Do you have a tendency to drive your vehicle past the point of the gas gauge pointing to empty? Do you see the little gas light come on and willfully ignore it? Do you like to live life on the edge? Well, don’t! Yeah, you read that right, don’t do that! Never let your tank get below a quarter full! It’s really bad for your vehicle, and also you have no way of knowing how much gas is actually in your tank once you hit that point. Keep reading and maybe you’ll get where I am coming from on this one.

The first reason why it’s bad is because your fuel gauge isn’t always accurate. Sure, there are some vehicles out there that will tell you things like “you have 5 miles until empty,” but even that’s not fully true. You never know how much is really left once you hit that E until your vehicle actually runs out of gas. It could be 5 miles, it could be 50, but do you really want to find out? There are plenty of videos on YouTube of other people testing it out. Just watch them, don’t try it yourself.

Next, there’s sediment at the bottom of every fuel tank. When your fuel level gets lower and lower, that sediment gets closer and closer to getting sucked up with the fuel and pushed through your fuel lines and fuel injectors, clogging them up and destroying your fuel system from the inside out. If you let this happen often enough, your vehicle will need a full engine flush. That is pretty dang expensive.

Finally, your fuel pump uses the gas it pulls in as a coolant. When there’s not enough gas, it starts sucking in air. The air creates more friction and definitely isn’t as cool as the liquid fuel, and your pump burns out very quickly, especially if this practice is repeated often. The repair or replacement is expensive. Much more expensive than a tank of gas. Believe us on that one.

The information for what your tire pressure should be is on a sticker that’s inside of the driver’s side door jamb, in your owner’s manual, and on the outsides of some brands of tires. There’s always a place to look.

Checking the tread is part of this as well. Stick a penny with the top of Lincoln’s head pointing to the center of your wheel. If you can see the top of his head, then you need new tires as soon as humanly possible.

Your tires should be lasting for at least five years, but due to some factors (low tire pressure, overinflated tires, aggressive driving, improper alignment) your tires might die early. That means that at every oil change, have your tech check your tire pressure, your alignment, and have your tires rotated. Seriously!

Checking your oil is one of the most important things that you can do for your vehicle. Everyone typically thinks that when it comes to oil, the oil change is what really matters… but in fact, checking your oil regularly can help you know if there’s anything going on with your vehicle. Oil is a great diagnostic tool, so you should be checking your oil monthly. Don’t know how? Keep reading!

• Open the hood. Prop it so it stays open.

• Locate the oil dipstick next to the engine. It should have a yellow handle and/or be labeled.

• Pull out the dipstick and wipe it on a clean cloth or paper towel.

• Dip the stick all the way back in.

• Pull it out again and look at the oil level. If it’s in the middle of the hatched/indicated area, you’re good. More is better, less is okay, but if you’re lower than the area you need to get your oil topped up and have your system checked for leaks.

• Look at the oil quality and color. If there are a lot of particles or if the oil looks sludgy, you need to get it changed as soon as possible.

• Put the dipstick back in.

• Close your hood.

When filling up the tank, do you ever stop while holding onto the pump and think about what exactly is going into your tank? “What do those numbers mean,” you think, “what is ‘unleaded’?” Well, dear reader, today we shall discover exactly what is meant by the crude hieroglyphics and numerals on gas station pumps.

First of all, the SCIENCE! I am not good at science, so I will try to explain this in easy terms, because the easier it is to explain the harder it is for me to get it wrong. Okay. So, when gasoline is refined from oil, molecules called hydrocarbons are left in the gasoline. Hydrocarbons like to spontaneously combust, often before we’d like them to when it comes to thinking about how engines work. This used to create a phenomenon known as an “engine knock” in the past, which was very annoying to everyone because it was literally just your car’s engine yelling at you in the most obnoxious way possible. However, a certain hydrocarbon known as isooctane (or as we call it, octane) is much better at combusting when we would like it to, so this is a molecule we want to have more of in our gasoline. The numbers on the pumps indicate the octane level of the gasoline that comes out of that particular nozzle thing.

