'01 Toyota Camry, 2.2Liter, 4 cylinder

If your car dies when on idle or you see the tachometer goes way down and then goes back up close to the 1000 Rpm. Check your battery and alternator to see if it is good. I had a Camry that was doing that exact thing with no check engine light on.

Summer Coolant

Your Uncle Joefis says Hey DUDE!! It's better to use just plain water during the summer. If that's what he's doing, he's running his car without any anticorrosion or antiwear additives in the cooling system, and he'll have problems. Anytime, winter or summer, always use a 50-50 mix of fresh coolant and water. That's true regardless of the brand or type of coolant your car manufacturer recommends. Read the label — some coolant on store shelves is already pre-diluted to 50-50.

Thicker oil for summertime??

According to the car manufacturers, yes — but don't go too thick. Most new cars today are supposed to be filled with 5W-20, which is pretty thin. Car manufacturers usually list 10W-30 as acceptable for summer temperatures. Thinner oil has less friction inside the engine, which is good for fuel economy. Engines have been designed to run on this thin stuff for a number of years, with improved surface finish and low-friction parts like roller camshafts.

Check your owner's manual for the viscosity recommendations for your vehicle. Older cars may require thicker oil, but it's still not a good idea to just pour five quarts of 40-weight in just because it's summer. Thicker oil takes longer to start flowing properly when the engine isn't warmed up, and can also reduce fuel economy. If you live in Phoenix and tow a huge trailer, the temptation is to use thicker oil to keep it from thinning out excessively and damaging your engine. Unless you've got an older car, made in the era of 20W-40 or even straight grades, don't just change your oil's viscosity up arbitrarily. Either switch to a synthetic, or install an aftermarket oil cooler, or both.

Turning up the heater will cool the engine

In the summer, if you see your coolant temperature gauge creeping up, that means your engine is over heating.

Immediately turn the heater on. The excess heat goes into the heater core, which is just a tiny radiator, pulling the temperature of the coolant down. Of course, it will rapidly overheat the interior of the car — and you. If doing this means getting to the top of that hill without boiling over, it might get you to someplace that can check the cooling system for problems. If you need to use the heater frequently to reduce coolant temperatures, either there's something wrong with your cooling system, or you've seriously overloaded your vehicle.

Get a Test Light!!

This tool you can get it cheap at Harbor Freight. It's a tool to test if you are getting power.

Let's say your passenger side power window is not working. And all the other windows are working.
First you would have to disconnect the up/down window control switch on the door. Get your test light and connect the side with the alligator clip and clip it to the body of the car. Make sure it touches bare metal, not to the paint of the car. You are grounding it.

Then hold the female connector that was connected to the switch and have the pointed end of the test light and stick it in the connector holes. Remember to have the ignition in the "ON" position. If the test light lights up in any of the holes, you have power, 99% the window motor is bad. The 1% might be a bad ground. In my experience I have not come across that yet.

You can also find out if your fuses are good or burnt. Just don't pull off the fuses from the junction box. Have the ignition on the "ON" position. Ground the test light and start prodding the back of the fuses. You can see the metals on the back of the fuse. There are two. Try prodding each one, one side will light up and the other should too. If one side lights and the other doesn't the fuse is bad. This means the circuit has been cut from getting power. Pull out the fuse and look at it to confirm it is a bad fuse.

This tool is very useful for me. I think I use it every day. Spend less than $5 for this tool or you can have a tech diagnose your problem for a $100. You do the math.

Cars and Coffee

Start your Saturday early with Cars and Coffee, a free car show, from 7 to 10am at Sansone Park Place, 9500 S. Eastern Ave. Las Vegas, Nevada.
A variety of cars will be on hand, from classics to concepts, hot rods to motorcycles. For information, visit http://lasvegas.carsandcoffee.info/

Battery Bottleneck Limits Prius Output

Booming demand for the hybrid has factories scrambling to produce the car's nickel-metal hydride battery.

