That goose-egg on your tire, unlike the ones you get on your head after banging it isn’t going to go away – that egg shaped protrusion is a bomb waiting to go off in the form of a nasty blowout. At best, a blowout will be a big inconvenience, at worst, a blowout can destroy your wheel and the fender around that wheel. Unlike running over a nail or something, a goose-egg is something you can’t fix, and occur when air is able to get in between the layers of the tire’s sidewall. That pressure is what pushes that goose-egg shape out – and like an over-ripe zit, it’s just waiting to pop.
Image Via TopSpeed.com
This is a lot more worrisome than you might think – and much more than just a cosmetic problem. If you see a hairline crack in your wheel, it’s time to replace your wheels. That crack could spread, causing a catastrophic wheel failure. It’s a real thing, it does happen – and has happened to friends of ours. A wheel failure can cause a loss of control and even if you don’t hit the body on anything, you can tweak the frame and total the car – this is especially common with low-quality cast wheels. If your wheel is cracked, it needs to be replaced. Sometimes wheels can be repaired, but this isn’t always the case, and the integrity of the wheel may be compromised after the repair.Since many manufacturers change wheel styles often – almost season to season – you may not be able to find a single wheel, so it may be a good idea to take the opportunity to upgrade to a new set. Whatever you drive, we have wheels for it at ModBargains.
Image via Popular Mechanics
Does your car feel a bit weak at idle? Can you hear a hissing sound under the hood when there shouldn’t be? You may be hearing a vacuum leak – it could be as simple as a rubber hose getting old and cracking from age, a vacuum line being unplugged or there might be a pinhole leak in one of the couplers. These vacuum leaks will rob you of power and cause your engine to be much less fuel efficient – and with gas nearing $5/gal again, nobody can afford to squander their gas willy-nilly.
Check the intake tract – you can use the old “Spray Bottle” trick to check for leaks by spraying around the intake tract with a water sprayer bottle while the car is running – if the idle speed drops somewhere you’re spraying, you’ve found the leak.
If you smell something that’s kind of “sickly sweet” or “sugary” smelling when driving or coming from your car, it’s time to get your McGruff the crime dog on and start sniffing around. That smell could mean you’re leaking coolant, and that could mean you’re overheating parts of your car, possibly without even knowing. If you run your car out of coolant, it could be CATASTROPHIC for your engine. Overheating today’s modern engine almost always results in a death-nell for most vehicles – a blown headgasket – a repair that can easily cost THOUSANDS. If you smell it coming from your air vents, it could be your heater core. Ignoring this could allow coolant to leak into your carpet, causing mildew and all kinds of other nastiness – like electrical repairs – and is often a good indicator the “Heater Core”, the part of the car that warms your car’s cabin up on cold days, is failing. It’s bad news, but caught early, it’s much less of a pain.
If you smell it coming from under the hood, start looking around – is it dripping out from under a pulley? Is there a pool of fresh green coolant under the car? If so, your car needs immediate attention, before the problem gets MUCH, MUCH worse.
Via /JustRolledIntoTheShop
If you hear something that sounds like metal on metal or anything that has a noticeable grinding sound, whatever you’re doing, stop. Shut the car off, inspect the engine and underbody and be sure to check your brakes. You could have worn out brakes, your differential or “transaxle” might be out of gear oil or any number of maladies. If you hear metal on metal, it’s not good, and if you’re not mechanically inclined, it’s time to see a local trusted repair shop and figure out what’s making that sound before you drive the car any further.