Life With No Left Turns

This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Well worth reading. And a few good laughs are guaranteed.

    My father never drove a car. Well, that’s not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

    ” In those days,” he told me when he was in his 90s, ” to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it.”

    At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in: ” Oh, bull—-!” she said. ” He hit a horse.”

    ” Well,” my father said, ” there was that, too.”

    So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars — the Kollingses next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford — but we had none.

    My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home.

    If he took the streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.

    My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and sometimes, at dinner, we’d ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we had none. ” No one in the family drives,” my mother would explain, and that was that. But, sometimes, my father would say, ” But as soon as one of you boys turns 16, we’ll get one.”

    It was as if he wasn’t sure which one of us would turn 16 first.

    But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts department at a Chevy dealership downtown. It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since my parents didn’t drive, it more or less became my brother’s car.

    Having a car but not being able to drive didn’t bother my father, but it didn’t make sense to my mother. So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and where, and a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving.

    The cemetery probably was my father’s idea.

    ” Who can your mother hurt in the  cemetery ?” I remember him saying once.

    For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he loaded up on maps — though they seldom left the city limits — and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work

    Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn’t seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage. ( Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)

    He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin’s Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish’s two priests was on duty that morning.

    If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home. If it was the assistant pastor, he’d take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests ” Father Fast ” and ” Father Slow.”

    After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother when ever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were going to the beauty parlor, he’d sit in the car and read, or go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio.

    In the evening, then, when I’d stop by, he’d explain: ” The Cubs lost again. The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored.”

    If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out — and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream.

    As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, ” Do you want to know the secret of a long life ?”

    ” I guess so,” I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

    ” No left turns,” he said.

    ” What ?” I asked.

    ” No left turns,” he repeated. ” Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic. As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and decided never again to make a left turn.”

    ” What ?” I said again.

    ” No left turns,” he said. “Think about it. Three rights are the same as a left, and that’s a lot safer. So we always make three rights.”

    ” You’re kidding !” I said, and I turned to my mother for support.

    ” No,” she said, ” your father is right. We make three rights. It works.”  But then she added: ” Except when your father loses count.”

    I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing. ” Loses count ?” I asked. ” Yes,” my father admitted, ” that sometimes happens. But it’s not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you’re okay again.”

    I couldn’t resist. ” Do you ever go for 11 ?” I asked.

    ” No,” he said . ” If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can’t be put off another day or another week.”

    My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999, when she was 90. She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102. They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom — the house had never
had one. My father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he paid for the house.)

    He continued to walk daily — he had me get him a treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he’d fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising — and he was of sound mind and sound body until the moment he died.

    One September after noon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide-ranging conversation about politics and newspapers and things in the news. A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, ” You know, Mike, the first hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred.” At one point in our drive that Saturday, he said, ” You know, I’m probably not going to live much longer.”

    ” You’re probably right,” I said.

    ” Why would you say that?” He countered, somewhat irritated.

    ” Because you’re 102 years old,” I said.

    ” Yes,” he said, “you’re right.” He stayed in bed all the next day.

    That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him through the night. He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said: ” I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet.”

    An hour or so later, he spoke his last words:

    ” I want you to know,” he said, clearly and lucidly,  “that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have.” A short time later, he died.

    I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I’ve wondered now and then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long.

    I can’t figure out if it was because he walked through life

    Or because he quit making left turns.

Peppers and Bio-diesel

I would not count myself as a radical tree hugger type.  Although I definitely care about the environment I don’t expect to be owning a Prius any time soon. 

Sunday a good friend of mine came in to town.  I don’t get to see him but maybe once a year because he is production manager for bands that tour for months and sometimes years at a time.  This time he came to town with Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

 

For me it is an important chance to catch up on what has transpired in both our lives since the last time.  We talk about mutual friends and family.  It also means I will act as roadie for a day and work at the venue.

This is a very big production.  So big it takes 14 semi-trailers to move all the equipment as well as a dozen tour buses to move the people.  This is in addition to the hundreds of local people that provide security and services for the venue as well as a local load crew.

