Beetle drops transmission
DRIVE IT FOREVER
Mike Allen
Syndicated Columnistt
Dear Mike: My daughter recently crashed her 2003 Volkswagen Beetle. I fixed it, but now the transmission has dropped from the transmission mount on the driver’s side.
What caused this? I’d like to know if it can be fixed before I try to fix it again.
A : The mount, or something related, is broken. That much is obvious. But let me suggest that, if you can’t figure out for yourself exactly what is broken, you probably should leave it to a professional.
Dear Mike: I have a question in regard to Amsoil synthetic 0W-30 formula motor oil, which is supposed to last from 25,000 to 35,000 miles.
What can you say about Amsoil’s reputation? Do you know, or have you done any testing on, Amsoil products? Do you know if the claim they make about oil life is accurate, and if the additive package lasts for the given mileage?
There is another brand, Synlube, that claims even longer mileage life. What do you think about these long-interval oils?
A: Amsoil is an excellent product. I use it in my race car.
I’m not familiar with Synlube, so I have no comment on that product.
However, no oil product, no matter how excellent it is, can last 25,000 miles without being changed. It’s not a matter of the oil degrading or the additive package being exhausted – though I don’t believe it’s possible to build an additive package with that kind of endurance – but more a matter of contaminants such as unburned fuel, atmospheric dirt and wear particles from the engine building up in the crankcase and diluting and contaminating the oil.
Dear Mike: My husband and I recently purchased a large tract of land in the country. Now it looks like a pickup truck is in our future.
We would love to be able to get by with a compact truck, but we are also wondering what your thoughts are regarding whether a compact is up to the task of plowing our 300-foot-long, paved driveway. We’re finding that putting a plow on even some new full-sized trucks would void the truck’s warranty.
Thanks for any advice and recommendations you might offer.
A: I think you could manage it, if you used a compact-truck-sized plow.
Dear Mike: I have a heated garage here in Massachusetts, and an air compressor too.
I never think to check my tire pressure when the tires are cold. I only think of it after I’ve been driving. I then forget to check again eight hours later.
Instead of trying to compute the addition/subtraction of two to three pounds per square inch above the actual pressure in my tires, considering the barometric-pressure changes and then the variable of a heated garage, is it permissible to raise the car off the ground a few inches, bleed all the air out of each tire and then refill to the target pressure?
If that works, I think that’s a much more accurate way of arriving at the target pressure.
Does the tire get hot after driving, or is it the air inside the tire that gets hot, which falsely elevates the reading?
A: The tires get hot, which heats the air inside them. Taking the load off the tires by jacking them up won’t make much difference, nor will bleeding them down.
Here’s what to do: Check and set the pressures cold at least once – and that means after a few hours outside in the cold, not in your heated garage.
Then drive the car 10 to 15 miles and once again check the pressures, which will be higher than the cold pressures. Now you know what the exact offset will be.
I like to check pressures every couple of months, as the weather changes, because a tire inflated to 32 pounds per square inch in the summer will have as much as five pounds per square inch less in the cold of winter, and vice versa.
Mike Allen is a senior editor for Popular Mechanics magazine. Questions should be sent via e-mail to driveit@nytimes.com.