At this point, you might have had the thought, “why am I not using higher octane gasoline?” The answer to this is simple: because you do not need to. You would know if you needed higher octane gas in your engine because your vehicle would say so, either on the dash next to the gas gauge or inside your gas cap or in your owner’s manual. Only higher-performance engines really need the high octane gas, because other engines have been made specifically to work with the lower-octane stuff. Don’t worry. Using higher octane gas in a normal engine is literally just a waste of money.

So, what is the deal with the “unleaded” nonsense? All gasoline is unleaded, right? Answer: yes, but it took until the 1990s for that to happen. In the 1920s, car scientists (is that a real thing? I am making it up right now, so it is now a real thing) figured out that a good cheap way of increasing the octane level of gasoline is by adding tetraethyl lead to it. Of course, this will kill you slowly and painfully but hey! It’ll keep the cost of gasoline down. So they were totally on board for that for 70-something years, until the anger of the dying populace became too strong and lead was outlawed from gasoline in the late 1990s.

And there you have it! If you want to not think about this as often, consider purchasing a new hybrid vehicle! Fuel efficiency is in.

Before winter hits with all its force, you might want to clean out your air vents and get your cabin air filter replaced. Here are our tips on making your car smell fresh in time for using the heat and risking the smells in your vents getting baked into your vehicle for the conceivable forever.

First of all, get a vacuum, some Q-tips, and some cleaning solution of your choice and go to town on all of your vents. Even the defroster vent up near your windshield. Don’t forget the ones that blow on your feet, and don’t forget the ones that go to the back seat. Q-tip the crap out of the little corners and crannies. It’s both satisfying and soothing for the soul.

Next, take your vehicle to your dealer’s service bay and have them look at the cabin air filter. Chances are, yours hasn’t been replaced in a hot minute. Get that thing replaced! It’ll make everything smell incredibly fresh and clean, and then you can forget about it again for a while. It’s amazing.

I’d finally suggest that you get some air freshener. One of those clippy guys that hooks on to your air vent. Pick a holiday scent and drive around inside of a cookie or a wreath or something for a few weeks. You’ll be so glad you did.

Have you ever had your engine overheat? I have. It’s not fun. And it can happen literally any time of year (though, of course, it’s more likely to happen in the hotter summer months) which is the WORST part about it. Anyway, when I had this happen to me, I looked up exactly why it could be overheating, and this is what I came up with. Hopefully, this information will be useful to you…. And if not, call your dealer! Call them anyway, though, because you’re gonna need some kind of a repair if your engine is busted!

1. Your thermostat might be broken. The thermostat both measures the temperature of your engine and regulates it by restricting coolant from going through the engine block of your car before it’s heated up enough. If the thermostat is broken, it won’t open up and therefore coolant won’t be able to reach your engine, causing it to overheat.

2. The coolant hosing is degraded. After driving your car a lot, the hoses that carry the coolant, which is usually made out of not-so-high-quality plastic, can get corroded or caked with grime. This can lead to the coolant not making it through the hosing efficiently, or even making it through at all.

3. You’re out of oil. If your car is out of oil, you’ve got a big problem. Oil lubricates and even helps cool off your engine, so if you’re completely out of oil your engine could also literally weld itself together, which can lead to it seizing. You do NOT want this, so make sure that your oil level is at the regular level. You should be checking your oil at least once a month anyway – so if you aren’t doing that… Start!!!

4. Air in your cooling system. Sometimes air can get into your cooling system, even though it’s ostensibly a closed system. If there’s enough air in the system, it can block the flow of coolant and cause your car to overheat. The simple fix for this is to test your coolant and, yes, you might have to flush it. If you’re looking at your coolant, make sure your engine is cold – as in, you haven’t run your car for a couple hours beforehand.