Girls Auto Clinic Glove Box Guide

by Patrice Banks

  I know. It seems too obvious. Only Guy was the name of Edwin’s dad, the original owner of the shop.

  I started working there nights and weekends, helping Edwin with the business side of things and cutting my teeth on small repairs, oil changes, and tire rotations. We ended up working so well together that we decided to partner. Edwin had been around cars since he was twelve, and he had the breadth of experience I needed in order to start up a business in an area where I was a complete novice.

  Five years after I entered auto tech school, the very first Girls Auto Clinic shop opened its doors in the fair city of Philadelphia. We’re fully operational, handling brake and rotor replacements, power steering jobs, alignments—the whole nine yards. With three full-time female mechanics and some helpers, we had nearly a hundred customers in our first month alone. Our female customers are so excited to watch us work and be a part of this movement that some come back with their daughters. And we’ve helped a handful of male customers, too.

  It’s a dream come true.

  You don’t have to go to school and become an auto technician, like I did, to grow into the confident and competent #shecanics you ultimately want to be. The goal of this book isn’t to have you covered in oil smudges as you dismantle your engine in your driveway, though you may get your hands dirty and break a nail or two (especially if you follow along with the handy, color-coded DIY pages sprinkled throughout this book). The truth is that it takes only a basic level of car knowledge to get to where you want to be. You don’t have to read pages and pages of text that sounds like it was written by and for engineers and mechanics to become an informed and responsible car owner. And you don’t need a technical degree in order to understand how cars work—though if you’re interested in getting into the auto tech industry and becoming one of the heavy lifters, please get in touch.

  An empowered #shecanic loves company, so check out our Facebook community to join the movement, post questions, learn about workshops in your area, and share resources with other members online. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @girlsautoclinic for the latest and greatest updates from your favorite mechanic in heels and her team of history-making female mechanics.

  Becoming a

  Not long after I started Girls Auto Clinic, I realized that the company I was building had the potential to become a movement—and that I needed a name for the car-savvy ladies who were sounding off on our message boards and preaching the GAC mission to their families and friends. What is a #shecanic, and what exactly is her skill set? Glad you asked! Whether you’re a first-time car owner, a lifelong leaser, a black-belt parallel parker, or a serial auto shop dodger, you’ve come to the right place.

  A #shecanic is a woman of any age who has mastered the mechanics of “Yes, I can” and uses those building blocks to get to “Yes, I did.”

  She knows she is smart enough to understand and care for her car to the extent required of a well-educated consumer.

  She treats her car as she does her own body. She doesn’t try to be her own physician, but she wants to know how to maintain her health and prevent sickness and disease.

  She has empowered herself to take charge of the fate of her vehicle, and she inspires other women to do the same.

  And finally . . .

  A #shecanic no longer fears the auto repair shop or the auto mechanic!

  Part i

  GET TO KNOW YOUR VEHICLE

  Changing Your Vehicular Relationship Status

  What are the characteristics of a good relationship? Commitment, consistency, communication . . . These are the qualities we expect from our significant others, partners, and friends. Stop and think about the relationship you have with your car. How well do you know your vehicle? Do you listen to her when she talks to you? Are you committed to taking care of her when she is in need? Are you loyal to your car, taking her to the same, trusted mechanic for repairs? Or do you treat your car like your least-favorite ex treated you?

  We’ve all felt the frustration of a difficult relationship that doesn’t fulfill our needs. But it’s rarely a one-way street. You get what you give, and the same goes for your car: Do right by your ride and it will do right by you.

  It’s time to turn your car from a frenemy into your new best friend. And turning your relationship around starts with my five-step program.

  Step 1: Renew your commitment. Your car is your baby, and you hereby pledge to care for it, in sickness and in health. You commit to providing for your car as needed, to the best of your ability.

  Step 2: Know your car. One of the things we want the most in our close relationships is to be known. To have our feelings, likes and dislikes, and quirks and idiosyncrasies understood and accepted. Know your vehicle and your maintenance schedule (see page 22), and you’ll be prepared for any craziness that comes your way.

  Step 3: Stop seeing other people. There’s a very important third party involved in this romance—your mechanic. A good relationship demands loyalty, and loyalty to your car means loyalty to a quality mechanic and a high standard of care. Stop shop-hopping! There’s little to be gained from hopping around from mechanic to mechanic in search of deals or for convenience’s sake, as we’ll learn in a few chapters.

