1, 2, 3, 4!
Rev up your engines!
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It's time for ScottyKilmer.com.
I've been working on cars for the last 43 years.
And in all that time I've seen people
do some pretty dumb things with their cars.
And today, I'm going to talk about a few of them
so you don't do them to your own car.
Now the first thing is never jump start your car backwards.
If you look at any car battery, you'll see one side has a plus,
and the other side has a minus on it.
And of course, the plus is the positive cable,
and the minus is a negative cable.
So when you jump start a car, get the red positive cable,
stick it on a positive battery.
Then get the other positive cable of your jumper cables,
the red one, and stick it on the positive terminal
of your battery.
Now that's easy to tell on this Toyota's battery
because it's got a big plus on the left side
and a negative on the right side.
But many car batteries have the markings
under the battery terminals, so you can't see them.
If you don't know which is which,
move the battery terminals out of the way,
so you can see which is plus and which is minus.
Because if you hook them up backwards,
you're going to have serious electrical problems
in your car.
You can destroy the alternator.
You can destroy the main computer of the car.
You can fry all kinds of stuff.
So never jump start a car backwards.
It only takes a few seconds to check.
Always put the positive on a positive,
and the negative on the negative.
Now the next dumb thing I've seen people do
is running a car out of gas.
If you're running low on gas, put some more gas in.
Don't try to start a car that's run out of gas, and here's why.
If your gas gauge really is on empty and the car won't start,
stop it right there.
Because if you keep cranking the engine with the car out of gas,
the fuel pump will suck air and burn itself out.
And that's because most motor cars have their fuel pumps
inside the gas tank.
And strange as it sounds, the gasoline
lubricates the bearings in the electric pump.
And if you run out of gas and this sucks air,
it will burn the pump out.
Then you have to crawl under the car, pull off the gas tank,
and change the pump assembly.
And some of these pumps cost more than $500 or $600.
So if your gas gauge is stuck on empty,
don't keep trying to start the car.
Put some gas in it first.
Now the next dumb thing I see all the time
is people not changing their oil frequently enough.
When I was a young mechanic, eons ago, I saw lots of engines
blow up because the people didn't change the oil enough.
And it's even more important in modern vehicles
because most of them have variable valve timing,
like this Toyota.
Most modern cars have variable valve timing engines, even
more small holes that oil has to go through.
And if you clog them up and ruin that,
you can spend thousands fixing that.
So if you're using conventional motor oil, change the oil
and filter every 3,000 or 4,000 miles.
I don't care what they suggest.
I change mine every three or four
and never have engine problems.
And if you're one of those people who always seems
to forget to change the oil, you should use fully synthetic oil.
You can change that every 7,000 or 8,000 miles.
It costs a lot more but it also lasts a lot longer.
Now the last dumb thing I'm going to talk about
is the failure to change the coolant in your car.
Coolant wears out over time and should be changed out.
It's a simple thing to do.
If you have conventional antifreeze,
you change it once every three years.
And if you use extended-life antifreeze,
you can change it out once every five years.
No big deal, but don't forget to do it,
because modern engines have a lot of aluminum parts,
and aluminum doesn't rust, but it
corrodes very badly if the anti-corrosion parts
of the antifreeze break down.
So now you know.
Learn from other people's mistakes
and keep your car running smoothly down the road.
And remember, if you have any car questions just
visit ScottyKilmer.com.
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