What I was particularly impressed with was that they have switched to bio-diesel fuel for all the transports.  This is a huge change and is actually paying off for them.  In the last haul it has saved them nearly seven hundred dollars in fuel costs. 

 

Think what this might mean if Wal-Mart changed its fleet over to bio-diesel?  It there any way that bio-jet-A fuel could be cooked up?

 

Car Movies – Bullitt

In an earlier post Bullitt was one of several movies on my “Car Movies” list.  It is there as not only one of the top car movies yet, but it is a model for what makes a movie appropriate for a “Car Movies” listing. 

 

The most important characteristic of its car chase scenes is that they are believable.  The director, Peter Yates, was chosen because Steve McQueen had liked his previous work, “the Robbery”, and in particular, its realism.  It was the end of the sixties and the blind faith in the government of the post-WWII era had morphed into cynicism and suspicion.  McQueen wanted believable amounts of reality in his films.

 

San Francisco was unlike Los Angeles in that it bent over backward to accommodate the movie production.  To allow a car chase to be filmed where speeds would exceed 100 miles per hour on public roads was a first.  It was not a trivial task to set up, rehearse, and execute the chase scenes.  The editing of the chase delivers everything that it should and, as an audience, you are not distracted by the lapses in continuity. 

The stars are the cars.  The production used two 1968 Highland Green Mustang GT’s with 390 V8 engines, and three 1968 Dodge Charger RTs with 440 engines.  While the Mustangs went through several modifications the Charger was left basically stock.  With Bill Hickman driving they kept putting smaller tires on the Charger so McQueen’s Mustang could keep up.

 

Bill Hickman was the best stunt driver in the world at that time and also could act.  Not that he had what could be called a speaking role, but his double take when Bullitt’s Mustang appears in the Charger’s rear view mirror was perfect.  Hickman also had the look of a hit man, along with Paul Genge as the white haired, shotgun wielding assassin.  Paul was in reality not familiar with firearms and scared to death to be in the car during the filming of the chase scenes.  Word is they filled him with tranquilizers and shoved him back in the car.

 

Bill Hickman would later be in the movie “Seven Ups” and “French Connection”, and I remember him playing a uniformed guard in an episode of Outer Limits.  Hickman was a very cool driver, just as calm as he looked in the film. He could drive a car and place it where ever you needed it and duplicate the feat as often as you needed it done.

The Mustangs were stripped of the fog lights and trim in the middle of the grill, the rocker panel were painted body color, the white “C” stripes were removed from the sides, and MUSTANG lettering was removed from the rear.  McQueen added some dents and dings to make the car look believable.  Max Balchowsky prepared both the Mustangs and the Chargers.  He focused first on the suspension of the Mustang,   He reinforced the shock towers, adding cross members (what we would call strut tower braces today), upgrading the springs for higher rate versions.  You can see some shots of the Mustang with the stock springs when Bullitt is driving to his apartment at1153 Taylor Street

The stock shocks were replaced with Koni shocks and the subframe was braced considerably.  The A-arms were Magnafluxed and reinforced as well.  The engine’s top end also received some modifications.  The heads were milled for increased compression, headers were added along with a high performance ignition and the stock carburetor was re-worked.  The exhaust sound you hear in the movie is the real thing.  The sound was, for the most part, recorded during filming with only a few gaps that were filled in by taking the cars to the race track and recording the sounds there.  The interior was basically stock as was the shifter.  Steve had the steering wheel replaced with a Carrol Shelby model and had the wood rim covered in black leather. 

The Chargers had the torsion bars in the front end upgraded to a higher rate and the rear leaf springs were swapped out for police model springs that raised the spring rate without raising the ride height.  The engine was left basically stock.

The third car in the chase scenes was the camera car.  It was a modified Corvette with basically no body and an area behind the driver where a camera and operator sat.  The driver was Pat Houstis and Bill Fraker operated the camera.  Pat designed and built the camera car.

