Fuel Station Guide: Self-Service Effort, Full-Service Results

Greetings, Readers!

Being in my early-to-mid-thirties, I am probably among the last of the "Gen-X'ers" to actually remember full-service gas stations. Do you remember those? Just to make sure we are on the same page, let me briefly explain.

Unlike the majority of fuel centers of today, gas stations used to be staffed with attendants who would not only pump your gas for you, but would also conduct 'courtesy services'. These extra services included more than just cleaning your windshield; the attendant would also check your fluid levels, check/adjust your tire pressure, and visually inspect certain under-the-hood items (usually anything made of rubber). Mind you, this was back when the local fuel station had only one or two four-pump islands, as well as a small (two or three bays) general-service garage. The last ones I knew of were mostly Marathons, but I do know of at least one Shell in my area... I think the Shell might still be open for fuel and repairs, just not the 'full service refueling' aspect.

Now, Readers, I don't expect you to be a mechanic when you refuel. You might get a few suspicious glances if you try to do actual repair work at the pumps! Rather, my intention is to have you think like a mechanic at these times, because they are your opportunities to catch problems while they are still small. In the interest of brevity, I will simply list the tasks below. We can always discuss the impact of a given item in a future edition.

1. Grab the gas station's window squeegy, dunk it well in the cleaner, grab a few paper towels and clean:
 a. front and rear windshields, door windows
 b. outside mirror glass
 c. lenses for ALL lights (headlights, tail/stoplights, turn signals, sidemarkers, etc)
 d. license plates
NOTE: Use the towels to wipe off the squeegy's rubber blade for each pass. You may need to re-dunk the squeegy's sponge head once or twice. Be sure to clean the items in the order specified.

2. Keep those paper towels handy! Open the hood to check the following fluids. Top off as necessary.
 Check these with the ENGINE OFF:
 a. engine oil - weight rating and type per oil change sticker or owner's manual
 b. antifreeze/coolant - 50/50 mix of correct type for your vehicle
 c. power steering fluid - check your manual (or cap/dipstick) for type... some use ATF!
 d. brake fluid - usually DOT 3 or DOT 4, but refer to your owner's manual to confirm
 e. washer solvent - the only true 'universal fluid' for all vehicles
 Check with the ENGINE ON:
 f. automatic transmission fluid (IF you have a dipstick to check. Some A/T cars are coming 'sealed'.)

3. "Look over" your engine compartment (the under-the-hood area) with your eyes, ears and nose - but watch what you touch! Make note of anything that appears:
 a. To be wet (from leaking/spraying fluids)
 b. To be dried-out/cracked
 c. To be discolored (as in burnt/charred)
 d. To smell funny
 e. To make odd/unusual sounds (grinding, squealing, etc,)
 f. To look odd in any way

4. Close the hood, finish your fuel purchase, then do the following 'safety checks'.
 a. Turn on your wiper blades and push the washer solvent button. Can you see well? If the wiper blades' rubber is torn, it's time to replace them. (Key must be at least be to 'radio on' position to do this.)
 b. Turn on your headlights - first the regular ones, then the bright ones - to make sure none are burnt out.  Walk around to the back to check your taillights also; they turn on with the headlight switch.
 c. Turn on your hazard lights (aka "flashers"); make sure all four lights (two each on the front and the back) are working. This is a cheating way to check your turn signal bulbs, because they are the same.
 d. Press your brake pedal to check the brakelights (aka stoplights). If you can't tell that they are working, ask someone nearby (a passenger in your vehicle, or even someone else pumping gas) to look for you.

5. Use the tire guage from your vehicle to measure the air pressure in all of your tires... including the spare! Compare to the standard mentioned in your owner's manual. NOTE: If you think you'll need air anyway, you can use the air guage on the air chuck to measure as well. I just prefer to know how many of my tires actually need air (and how much they need), before turning on the machine.

Well, there you have it. That is a good, basic checklist of what to do next time you are waiting for your fuel tank to fill up. Obviously, you won't check the transmission fluid until you are done refueling (when you are safe to start the auto). If you have any questions about what we covered today, please leave me a comment below.

PPM

Fight Back in the Fuel Price War!

[Sorry to be late on posting this; I ran into a snag when I originally started writing this Thursday night. Enjoy!]


I had been debating in my head what topic to cover in this first edition, when my dear husband (or DH) had to fill both of our cars up this past Thursday evening. We own two Tauruses (or more properly, 'Tauri'), and each of them took over $60 to fill up! Ouch! He refueled his car at the gas station for $3.859/gal, then refueled mine at the grocery store's gas station for $3.719/gal (I had just noticed the price on a previous errand).

The sad thing is, we know that the gas prices generally jump on Thursday nights (around Greater Cincinnati, anyway), but we still find ourselves refueling at the wrong time. You know, busy workweek schedules, timing of the money in the bank versus due dates for various bills, some other random reasons that come out of nowhere... it all just seems to make life in general stack against us in the fuel budget war.

