Improve gas mileage: Clean or replace your car’s air filter!

Do you know that your car's air filter play a vital role in the improvement of gas mileage and road performance? The air filter acts as the catalyst and makes sure that good clean air without impurities flows to and fro your engine.

Note: You can only clean a REUSABLE aftermarket performance filter. If you’re currently using a STOCK air filter, it is advisable for you to replace it with a new one. Cleaning and re-using it could wear it out of use.

To clean your air filter, follow these:

1. Remove the clamps and lift the air sensor from the air intake (on top of the engine.)

2. Remove the air filter.


3. Spray a specialized filter cleaner on both sides of the air filter.

4. Wait a few minutes and let the cleaning fluid saturate into the air filter.

5. Wash the air filter with cool water. If the air filter is dirty, spray and wash it again until the filter is noticeably clean.

6. Leave the filter to dry completely.

7. Spray filter oil on the front side of the air filter and leave it to soak for 20 minutes. Cover the filter with oil completely, so it will form a seal around the filter filaments.

8. Once the oil has seeped into the filter, place the filter back into it’s position in the air intake and reconnect the air sensor.

Cleaning your car’s air filter is a breeze. Do it frequently and you’ll notice the improvement with your ride!

Drive safely.

Jovir Amatong

All About the Iron Wagon

DIY- Auto repair: Jumpstarting your car

Imagine a beautiful day on the road- gliding smoothly down curves and crunching the pedals on the freeway. You thought everything is fine with your car, then suddenly when you least expect it, you get stalled with a dead battery!

As a driver you should always be ready with the right tool (Jumper cables) and the knowledge to fix this very simple problem as this could very well come up when you least expect it.

To jumpstart your car, follow these:

1. Bring a volunteer. You’re going to need a friend or a helpful stranger who would be willing enough bring his car close and lend power.

2. Open both hoods of the cars.

3. Clamp the red end of the Jumper cables to the positive terminal (+) to the dead battery. Clamp the other end of the jumper cables of the red side to the positive terminal with that of the working battery.

4. Put the black end of the jumper cables to the negative terminals (-) of the working battery. Put the other black end of the jumper cables to a metal surface in the engine compartment of the dead battery.

5. Start the car with the dead battery and leave it running for a few minutes to charge the dead battery.

Learning to how to jumpstart your car will help ensure a worry free smooth ride.

Buckle up.

Jovir Amatong

For other DIY car repair tips and more, read:

All About the Iron Wagon

Auto repair: Learn to get car repair quotes, costs, cheap spare parts and accessories

Admit it, like small kids you only love your car when it feels smoothly to your drive but when everything breaks, you feel like you don’t want to see it anymore for fear of repair costs. The best way to solve your problem with minimal costs is to simply just seek out expert help and get quotes and estimates for repair yourself! This way you’ll know what to do and can therefore budget on costs. Follow these:

1. Ask a friend or your neighbors for a referral. Reputation counts much as going to a place that’s popular will save you from overcharging, scams and unnecessary repairs or charges.

2. Visit a repair center (maybe you can get a free estimate) and ask for a summary of what is wrong with your car. This way you’ll know what is wrong with your car and whenever you’re in doubt you can contact other repair centers and compare costs on estimates.

3. Contacting more repair centers in your area will certainly help you see if the quote you got is fair. Here on, you can compare summarized estimates (repair, parts, labor costs, miscellaneous charges etc.) generally, labor cost is the number of hours spent in the repair multiplied by the hourly charge of the car service.

4. Ask for a written estimate. Though this may come as a variable factor for complications might occur, the moment repair for your car is started. If however your charges end up higher than your quote, never hesitate to ask or complain to the shop manager and together sort out a satisfactory solution.

As a last note to save more on your car repair budget, it will greatly help if you also know where to get quality spare parts at a price that’s just right or get discounts when you buy.

Before setting off on a hunt, take note of the following essential information.

Know your car basics (year, make, model, engine etc.) and transmission (manual, automatic) and air conditioning. Always be sure to scour a lot of dealerships you can handle as possible and have web access ready in case you want to conduct price comparisons online.

Once you’ve had these things considered, then you can follow these:


1. Learn to look the other way. Though it might seem convenient that your car dealer is the source for quality auto parts, be open that you’ll save like say a dollar at a parts department dealership and even if it is true that dealers are the only place around where you can get hard to find spare parts and accessories, you will certainly chance upon a good supply for less at a small auto parts store.

2. Browse and order online! The internet is a very good source of top quality spare parts and accessories and with the fierce competition among dealerships, means greater value for money. All you need to do by the way is to browse and compare prices as to which suits you best.

3. Take a look at Specialty web sites. Specialty websites are another option in your search as they provide fresh- from- factory prices, a large inventory of parts and accessories and they also offer shipping and handling. Most often, specialty sites offer big discounts and promos.

4. There are still usable parts in the junk! Junkyards and recycling facilities can save you hundreds of dollars on some parts where getting a brand new one at a dealer ship would have cost you higher.

5. Ask among friends or other drivers. Remember that nothing beats word of mouth, so it is also good to ask around people for the best place to go to or who among them might have an extra part or accessory that’s ready to sell.

Follow these tips and you’ll be heaving a sigh of relief over normally costly car repairs.

Drive safely.

Jovir Amatong
jamatong@ibcjapan.co.jp

All About the Iron Wagon