Special effects?  No computer generated graphics anywhere here.  When Bill Hickman’s Charger understeered into a camera as he went around a corner you see it all up until he smashed the camera.  McQueen followed and understeered so badly he had to back up and take the corner again.  Showing clearly that the Mustang didn’t have posi-traction.  There are two notable special effects none the less.  One is the breaking of the Mustang windshield by the shotgun blast from the Charger.  That was accomplish by some chain balls that strike the windshield at precisely the perfect time.  The other effect of the Mustang bumping the Charger off the road and into the gasoline pumps.  This was done by creating a tow rig where the Mustang was hooked to the Charger until it was released at just the right moment.  Almost the right moment anyway.  The Charger missed the gas station, but brilliant editing and pyrotechnic work ensured that it looked as it should.  The movie’s film editor received a well deserved Oscar for his work.

The nine minute, forty-two second chase sequence continues to galvanize viewers and allows teenage boys (of all ages and both sexes) to see their fantasy of racing through city streets on the big screen.

This is Scary

Today’s automobiles have some of the most complex and sophisticated networks upon which the lives of the driver and passengers depend. 

And now…

Talk about a blue screen of death!

The Missing Daytona Coupe Mystery

I think it is the strangest automotive story I have ever heard.  I’ll try to lay it out for you.

 

Back in 1964 Carol Shelby was tearing up the tracks in the US with his Cobra roadsters.  Nothing had a chance.  But on the European tracks with longer  straights it was a different story.  The roadster aerodynamics limited its top speed and the Ferrari’s would clean their clocks.  In 1965 Shelby was intent on winning against Ferrari.  Because Ferrari was allowed to enter a special version of their road car it opened the door for Carol Shelby to do the same.  Fortunately he had Pete Brock on his payroll and Pete had studied aerodynamic texts that the Germans had put together from years of research.  Pete also had a great eye for form and with the help of the Shelby crew they designed the Cobra Coupe.  It was fantastic and the chassis number of the first one was CSX2287.  Six were made in all.

The design was so perfect it allowed Shelby to win against Ferrari, but Ford was intent on LeMans and wanted Shelby to devote his shop to the GT40.  This left CSX2287 to get cleaned up and used on the public relations Cobra Caravan.  It even spent some time on the Bonneville Salt Flats with Craig Breedlove and Bobby Tatroe setting 23 international and national speed records.

 

Then it dissapeared.  It would take thirty years to turn up again.

Since Ford wanted Shelby to concentrate on the GT40, Carol put the coupes up for sale.  The most he could get for any of them was about $4000 without engines and transmissoins.   CSX2287 was sold first to Oscar Koveleski of Autoworld fame and then to Jim Russellof Russkit slot cars who converted it to street use (sort of) and sold it to none other than Phil Spector.  Phil accumulated a lot of speeding tickets and also found the race car did not convert that well to the street, often becoming unbearably hot.  Phil took it to a shop to see about further converting it to street use, but the mechanic told him it would cost tons of money and offered to scrap it for him for $800.

Now here is where the story gets a little screwy.  Some say that Phil sold it to his body guard for $1000 in 1971.  The body guard, George Brand, then gave it to his daughter, Donna O’Hara, who stashed the car and wouldn’t tell anyone where it was or even admit that she had it.

Donna got divorced in 1982 and she retained control of the car. In the last couple of years Robert Lavoie, an attorney representing Kurt Goss a childhood friend of donna’s, tried several times to buy it for half a million dollars, but she refused.

On October 22, 2000, Donna went under a bridge Fulerton, CA, with her rabbits and a couple of bottles of gasoline.  She poured the gasoline on herself and lit it off.  It took her 15 hours to die and she wouldn’t even tell the police who she was.  She just told them to “Shut up”.  It took over a month for her to be identified when friends reported her disappearance.

Goss claimed that she called him five days prior and told him that if anything happened to her he was to take care of her personal belongings.  Goss said that she wanted him to have the coupe along with three other cars of hers.  When he heard that Donna had died he contacted her mother and paid the outstanding storage charges expecting to remove the coupe.  The owner of the storage center would not let Goss remove it without legal authority and Donna had no will.