Wait... did I just use the term 'war' while mentioning fuel budget issues? Why, yes I did. As our Congressional leaders attack the nation's budget in DC, we each have our own budget battle going on at home, don't we? We may not have any direct control over the price-per-gallon we pay to refuel our vehicles, but we can fight back in another way: We can make our vehicles 'spend' their fuel allowance more efficiently, so we spend less at the pump in the long run.

Here are a few tips to help your vehicles make the most of the fuel they receive:

1. Change that fuel filter! Most people don't realize this, but in-line fuel filters should be changed about once a year (or every 12,000 to 15,000 miles). As time and miles go by, bits of sediment in the fuel are stopped by the in-line fuel filter. That's great, because they are prevented from reaching the engine. But, the filter can only store so much of the yucky stuff before it runs out of room. Eventually, the flow of fuel gets choked off by the traffic jam in the filter. Your fuel pump also gets overworked from increasing the flow to push passed the clog, which sometimes causes clumps of yucky stuff to be forced along toward the engine. Bad news, indeed.

2. Check Engine light on? Read your code(d message)! Okay, so maybe your little light says something else ('Service Engine Soon'), or just shows a picture of an engine (or you don't recognize what the picture is supposed to be). Think of the lights on your dash as messengers. If any light comes on and stays on (other than normal 'cruise control is on' type of stuff), that messenger is trying to get your attention. The 'Check Engine' light alerts you to the fact that a code has been stored in your vehicle's computer (also called ECM or 'brain box'). The light is saying 'you've got mail', but the mail is a coded message that must be retrieved by a scanner tool. If you have a 1996 or newer model year vehicle, nearly any code scanner will speak your car's language ('OBDII' - aka 'On Board Diagnostics 2'). If your vehicle is 1995 or prior, you need a scanner that speaks OBDI (that's OBD 1). Those are trickier to come by, and usually are mostly found in scanners that are 'bilingual' (reading codes in both OBD1 & 2). Due to expense, they are usually found at repair shops... And yes, shops will generally charge a fee for this service. However, often they will offer a deal where the diagnostic fee is applied toward the repair service that addresses the code and symptoms presented.

3. Keep your fuel level at 1/2 tank or fuller. What good does that do? Well, while you might first think of how much more often you would have to refuel, I submit it's not as often as you would think. The vast majority of vehicles on the road are fuel injected (as in, not using the old carburetor set up), with an electric fuel pump that actually is in the tank. [These can cost $300-$500 for the part alone, not to mention the labor cost.] The very fuel that it pumps, helps to insulate it from overheating. Not to mention the less effort that is required to pump fuel when it is on the fuller side, and the higher ratio of fuel versus sediments actually going through. Also, if the 1/2 mark is your new zero mark, you give yourself greater flexibility to choose when and where to refuel. Why stop in the middle of rush hour traffic, when waiting until closer to home is less stressful and probably cheaper per gallon (especially when you time it well, before the customary price hike times).

4. Read your owner's manual. Believe it or not, that little book is chock full of useful information. No, it won't tell you how to fix your vehicle; for that you need a 'repair manual', like the ones Chilton and other companies produce. Your owner's manual identifies the various parts of your vehicle  (oil dipstick, fuse panels, the components of your dash and instrument cluster, spare tire and jack, etc.) along with their locations. The manual gives helpful tips on how to use/interpret the assorted accessories (including what your dash lights tell you), but it also provides you a 'service interval' chart. Note: If you do not have the owner's manual for your car (because either you lost it along the way, or a previous owner never provided it to you), you *can* get a replacement one. Either get one through your dealership's parts department, or go to Helm, Inc's website (www.helminc.com).

5. Abide by your owner's manual's Service Interval Chart. The adage about prevention being a vital thing is very true with vehicle repairs. Vehicles that are given 'preventive maintenance' (also called 'PM') at the right times last far longer than ones serviced only when a component fails. Doing PM allows you to be proactive about vehicle repairs, with the side effect of less money being used on vehicle upkeep (or replacement). For example, a Taurus with a 3.0L OHV (12-valve, the more plain and common one) has a typical 150,000-mile life expectancy on the Automatic Transmission. Because my husband and I did proper PM on our 2002 model - transmission fluid flushes every 24 months/24,000 miles and the like - we didn't have that component fail until about 245,000 miles! (And *that* only happened because a soft metal bushing from the right-hand axle dissolved and got into the fluid, tearing up the internal gears of the transmission.)

And there you have my top five tips for fighting back in the fuel price war. Tip #3 is about the only one you wouldn't find (yet, that I know of) in your owner's manual. Otherwise, if the only tip you remember is #5, that will be enough of a memory jogger for you to apply 80% of the tips I've mentioned.

Now that we know how to do it, let's fight back in this fuel price war!