  Step 4: Be consistent. Consistently maintaining our cars (before they break down and need expensive repairs) is our most important #shecanic duty.

  Step 5: Be a good listener. Poor communication is the number one relationship killer—and the same goes for your relationship with your car. You hang out in your car more days than not, and sometimes for hours. You know when something feels, sounds, smells, or looks unusual. That’s your car talking to you, telling you something is wrong. Don’t ignore your car when it’s communicating, whether by speaking to you directly (through the dashboard) or by making unusual noises, emitting suspicious odors, or noticeably vibrating.

  Name Your Baby

  One last thing: Take pride in your car. For me, that means giving my ride a name, and I suggest you do the same. Call him or her Kimye, Risky Business, the Death Star, or what-ever your heart desires. Take a selfie together, and post it with the hashtag #shecanic. The two of you are in this together now—and Kimye or Little Devil is a member of the family.

  Must-Know Facts About Your Car

  I’m currently driving a black 2010 VW Jetta 2.5-liter engine with front-wheel drive. What about you?

  If you came up with only the first part of that description, congratulations on being a totally normal human being! Along with factoids like the VIN (vehicle identification number), which travels with your car, this isn’t information most people know off the tops of their heads. But it is information that you should gather up in one place—the handy form I’ve included at the end of this chapter. Having this info at your fingertips will help you keep track of what needs to happen with your car—and it’ll make calls and conversations with mechanics and customer service reps go a whole lot smoother, too. Here goes!

  The Year, Make, and Model of Your Car. You got this! Seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many people are confused about the year their car was made, or don’t know whether the model is an L or an LS or a Sport. This information is important, because it will affect what types of fluids, parts, and accessories your mechanic needs to use. Even being just a year off can mess things up, since parts can change significantly from year to year. You can find it in your owner’s manual or by looking up your VIN online on a VIN decoder website (see below).

  Your VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). The VIN is your car’s fingerprint, a unique seventeen-character serial number that includes numbers and letters and identifies the car’s manufacture date and place, along with its make, model, engine size, serial number, and more. The VIN stays with a car throughout its life, even if the car changes hands. You do not need to memorize this number, but you must know where to find it. It is listed on stickers affixed to the driver’s-side doorjamb and on the lower left corner of your dashboar
d. Note: To prevent confusion, VINs don’t include the letters O or I; any 0s or 1s are the numbers zero and one.

  Your Operating Tire Pressure. Some drivers aren’t even aware that they’re responsible for putting air in their tires. If you’re one of them, you’re not alone. Proper tire pressure is probably the single most overlooked maintenance item. But ignoring that blinking dashboard light will make you more likely to get a flat or a sudden blowout and will decrease the life span of your tires. Tires are expensive to replace and essential to the control of your car, so they should be treated like a nice pair of heels.

  You’ll learn about how to put air in your tires (it’s super easy and important) on page 193. The hitch is that every car model has a specific optimal tire pressure—and sometimes it’s different for front and rear tires. The operating tire pressure psi (pounds per square inch, the standard unit for measuring air pressure) for your car’s particular tires should be listed on a sticker affixed to the driver’s-side doorjamb as well as in your owner’s manual, but in a pinch the average for a standard passenger car is 33 psi. Note: Operating psi is not the same thing as the maximum pressure listed on the outside of the tire. Overinflated tires will be more vulnerable to damage and less forgiving to potholes.

  Your Engine Size. Want to really impress someone who knows about cars? Tell him or her the size of your engine. Yeah, baby! How many liters yougot?

  The size of your engine isn’t measured by how much oil your engine can hold (typically five quarts) or how many cylinders it contains (whether it’s a V-6 or a V-8). Instead, we go by the number of liters of fuel and air its cylinders can hold. I currently drive a 2.5-liter Volkswagen Jetta, which means my engine’s cylinders can hold and displace 2.5 liters of fuel and air at a time. Kind of amazing that that’s all it takes to get my little car to move.

  The bigger the engine, the more power you will have. But with great power comes great responsibility, and a bigger engine will require more oil and gas.

  To find out your engine size, look up your car’s VIN on a VIN decoder website. Since the VIN is the car’s fingerprint, plugging it in online can give you all sorts of information about your car.