 

Meanwhile Martin Eyears, a rare car dealer from Montecito, tried to close a deal with Donna’s mother to buy it for $3,000,000.  Donna’s father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and can’t help with the questions over ownership.  So Martin decides to sell it to a collector on the east coast for $4,000,000.

Then Phil Spector comes out and says he still owns the car.  Phil claims that he neither sold nor gave the car away, and that he asked Brand to put it into storage for him. 

December 8, 2001, the legal battle ends.  Kurt Goss has been determined to be the legal owner and Dorthy Brand is to pay him more than $800,000, since she sold the car.  After estate and gift taxes Dorthy will end up with nothing according to her lawyer, Milford Dahl.  I suspect the lawyer will pocket enough to put a couple of payments on that beach condo he owns in Malibu.

Care and Feeding

This seems like a good time to talk about some of the car care products you should keep handy in your garage.

Cars need to be taken care of and not just serviced.  I have had experience with a lot of products over the years and some I have loved only to end up loathing them and others I have learned to always keep at hand.

Let me start with the inside of the car and work my way out.  I have already talked about the window cleaning products.  I currently use a product called Perfect Glass and Scott paper towels to clean the glass inside and out.  I say currently because I know full well that what ever is great today may end up surpassed tomorrow.  The Perfect Glass product does a great job cleaning the windows, but the Scott towels is key in that they don’t leave behind a film or fibers.

Car interiors consist primarily of vinyl and leather and metal surfaces.  Mostly it is plastic or vinyl.  The best protectant I have found for interior plastic is Vinylex.  It comes in a blue pump spray bottle and all you have to do is follow the directions on the bottle.  I fell in love with Armorall years ago and thought it was just the best thing going until I found out the down side.  It really doesn’t help the plastics used in cars.  It goes on shiny, but then seems to pull the life out of the plastic and it eventually turns dry and can even lose color.  I have even noticed how it off gasses onto the inside of the windshield if you use it on the top of the dash.  So no more.  Vinylex is the stuff.  You can put it on liberally and get things shiny or rub it down to get a more new car satin look.  I’ve used it for several years and like the results.

 

For pleather (vinyl leather like upholstery) you can use Vinylex as well, but real leather is a different animal.  Lexol is the product I like best.  It comes in a two part process.  The orange bottle is for cleaning the leather and the brown bottle is for treating the leather.  In two steps it will remove the dirt that gets into the pores and then the preservative will soak in and keep the leather supple and nice.  The product has great directions – just follow them.  This is not something that will pull leather back from the brink of going bad.  I don’t know anything that will “restore” leather other than reupholstering.  If you have to consider that then consider the Katzkin (www.katzkin.com) product line.  I had a 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse that I had done in their leather upholstery and was delighted.  The factory leather from Mitusbishi was about as comfortable as tanned elephant skin.

The next area is the “rubber” seals around the doors.  I put rubber in quote because I don’t know if it is pure rubber or a mix of things, but I do know that it needs to be cleaned and cared for.  There is a company called Wurth that makes and sells a lot of automotive care products (as well as other automotive items) that has a great rubber care product.  It comes in two forms.  One is a spray and the other is a stick with a foam applicator.  Wurth Rubber Care is the product name.  I have seen it distributed directly to auto dealerships, but not in retail stores of any kind so I’ve found sources on the Internet where I can buy in small quantities.  Expensive, but nothing else works as well.

A car’s paint is very important to take care of.  Today’s manufacturers don’t use much paint, at least not compared to the days of muscle cars.  The chemistry of automotive paint is far different as well.  Without getting into a lot of detail let me just describe it as a primer layer, a color layer, and a clear coat layer.  The clear coat provides the protection and shine that makes a new car look so good.  But all these layers are a thin as the automotive companies can get away with. 

So how do you take care of them and get the most mileage out of a factory paint job?  Clean your car’s finish.  Use a real automotive shampoo.  Use plenty of the best water you can.  If you just want to get it cleaned and looking good in less than an hour then pick up the Mr. Clean spray and wash product.  It is actually very good for what it does.  But if you really want to keep that paint finish nice be prepared to spend some time and do it right.