Click to enlarge picture

Limited supplies of battery packs are slowing down production of the Toyota Prius.

Battery bottlenecks are hurting efforts to boost output of the Toyota Prius to meet booming demand, and the problem will likely persist into next year, a Toyota official says.

"The new Prius model has been excessively popular, inconveniencing some of our customers, and the factories are working overtime at full capacity," Takahiko Ijichi, Toyota senior managing director, said Tuesday at the company's quarterly earnings announcement. "Unfortunately, the batteries are not catching up with demand. Production of the batteries needs to be increased in order for our production to go up."

Toyota Motor Corp. has annual Prius capacity of 500,000 cars. Panasonic EV Energy Co., which makes the nickel-metal hydride batteries for the gasoline-electric hybrid car, can't churn out more than that right now, Ijichi said.

The third-generation Prius hybrid is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy year for the world's biggest automaker. The car is facing months-long waiting lists at dealerships and is easily outselling Honda's rival Insight hybrid in the United States.

The success of the Prius in Japan is one reason Toyota says it will post its first domestic sales increase in five years.

"The new Prius model is selling quite well," Ijichi said.

Last summer Toyota said it would build the Prius at its Tupelo, Miss., factory in late 2010, scrubbing a plan to make the next-generation Highlander crossover there. But amid record losses, Toyota put the plant's opening on indefinite hold.

Ijichi said Toyota won't invest to expand Prius production until it is assured of an adequate battery supply.

Battery production will increase — but gradually. Panasonic EV Energy, or PEVE, plans to boost capacity in stages to around 1 million batteries by the summer of 2010, Ijichi said.

Despite cutthroat pricing to compete with the Insight, the Prius still enjoys healthy margins, Ijichi said.

That's because production costs fell 30 percent from the previous generation of the hybrid.

Said Ijichi: "In terms of the Toyota lineup, I'd say it's probably in the midlevel of profit."

Who in the hell is driving!!

Couple days ago a customer traded in a Honda CRV. It was the older type model.
While I was test driving it I can here a squeak inside the car while I depress the brake pedal. It took me a minute to find out what it was.

On the floor of the passenger side was a brake and gas pedal!! The brake pedal on the passenger side was making the noise.
I figured this car was for a driving school. Then I had a crazy idea to drive in the passenger side. So hopped into the passenger seat and you guessed it, started to drive with my left hand and used my right foot for the pedals. It was pretty hard to drive because I couldn't take sharp corners. Mind you, this was in the dealership parking lot.

If you had seen me you would be like, what the fuck!! It was funny seeing my co-workers faces and their reaction was, What the fuck!! Who in the world is driving!!?? So I stopped by next to them to show what the car had. They were like, That's some funny shit...but dangerous!!

It was funny shit to do that kind of thing.

Hear that gurggling under the hood??

When you hear constant gurggling under your hood and you see your coolant temperature gauge creeping closer to the red, it's the radiator that needs to be filled with coolant. When you fill it up please remember to wait until the engine is cool.

If it is hot, the pressure that is built up inside will be released when you open up the radiator cap. You will definitely be sprayed with hot coolant. You don't want that!! A way to find out if it is safe to remove the radiator cap is to squeeze the top radiator hose. If the hose is hard to squeeze then there is preesure. If it is soft, then you can take off the cap slowly.

Fill the radiator till it is full. Then start your car and turn your heater on to hot, full blast the fan. This will recirculate the coolant through the heater core.

Leave your car on for at least 15 minutes until you do not see any bubbles coming out of the radiator. Try squeezing the top radiator hose to get more air bubbles out. If it is too hot, get a rag and cover it. Remember to put a container beneath the radiator, there will be some coolant spilling. Also watch the coolant temperature gauge, it should not reach the red. Don't forget to fill the coolant reservoir tank to the full line indicated.

No bubbles?? Put on the cap and you are done!!

