Carry a plastic litre container full of water at all times, especially if your car isn't brand spanking new. It can be used for the radiator and also as window washer fluid.SPARE FUSES, BULBS Though you can get by for a short time without the right fuse or bulb it's advisable to carry spares. If you don't use the right fuse for a prolonged period you could blow a few more. Also, it's illegal to drive your car with a broken headlight, taillight and so on.OIL Again, not absolutely necessary but handy.

Look closely to make sure the numbers line up, if it has an old-style analog odometer.Check the service history thoroughly for previous kilometre recordings, and make sure they match the history of the car?Look for wear and tear or suspiciously new parts. For instance, worn rubber pedals are easily replaced so it’s worth questioning why such items have been replaced.A worn driver’s seat is more expensive to replace and may be a warning sign of more use than the odometer suggests.Excessive stone chips on the bonnet could also indicate a car has done more distance than advertised.If the odometer reading looks to good to be true, it's probably false. 

There are various technical aspects to what fuel is right for what engine, but when it is boiled down to basics it comes down to whether or not your engine "knows" what fuel you are using.In older cars, with an engine which is fed fuel through a carburettor, the motor has no idea what is being used as fuel. The petrol flows through a small hole in the carburettor, goes into the engine and is burnt with the exhaust gases going out the exhaust pipe. The small hole, or jet, has been fitted to the carburettor with ordinary unleaded fuel in mind.If you use ordinary unleaded fuel, it will be mixed with air at roughly the ratio of one part of petrol (by weight) to 14 parts of air (by weight) which burns "perfectly" to produce power without wasting fuel (running rich) or causing damage to the engine (running lean). If you use a premium unleaded fuel in the same engine it will flow through the jet at the same rate but because it has more "bang" for the same amount of fuel, your engine will run rich, that is using more fuel than it really needs.On the other hand, if you have a later model car with fuel injection and an engine management computer, the motor effectively "knows" what is being burned as fuel. It does this by having an oxygen sensor, or lambda probe, in the exhaust system. If the mixture of air and petrol is perfect the probe will note it and send the information to the engine management computer. If the mixture is lean (lots of oxygen in the exhaust) or rich (little oxygen in the exhaust) the probe tells the computer which then adjust the fuel injectors to put more, or less, fuel into the engine to get the perfect burning mixture of air and petrol. So in effect the computer will make the engine use less fuel for the same performance and using a premium fuel in this system can be cost effective.The vast majority of cars in Australia will run perfectly well on ordinary unleaded. High performance engines, especially those with high compression ratios, may need a premium fuel and other engines may produce slightly more power if a premium fuel is used.Put simply, if your car has a carburettor, stick to ordinary unleaded. If your car is fuel injected with an engine management system (computer) using a premium fuel may be cost effective and may give more performance but most will be quite happy on ordinary unleaded.Most of the fuel companies and car distributors have websites which carry more specific information.

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