First – NEVER was the car in the sun! Wait for clouds or when the shadows are covering the wash area.  Sun baking down on wash water and soap does not do nice things to automotive finishes.

Rinse the car off of all the loose stuff.  Start at the roof and work your way down using the high pressure spray for the wheel wells and around the brakes.  You lifted the wiper off the glass didn’t you?

So plan on using a bucket of about four gallons of water with your auto shampoo.  Use a high quality product like McGuires or Mothers.  Don’t use a dishwashing detergent.  If it is a little cold out then fill some old water jugs up with hot water to mix your shampoo in.  Use a good wooly mitt and keep it saturated with soap and water.  Start at the top of the car and do a section at a time.  How big a section?  Look at the mitt and if it starts to get dry or dirty stop and rinse things off.  Rinse the mitt off in the soapy water and wash some more.  Rinse the car from the hose and move on to another section unless you need to repeat and area.  Remember how this works.  The mitt and the soap removes dirt and keeps it suspended so you can rinse it off.  So use it that way.

You start at the top and work down.  That keeps the dirtier stuff for the dirtier part of the car.  If it gets too bad with dirt, dump the soap and refill with fresh clean stuff. 

When you have washed it all and rinsed it all you will save the wheels for last.  They have the grittiest dirt.  Brake pad material is not nice to grind into any finish.  So save a mitt that you will only use on wheels and get a wheel brush that is made from nylon bristles that have soft exploded tips to scrub with on the wheels and tires.  Some times you will have to pull the wheels from the car to get them properly cleaned.

Once it is all washed and rinsed you need to dry it.  Use 100% cotton towels.  I use old bath towels as they seem to absorb really well.  Use plenty of them.  It may take four or five to complete the car. 

Put down the wipers when the windows have been dried and pop the hood and trunk (or hatch).  Dry out behind the rubber seals there and on the inside of the doors as well as the gas cap door.  When it is all dry, look over the body carefully.  You will likely find road tar or bug splats that did not come off.  Not to worry.  Get some bug and tar remover from a company called One Grand.  It is another one of those products that you don’t find in a retail outlet so search the Internet for it.  It is great.

You may have to re-wash some areas if it has been a while.  You care about your paint – right?

When the car is clean and dry, what comes next?  Clay bar.

 

If you don’t know what clay bar is that’s OK.  But it is your paint’s best friend.  It sounds like something that you have to be an expert to use, but it is easy and very effective.  What it does is remove all the contaminants that get imbedded in your car’s paint. 

Run your hand over the clean car and it will still feel a little rough.  Get a clay bar kit and use it as directed and it will feel smoother than glass.  It doesn’t polish or buff the paint.  It doesn’t remove any of the paint – only the contaminants.  You don’t even have to rub hard.  It just takes a little time.

When you are done with that it is time to wax the car.  This must be done in the shade as well and don’t use a wax with cleaners in it.  What are cleaners?  That is what the manufacturers of auto wax call polish that they put in the wax.  You don’t need to polish your car’s finish you need to protect the paint and the best stuff to do that with is pure carnauba paste wax.  Mothers sell it and there are other brands.  Just make sure that it is pure carnauba wax and nothing else.

 

Put it on sparingly and wipe it off with pure cotton towels.  If you are not sure if the towels are pure cotton, hold a match or lighter to it and see what happens.  If it melts it is not 100% cotton, if it chars, it is.  I use small hand towels that are white and clean them a couple of times for re-use.

When you are done (a LOT of work, I know) you will be amazed at the finish of your car’s paint.

DOT 3, DOT 4, and DOT 5

What are those things in the title?  Brake fluid is categorized as one of those three ratings.  Most brake fluid that comes in a new car will be rated DOT 3.  A few will Use DOT 4, and very few will ever use DOT 5 which is a silicone based product.

If you want to look at brake fluids from a chemical standpoint DOT 3 fluids are based on glycol and glycol esters.  DOT 4 fluids are much like DOT 3 fluids, but also contain borate esters.  There is another rating called DOT 5.1 that consists of borate esters.