Revealed: 2011 Nissan Leaf Electric Car

YOKOHAMA, Japan — In what the automaker hopes is a prophetic pairing, Nissan Motor Co. unveiled its new electric car as part of the grand opening ceremonies for its new, high-tech headquarters building in Japan's semi-official zero-emissions city.

"Just as leaves purify the air in nature, so Nissan Leaf purifies mobility by taking emissions out of the driving experience," the company said.

The five-seat, electric-blue Leaf hatchback is to be launched in select U.S. and Japanese markets next year to begin what Nissan hopes will become an era of global leadership for the company in a growing EV market.

Leadership shouldn't be evasive if the Leaf lives up to its performance billing. A top speed of 90 mph, a range of 100 miles per charge with a 30-minute recharge where quick-charging stations are available (6 hours with a 220-volt current) and seat cushion-compressing acceleration that will launch it from zero to 30 mph faster than an Infiniti G37, thanks to 207 pound-feet of torque from its 80 kilowatt (107 horsepower) electric motor are all part of the package.

To the degree that price matters, Nissan's also got a big edge in the EV world. Pricing hasn't been announced, but the company insists the Leaf will be "affordable" with pricing equivalent to a well-equipped C-class (compact) car. That's a European compact, though, and they're a lot better equipped, and more costly, than compacts in the U.S. so figure $28,000 to as much as $35,000 (the range for Nissan partner Renault's Megane hatchback) — not super cheap, but a bit less than the five-place Chevy Volt.

And that's before any government incentives — which could knock a substantial amount from the car's price in Japan and would be at least $7,500 in the U.S. as long as funding continues for the federal clean car credit program.

Nissan officials say pricing was held down in part by developing the entire powertrain, including the laminated lithium-manganese battery pack — arguably the most expensive single component on the car at around $10,000 — in-house with an eye toward affordability.

But the real trick is that the batteries won't be part of the selling price: Nissan's global approach will be to sell the car, but lease the battery pack.

The argument for leasing is that if you buy a gasoline car, the gasoline isn't part of the deal, and the battery pack in an EV (plus the electricity that it stores) can be likened to the gas needed to make a conventional car go.

The approach in the U.S, where consumers might be leery of buying a car, but having to lease an essential part of its powertrain, may be to simply lease the entire package, said Andy Palmer, Nissan's senior vice president and head of product planning.

Decisions on the sales or leasing method, as well as on U.S. pricing, will be made closer to the Leaf's late-2010 launch, Palmer said.

2011 Nissan Leaf

The event will make Nissan the first major automaker in modern times to put a full-service battery-electric car into dealerships for retail sales.

To help do away with charging anxiety, Nissan has equipped the Leaf with a communications system that enables drivers to communicate in real time with a special information center to find out where the closest chargers are, which ones are open and operating, and whether they have fast or slow chargers.

The system also highlights in real time on the Leaf's standard navigation system screens the one-way and round-trip travel ranges the car can achieve before needing a battery charge, and sends signals to a driver's cell phone or PDA when a car plugged in at a home or public charger is topped up and ready to go.

The Leaf's target launch date will beat General Motors' Volt plug-in hybrid, and while Japan's Mitsubishi and Subaru both launched EVs for sale to fleets in Japan last month, the cars are smaller, lower-speed, "city cars" with far less range than the 100 miles-per-charge Nissan claims for the Leaf.

The concept unveiled today is pretty much what the production car will look like next year, sans the exotic paint and high-end interior appointments unique to concept and show cars.

Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's global design chief, told us in an interview after a private preview showing of the pre-production concept, that the Leaf, while all-Nissan in concept and technology, borrows a smidgen of design language from partner Renault's popular Megane compact, most notably in the notched hatch.

The elongated but curiously bulbous headlamp assembly (designed for looks and airflow, said Shiro-san) extremely short nose (no engine to hide) and sharply delineated flanks and wheel cutouts are all Nissan, showing a little bit of the styling that went into the Murano crossover utility vehicle — no shocker when you learn that the Leaf's chief designer also headed the Murano design team, according to Nakamura.