6 Things You Should Know About Car Idling

by Guile Canencia

A lot of people, and I mean a lot of people, think that it’s perfectly alright to let their vehicles idle. Everyday, we see people leave their engines running while they’re picking up a snack at the fast food drive-thru or when they’re dropping their kids at school. A few even leave their cars idling for a few minutes in order to “warm up the engine” before going out for a drive. With the rising gasoline prices, many resort to car idling in order to save up on fuel. Unfortunately, car idling does more than harm than good in the long run. Here’s why:


Idling is never good for your car’s engine. An idle engine actually causes incomplete fuel combustion, which in turn causes undue accumulation of fuel residue that will ultimately damage vital engine parts like cylinders, spark plugs and even the car’s exhaust.

Idling is not an effective way to warm up your car, even in cold weather. Idling is never the best way to warm up your engine. The best way is surprisingly simple — drive. Start driving and the engine and essentially all your car’s moving parts will get all the warm-up they will ever need.

Idling wastes fuel. Say you’re idling your car for about fifteen minutes. For that amount of time, you have already consumed 0.20 liters of fuel and you haven’t moved an inch at all. Now multiply that with the latest gas prices and the number of times you’re idling your car in a day, in a year. The numbers won’t look good.

Turning off your car and starting again is actually better than idling. If you’re thinking that this will only cause unnecessary wear and tear, you worry too much. Restarting only causes minimal wear to your starter motor and battery, which are designed to withstand constant restarting activity in the first place.

Idling is hazardous to your health. Fact: Idle cars produce emissions that can cause various respiratory illnesses and even cancer. Exhaust components like ozone have been proven to aggravate asthma and lung and throat cancer. Pneumonia, emphysema and bronchitis have been linked to car emissions. The list goes on and on.

Idling is bad for the environment. Idling cars emit tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere every year — just ask Al Gore. Unchecked carbon dioxide emissions have resulted to smog-filled cities in several countries. Fortunately for some select countries, environmental groups have convinced their governments to take “Stop Idling” campaigns seriously.


And it’s time we do, too. Car idling is bad for our health, the economy and the environment. So the next time you want to grab a cheeseburger, park your car instead of using the drive-thru. You’ll get better mileage that way.

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Ways to Bust Odometer Tampering

by Bianca Villares

Each year, more and more consumers find themselves victims of odometer tampering. With the used car market increasing in momentum, this illegal practice has become rampant over the years and has increased the risk for used car buyers.

Also known as “clocking” or “busting miles,” odometer tampering fools unsuspecting buyers into thinking that vehicles have a lower mileage than they actually do. This scam enables dealers to sell a used car more than its actual value. It is estimated that the illicit profit from odometer tampering sums to over billions of dollars lost per year.

Protect yourself from this fraudulent act. Here are some ways to help you determine signs of odometer tampering:


Mechanical Odometers

• Ask to see the vehicles’ mileage disclosure statement. Dealers are required to keep this record for 5 years.
• Compare the mileage on the odometer with the mileage indicated on the written disclosure statement. Also check if the mileage reading on the vehicle’s title, service records, oil change labels etc. for signs of alteration.
• Check if the odometer shows physical signs of tampering such as missing or loose screws, marks, and misaligned numbers.
• Scrutinize the vehicle for inconsistencies. See if the gas, brake, and clutch pedals correspond to the mileage shown on the odometer. Low-mileage vehicles should have its original parts, such as batteries, hoses and clamps, etc.
• A used vehicle with less than 20,000 km should have its original tires. If they were replaced, mismatched by size, type or brand, start asking why.
  

Digital Odometers

Digital odometers were created by car manufactures to slow down the problem of odometer tampering. But with the advent of technology, tampering a digital odometer is now very possible and even harder to detect for unsuspecting buyers.

Some digital odometers are designed to show visible signs if it has been tampered. Unusual characters such as asterisks, line of 9’s across the screen or missing display parts are some suspicious signs that used car buyers should look out for.

Do the math. A vehicle racks up about 20,000 to 30,000 km per year. If the mileage indicated on the odometer is inconsistent with the vehicle’s age, check out the car’s history.

Nothing is tamper-proof. Before you buy a used vehicle, it is always best to have an independent mechanic conduct a thorough inspection. The odometer is only a gauge in determining a vehicle’s condition. With a car’s complexity and sophistication, there’s a lot you can’t tell just by checking one of its parts.

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Petroleum vs. Diesel: Which vehicle is more suited for you?

by Mark Lorenzana

In the advent of rising oil prices, choosing a vehicle based on engine type (petrol or diesel) might prove to be a very wise decision. Each engine type has its own advantages and disadvantages and your decision on what to purchase might well boil down to the vehicle’s purpose (i.e. for city driving, for hauling cargo, for heavy duty use, etc).

Let us compare a petrol and diesel engine and see how they stack up against each other, based on the facts:

Fuel Economy
Diesel has a higher energy density than petrol. This means it takes more petrol to equal the power output of diesel, therefore diesel engines are more efficient per liter of fuel burned. Diesel units also use about one third as much fuel at idle as petrol units. Over the years, this advantage could be significant, especially if you drive a lot of kilometers.

Noise/Vibration
Despite huge improvements in engine-noise technology in the past 10 years, diesel engines are still generally louder and shake more than their petrol counterparts. At idle, the clatter and shake of a diesel vehicle is clearly noticeable, while it's tough to tell if the petrol engine is even running. Under low-speed acceleration, a diesel engine is still noisier.

Fuel Cost
Because diesel fuel is easier to refine, taking less time to get from crude oil to final product, it's usually priced lower than petrol.

Short-Term Maintenance
Regular maintenance on a diesel engine is more costly, due to larger volume of oil in the engine and because fuel filters and water separators must be serviced more often. Modern petrol engines have an even bigger advantage thanks to extended service intervals on spark plugs, engine oil, etc.

Long-Term Maintenance and Durability
A diesel engine has an expensive initial cost but the flip side is its excellent durability. The average petrol engine is good for only around 200,000 kilometers before needing a rebuild and isn't designed to constantly pull a heavy load. A diesel engine can go more than three times this amount before needing an overhaul.

Exhaust Smell/Emissions
Despite oil companies’ best efforts at producing diesel fuel with lower sulfur levels, burned diesel fuel still smells much worse than burned petrol. Beyond the smelly tailpipe, diesel lags behind petrol in the areas of Nitrogen Oxide emissions.

Power/Torque
Petrol engines have the advantage in horsepower, while diesel engines produce more torque. By design, petrol engines rev faster and are able to reach higher rpm peaks than diesel engines. This allows them to attain greater horsepower numbers.
However, for towing capacity and pulling force, a diesel owns a petrol engine. The torque advantage of a diesel vehicle is suited for pulling heavy loads, even up steep inclines. Because of the relatively high-compression ratio necessary to ignite the diesel fuel (17:1 diesel versus 9:1 petrol), a diesel engine makes all its torque and power low in the rev range.

Conclusion:
As stated in the beginning of this article, choosing between a petrol or diesel engine comes down to what you'll do with the vehicle and where you live. If you want quick, quiet acceleration, rarely haul a heavy load, and you don't plan on keeping the vehicle past 170,000 kilometers, you may want to consider a petrol engine. However, if you are going to use your vehicle for towing, value good fuel economy, and plan on racking up loads of mileage, diesel is for you.


About the Author:
Mark Lorenzana is a fulltime copywriter for IBC Japan. He has written a regular column and articles for various newspapers and moonlights as a copyeditor and freelance writer.

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