Let’s look at what brake fluid’s (and clutch fluid) real job is.  Brake fluid is used to transmit pressure from the brake pedal to the extreme ends where the disk brake calipers or drum brake cylinders are.  This pressure is then applied to the pads (or shoes) against the rotation of the brake rotor (or drum).  It is this property not to compress that allows it to do its job well. 

 

Back to the chemistry.  Notice that water is not listed as a component of brake fluid.  Water boils (sea level air pressure) at 212 degrees F (100 C).  Since the disk rotor can and will generate over 1000 degrees (F) of heat and transfer 400 degrees or more to the caliper water is not a good fluid to choose. 

Why do I mention water?  The chemistry of DOT3 and DOT 4 brake fluids attract water.  Right out of the air.  In fact the anti-freeze you use is probably glycol based just because it mixes well with water. 

The difference between the DOT (Department of Transportaion) ratings of brake fluid are the boiling point ranges that they achieve both dry (no water absorbed) and wet (about 3-4% water content).  For DOT 3 the dry boiling point is at least 401 and the wet 284 degrees.  DOT 4 raises the bar to 446 and 311 respectively.  Those are the DOT ratings mind you , and there are high performance brake fluids that exceed those ratings.

The cost of brake fluid can vary as well from less than $0.20 an ounce to over $2.00 an ounce.  Some of the high performance fluids are rated well over 500 (to almost 600) degrees boiling point dry.  Wet boiling points will also vary, but be well over 400 degrees.

The higher boiling points are critical to those of you that wish to spend time on a race track.  Once you boil your brake fluid it will not recover and you MUST bleed and change out the fluid. 

The every day driver will find brake performance just fine by sticking with the fluid that the dealership recommends unless they use their vehicle to the extreme, such as a newspaper delivery route or negotiating their way down curvy mountain roads.  You will know because the brake pedal will start to feel mushy as the fluid overheats and the pedal may even go to the floor.

So what is the big deal?  The big deal is that most of us never flush and replace our brake fluid.  In fact, if you go to a garage and have a “brake job” done it is highly unlikely that they will do much more than bleed the brake lines.  This means that the old – water soaked – tired – brake fluid will still be there.  The water can react to oxidize brake components from the inside out.  What you should do, probably once a year, is have the old fluid flushed and completely replaced with fresh brake fluid.

Bleeding Methods

If your mechanic does it the right way they will use a vacuum bleeding system.  The first thing they will do is remove all the wheels so they can get to the brake bleed screws.  Then they will vacuum out the brake fluid reservoir of old fluid.  Then the technician will ensure that new fluid is always kept in the brake fluid reservoir and pull it through the system starting at the brake bleeder farthest from the master cylinder.  Vacuum bleeding is preferred since pressure bleeding actually introduces and dissolves air into the new fluid.  This will gas out as the new fluid is heated and the pedal will get spongy again.

If you do your own brake bleeding and don’t have access to a vacuum bleeder you can take longer and bleed it in the traditional fashion of using the brake pedal to push out fluid and air.  The approach is similar.  Loosen the lug nuts, get the car up in the air on jack stands (if you DON’T know how to do this safely, DON’T do it yourself), and take off all the wheels.  Prepare yourself with some clear tubing and catch cans for the old fluid.  I take used pint sized plastic milk containers and suspend them with bent coat hanger from the caliper or brake drum.  The milk containers are nice because you can use the hollow handle to push the tubing into where it will be held on one end while the other end will go over the bleeder screw (valve).  Use a box end wrench of the appropriate size to open and close the bleeder screw.  You will need someone who follows directions well to sit in the car and use the brake pedal.  Don’t let them take their foot off the brake pedal unless the valve is closed.

The goal will be to get the new fluid all the way to the farthest points in the system so the rear brakes will take the longest to flush.  A company called Ate makes a blue colored fluid that makes it easy to tell that you have accomplished that. 

Unless your factory manual specifies something different you start with the right (passenger side) rear, then move to the left (drivers side) rear, then the right front, and finally the left front.  If you have ABS you may need to either leave the engine running or short out a test connector to ensure the ABS pump cycles while bleeding.  This last part (ABS) will depend on you doing research on YOUR particular vehicle. 

