Review before vacation

[Val]

How to winterize your car

Winters used to be tough on cars, but today's vehicles are designed to operate well over a wide rage of temperatures, from bitterly cold to stiflingly hot. By and large, a thorough winterization is no longer necessary -- but if you live where it snows, there are a few things you can do to prepare your car for winter. Of course, I won't do these tips on my car, because here in Brazil never snow.
But it's very important for you.


1) Check the coolant for the proper mix of antifreeze and water. You can have a mechanic do this or you can buy a tester at your local auto parts store. I'll post a doubt and my reply about the coolant after these tips.

2) Check the oil recommendations in your car's owner manual. Some manufacturers recommend a different grade of oil that flows better in cold temperatures.

3) Check the battery, specifically the level of electrolyte. If it's low, top it off with distilled water. (Note: Electrolyte can be nasty stuff; wear eye protection and consider having a mechanic check it for you.)

4) Consider buying a set of snow tires. They do a much better job than the all-weather tires fitted to most cars. If you've upgraded the wheels on your car, mounting the snows on the original wheels will make changing over much easier.

5) Replace your windshield wiper blades with snow blades.

6) Make sure you've got a snow brush and an ice scraper somewhere in the car.

7) If your car has air conditioning, run it at least once a month. (Hint: Running the A/C will speed up window defogging.)

8) Stock up on windshield washer fluid and top the washer tank off regularly. Be careful not to pour windshield washer fluid into the wrong tank!


Hello Val,

I have a 1991 Mercury Cougar LS 3.8 liter V-6 with 140,000 kms. It's an auto transmission with fuel injection. My question is concerning an odd overheating problem that continuously occurs.
Approximately 6 months ago we (my sisters boyfriend with help from a licensed mechanic) replaced my head gaskets because they were obviously blown. When we started it up it had a rough, vibrating idle and the check engine light comes on randomly through a drive. That wasn't happening before.
That's not really my concern because it is now stalling out frequently when ever I come to a full stop and try to accelerate. Didn't have problems with that until after the "repair". That too is not my concern, just a little background information.
My main concern is the overheating, it will overheat, or say it is and I'll turn on the heat to full and it'll blow out cold air. It will just spike up all of a sudden to hot while I'm driving. I'll take my foot off the gas pedal and let it cruise along and it will calm down to just above mid range. I then just nurse my car around for a bit and it will eventually start blowing hot air again and drop down to near cold. What's going on with my car Vincent? I have no clue.


Dave

P.S. (My fuel gauge sometime goes up to full even when it's close to empty in reality and my speedometer sometimes gets stuck and doesn't work properly. Could maybe my cars temperature gauge just be lying to me? I don't really want to risk it.)


Hello Dave...

As for the fuel gauge ... (I don't know this information, but I looked for it here in the net), if you car was built between 6/1/91 and 6/30/92 the problem is probably caused by a distorted fuel tank. If the distortion can be confirmed then you will need to replace the fuel tank. If not, the most likely cause is a bad sending unit.
As for the temperature gauge, if it reads HOT and cold air is being blown out, you do not have enough coolant in the system. I would make sure the coolant is topped off and the cooling system bled of all air. I'm assuming they put a new thermostat in when they did the head gaskets. If not, go ahead and replace it. It may be sticking.
You might want to look at the temperature sending unit. If the number is less than 2774, replace it. That run of sending units was bad. Any unit with the number 2774 or higher are okay.


Any more doubts, ask me.