Essential Vehicle Maintenance: Exterior Care

Aside from keeping your car running great, maintenance needsto be performed to keep your car looking great too. After you've repaired your worn out diesel injectors and diesel fuel pump, your exterior needs some TLC. Keeping your car clean andwaxed will prolong the life of your paint job and make your car more fun todrive. Here are some tips to properly washing, waxing, and detailing yourvehicle.

 Beyond the normal dirt and dust that collects on the surfaceof your car, there are other, harder to see contaminants that can damage yourclear coat over time. Airborne pollutants, bugs, tree sap, and bird droppingscan all degrade your paint so it’s important to scrub it all off frequently. 

Before washing and especially before waxing, make sure yourcar is parked in the shade if it is sunny outside. The sun can prematurely dryyour car leading to water spots, or hamper your waxing efforts. If you plan onwaxing your car you may even want to wash your car twice because dirt isdifficult to see when the car is wet.

Make sure to use the right solvents for washing anddetailing your car. Dishwashing soap is not good for your paint. Buy some kindof actual car wash, and make sure to buy a high quality wax like Turtle orMeguiar’s. Wash your vehicle thoroughly, using a soft sponge or towel, payingspecial attention to the front grill of your vehicle where bugs and debrisoften collect. Rinse and dry your car carefully, inspecting the paint foranything left behind. Make sure to go back and scrub spots that did not comeclean – if you attempt to wax the paint with dirt or debris on it, you willscratch the clear coat of your car.

 In decades past itwas agreed that the best wax to use was very-hard-to-apply carnauba wax – the“wax on, wax off” kind; nowadays technology has advanced enough to provideexcellent, more easily applied waxes that are just as effective at protectingyour clear coat. Some of the more advanced systems currently require just sprayon application and spreading evenly over the paint, no buffing required. 

If you decide to use a more traditional paste wax or creamwax, use the applicator recommended or provided by the wax manufacturer. Ifthey don’t have a recommendation, use a foam applicator pad to apply the wax.Work in small areas, rubbing a small amount of wax and spreading it to the surroundingareas. Apply the wax in a back and forth motion, not in circles, and make sureyour applicator and buffer are clean before you begin. If the wax residuedoesn’t buff off easily, switch to a very clean towel or cloth.

After you are done buffing, use a soft toothbrush ordetailing brush to clean the wax out of the cracks and crevices of your car.After you’re done waxing, your car should have a smooth, glossy finish thatlooks almost wet. 

Paste wax systems require you to re-apply the wax every 30-90days to protect your paint, depending on weather conditions. Newer syntheticsystems can last up to 9 months without re-application, but some people saythey don’t give off the same “three-dimensional” shine that carnauba waxprovides, so you’ll have to make a judgment call on what is most important toyou.  Either system will protect yourpaint and keep your car in excellent form for years.

How to Get Warranty Work Done at the Dealership

A great way to ruin your day is to have your diesel engine parts or diesel injectors go out on you. It's even worse when the parts aren't warrantied; or worse still, when the parts ARE warrantied by the manufacturer but your local dealership doesn't want to warranty the parts for you.

It's sometimes difficult to realize that dealerships are not directly related to the brand of vehicles they sell. Though you hold high regard for the automaker of the car you purchased, the dealership can fall short of those high standards. Automakers try very hard to get their dealers to be honest and good to their customers (it affects their brand image a great deal), but still sleazy dealerships persist.

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

 Here are some tips to get warranty work done on your vehicle:

1. Know Your Warranty: The owner's manual for your vehicle will have a warranty section, or a separate warranty pamphlet. There are often separate warranty terms for different parts of your vehicle; an example is a Drivetrain Warranty. Make sure that the part in question is covered under the manufacturer's warranty, and that your vehicle is within the warranty parameters.

2. Be Polite But Firm: If a dealer argues with you that the part is not under warranty when it clearly is, ask politely if you can check the warranty section of your manual. If they are still being resistant, nicely ask if they would like you to call the automaker to get authorization for them. Maintain an attitude of trying to work to solve the problem, not trying to accuse the dealer. Unfortunately your best bet of getting the problem fixed lies with the dealer, so make sure to remain polite and genial but firm.

3. Call The Automaker: If the dealer still refuses, you can always repeat the process at a different dealer in hopes of getting better service. If not, however, it may be necessary to contact your automaker and let them know of your experience. They often have national and regional telephone numbers; check your automaker's main website and search for the regional telephone number (if you can get it). Once on the phone, still remain polite and calm and do not badmouth the dealer. You do not want to be labeled as one of those "insane customers" so it's best to keep your cool and emphasize you are just trying to resolve an issue with your vehicle, and you need help.

Think this is a warranty issue?

 4. Lemon Laws: If all else fails, you might need to get help from a lawyer. There are different laws for manufacturer's warranties in each state; finding out how many issues, and what kind of issues, you need to be experiencing to qualify could be useful to you. At this point you need to weigh the cost of lawyer's fees with the cost of buying a new part at your expense.

Hopefully, you will never need to follow all of these guidelines to get warranty work done on your vehicle. It can be an extremely frustrating experience but hopefully, armed with the facts, you'll get your vehicle taken care of.

Clean Fuel Injectors Mean Better Gas Mileage

After time you may notice your car isn’t getting the same gas mileage it once did. A cause of this may be one of your diesel injectors, which can experience wear over time. Diesel or regular fuel injectors will need a bit of work to sustain the power and performance they had from stock. In some cases a simple cleaning of the injectors can restore the vehicle’s performance. In other cases, the diesel injectors may need to be replaced with a new diesel injector kit.  A recent consumer reports study shows that 46% of people think fuel economy is the most important factor when purchasing a car. (Have you seen any Hummers around lately?) The only factor that seems to have more of an impact on new car sales is price.

A main factor that can hurt the performance of a fuel injector is dirt. A fuel injector is basically a valve controlled by the car’s ECU. This valve opens and closes very quickly to allow fuel to be squirted into the intake valves. Ideally, the fuel is delivered as a mist and it is vaporized immediately. If there is any dirt on the nozzle or within the injector itself, the fuel will not be sprayed as consistently and the combustion system will suffer. This process takes place in small fractions of a second and is therefore extremely sensitive.

How do you clean your fuel injectors? Give them a bath! Ultrasonic cleaning is one of the more intensive (but effective) solutions.  This process involves actually removing the injectors and giving them a “bath” in a special cleaning solution. Simpler cleaning tips include doing a few full throttle accelerations on the highway. After having the injectors cleaned, most car drivers notice an immediate improvement in performance.

If there has been too much dirt buildup or there are other problems facing the fuel system, the fuel injectors may ultimately need to be replaced. If it comes to this, you should probably consider changing out all of the fuel injectors at the same time. So save yourself some money at the pump this holiday season and make sure your getting the gas mileage you’re suppose to!