As you cycle from each corner you will have to work in concert with your buddy at the brake pedal.  The goal is not to get any air introduced into the system while you bleed it.  To prevent air from entering you need to keep the reservoir from going empty.  So check it often and add new fluid as needed. 

You should also remove as much of the old fluid from the reservoir before you add new fluid to the reservior.  A turkey baster or similar device will allow you to do that.  Just have spray “brake clean” ready in case any fluid get on painted surfaces.  If left on paint it will remove it.  PROTECT YOUR EYES. 

The routine for bleeding as a team goes like this.  The person in the car on the brake pedal needs to pay attention to your instructions so that they won’t lift their foot off the pedal if you have the bleeder still open.  The first thing you will ask them to do it pump the brake pedal about three times.  This is to ensure that some pressure is in the line so that fluid (and any air, water, etc.) will come out of the bleeder when you open it.  They shouldn’t pump the pedal like they are making a panic stop.  Just a nice easy stroke will do the job.  They don’t have to keep an enormous amount of pressure on the pedal either.  Just enough to move it toward the floor is fine. 

After they have pumped the pedal, they should let you know that they are “holding” pressure on the pedal.  You should be at the bleeder screw with a wrench on it and a tube going to the catch bottle.  You open the valve and close the valve and then let the person on the brake pedal know that they can lift their foot.  If the foot comes off the pedal while the valve  screw is open you will introduce air into the line – that is not your objective.  

There is a product call Speed Bleeders that can be a huge help.  It is a bleeder screw with a spring loaded check valve that prevents air from getting back into the system.  I’ve seen them sold in auto parts stores, but I know that they are also available on line.

 

You will need to continue this until you get nice, clean, new fluid out to the particular brake you are working on and then repeat for the other three.  Be sure to keep enough fluid in the reservoir to prevent air from entering the system from that end.

You CAN do this yourself if you take your time, get prepared prior to starting, and have someone who knows what they are doing to help you.  Otherwise – find a professional that knows what they are doing.

Brake fluids gain contamination as they age and should be replace periodically.  If you race you should change your brake fluid as often as you change your oil. 

 

Pitty the Poor Windshield Wiper

We certainly take them for granted.  They rarely get changed unless they are falling apart and there is precipitation to remind us that they have aged out of their useful life. 

By the same token they can be a life saver when that bad weather enters our road trip and we owe it to ourselves and our passengers to pay respect to the lowly wiper.

You also need to understand that the wiper does not do its job alone.  It is highly dependant on the windshield (or windscreen for those that drive on the left) for its effectiveness.

Over the years the technology of the windshield wiper systems has made modest gains.  Early cars had none.  Later there were ones operated by hand and then later by the vacuum produced by the engine.  Those vacuum actuated wipers were almost comical in their operation as the vacuum generated by the engine would vary with engine speed and so would the wipers.  I remember being in an old Jeep with those vacuum wipers and watching as snow hit the windshield and as the driver pressed on the accelerator that the wiper suddenly crawled across the glass and then, just as suddenly, picked up its regular speed.  On my side was also a wiper, but I had to reach up and move it back and forth across the glass myself.

The electric motors that operate today’s wipers have been enhanced by electronic timers that the driver can adjust so that the speed of the wiping action is set to the volume of precipitation.  Intermittent wipers. 

Key to all this is the harmony between the windshield and the wipers.  You can help this by doing a couple of things.  First, don’t plan to use a set of blades for more than six months.  In some weather conditions this will be shortened to half that time.  If you are not able to store your car in a garage and live in hot sunny weather, you can expect that the blades will deteriorate quickly and require replacement sooner than six months.

Second, keep your windshield clean.  I don’t mean that you should run your wipers and spray washer fluid every chance you get either.  Take the time to lift the wiper arms away from the glass and clean the windshield inside and out.  You will appreciate the improvement at night in good weather as well.

So what should you use to clean your windshield?  In the “old” days newspapers was an excellent choice, but since inks are no longer kerosene-based you had better resort to a good quality spray on water-based cleaner and a low quality paper towel.  What you say?  A low quality paper towel?  What I have found is that the high quality paper towels that do such a great job in the kitchen are not that effective on auto glass.  They tend to leave lint and often times have additives for strength and absorption that result in smeary windshields.

The best towel (so far) that I have found is the cheaper Scott towels.  They don’t leave anything objectionable behind and dry very well.

I happen to favor a glass cleaning product called “Perfect Glass”, but I’ve also found that with the right paper towel most cleaners perform very well.

Once that glass is clean and dry inside and out (it may take a couple of cleanings), it is time to replace the wiper blades.  You have several choices here.  You can replace just the rubber blades or you can replace the section that holds the blades.  I tend to do the latter because of the mechanical spring tension that keeps the blades in contact with the glass is also affected by wear and corrosion.

When you replace the assembly you also have some choices.  My current favorite is Exact Fit blade assemblies.  They fit very well and use high quality materials in their construction.  If I lived in snow country I would definitely purchase assemblies that were made for the winter precipitation and are covered in rubber to keep out freezing rain and snow.  On my Mitsubishi Evolution I purchase factory blade assemblies as I find them superior to any aftermarket sets. 

Be sure to fill your windshield washer reservoir with a good quality washer fluid and do your best never to let it get empty.  If you let it get empty and leave it that way it can mean the end of the pump as most designs rely on the fluid to keep the diaphragms from drying out and cracking.  A good quality washer fluid should also contain an antifreeze agent.  It not only keeps the stuff from freezing, it can also act as an additional solvent helping your wipers to push away material from bugs, road grime, salt, and precipitation.

In between replacements take the time to clean the windshield and also clean off the blades edges.  As it wipes the glass it accumulates a lot of dirt that scratches the glass and leads to early end of life.

As you windshield ages it will get pitted and scratched so keep in mind it may reach a point where it too should be replaced.  Keep that comprehensive insurance covereage in force it might pay off.

Your windshield is there to protect your eyes and provide you with a less windy experience.  Your wipers are there provide better visibility in bad weather.  Give them a chance to do their best for you and spend a little time and money.  it will pay you back.

 

The history of the windshield wiper can be found at:  http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blanderson.htm

Resolutions for the New Year

I will organize my garage.  I know when most people look at my garage they utter complements on how organized it is, but I really need to re-think how I have things placed on the shelving I put in a couple of years ago.

I will help my niece pick out a new car.  She has an older Volvo and is frustrated with the amount of repairs that go along with a five year old Swedish car.  I asked her to put together a list of things that she would like to have in her new vehicle.  After reviewing the list it looks like Mazda’s  CX-7.  It has a 2.3 litre turbocharged engine and is offered in AWD.  It has one of the best crash ratings (although I feel driving skills are a big part of accident avoidance).  I just wish the warranty was on par with Mitsubishi’s.

Get to the Tail of the Dragon.  I went with 14 other Evolution owners back in October of 2005 and had a great time.  I spent two days of driving the eleven mile stretch of 318 turns on a two-lane mountain road.  It is beautiful country and a driver’s road.

Do research on an electric powered AWD race/rally car.  After watching ” Who Killed the Electric Car” and seeing what the potential is for electronic control of power distribution I owe it to myself to do some more investigation.

Get to VIR.  It has been a year and I really should spend some time at Virginia International Raceway.  It is relatively close and has some of the best HPDE driving on the planet.

Auto Makers from China

Exports of Chinese cars doubled last year to nearly 350,000.  While this is hardly a drop in the bucket of global auto sales it is an indicator of just how serious China is in the car industry.

Last month DaimlerChrysler struck a deal with Chery Automotive to sell their cars in the US.  this could happen as soon as 2009.   Changfeng who partnered with Mitsubishi about ten years ago is showing examples of their export model SUV. 

Chinese engineers that have gained experience in the American automotive industry have left their jobs at Ford and GM and are going back to China to develop new cars and power plants that will enter the world market before this decade is out.