  Your Drive. Do you have front-wheel drive (FWD), rear-wheel drive (RWD), four-wheel drive (4WD), or all-wheel drive (AWD)? You may not give this much thought once you’ve made it out of the dealership, but the question will come up during typical maintenance and repair. In a FWD or RWD vehicle, the transmission turns only either the front wheels or the rear wheels. The powertrains of 4WD and AWD vehicles are more expensive at purchase, and because they require more service, they are also more costly to maintain.

  Your Maintenance Schedule. I get a lot of questions about maintenance schedules on the GAC Facebook page and in my workshops. How often should you change your oil, replace your air filter, and rotate your tires? You’ll find generalized answers on page 56 and in the maintenance and repair charts throughout this book, but the truth is that you’ll find the very best recommendations in the owner’s manual (sometimes it’s a separate booklet) that should have come with your car. Every car has an individual maintenance schedule that will optimize that model’s performance, longevity, and health. A 2014 Chevy Cruze has a different schedule than a 2007 Toyota Corolla. Your schedule will tell you things like when to change your oil, when to check your fluids, and when to rotate your tires. Best of all, knowing your maintenance schedule won’t just help you take care of your car—it will also help you save money. We’ll learn more about how in a bit.

  FAST FACTS ABOUT MY CAR

  Jot all your need-to-know info down on this handy page to make conversations with your mechanic a snap.

  My Vehicle’s Year, Make, and Model:

  _________________________________________

  (e.g., 2014 Fiat 500 Sport)

  My Vehicle’s VIN (vehicle identification number):

  _________________________________________

  (unique seventeen-digit code)

  My Vehicle’s Engine Size:

  _________________________________________

  (e.g., 2.5 liter)

  My Vehicle’s Engine Oil Weight:

  _________________________________________

  (found in owner’s manual and often on engine oil cap; e.g., 10W-30, 5W-20, 5W-30)

  My Vehicle’s Transmission System:

  _________________________________________

  (e.g., AWD, 4WD, RWD, FWD)

  My Vehicle’s Tire Pressure: Front wheels:___________________________

  Rear wheels: ____________________________

  (e.g., 33 psi—see owner’s manual or sticker on driver’s-side doorjamb)

  My Vehicle’s Radio Code:

  _______________________________

  (antitheft code found on some car stereos; see owner’s manual)

  Get to Know Your Dash

  Back in horse-and-buggy days, the dashboard was a wooden or leather protective device on the front of a buggy, preventing passengers from getting splattered with mud “dashed up” by the horses’ hooves. Since then, the dashboard has evolved from splash protection to high-tech command center. Along with our radios and climate controls, it houses an information console that allows your car to communicate how it’s doing and what it needs. And when cars talk, you should listen and respond.

  We think of the dash as an electronic console, but the term dashboard comes from the days when people got around via horse and buggy.

  Like the wash-cycle symbols on a clothing tag, the symbols on a dash can seem confusing. But they’re actually very simple—and not necessarily signs that anything is seriously wrong. Every vehicle’s dashboard symbols will vary, and your owner’s manual will list and explain yours. But in this chapter I’m going to give you a quick overview of some of the most common symbols, as well as the instrument cluster that helps you monitor your car’s essential functions.

  The instrument cluster, featuring the tachometer (left), the speedometer (center), and the fuel and coolant temperature gauges (right). (Placement may vary.)

  The Instrument Cluster

  Located right behind your steering wheel, the instrument cluster communicates vital information about speed, mileage, gas and oil levels, and engine function. It is composed of the following gauges:

  Tachometer. The tachometer measures how fast the parts inside your engine are rotating, using the unit called rpm, or revolutions per minute. The harder you depress the gas pedal, the more revolutions per minute, and the higher the needle on the tachometer climbs. Revolutions per minute above safe operating conditions for an engine are typically indicated by an area of the gauge marked in red. This is where the term redlining comes from—revving the engine up past the maximum safe limit. In the redline zone, the engine’s internal parts are spinning way too fast, and the engine may become unstable and blow up. For more on the tachometer and why it’s important, see “Under the Hood,” page 63.

  Speedometer. This one’s pretty obvious—the speedometer measures how fast the car is going in miles per hour (English or standard) and kilometers per hour (metric).

  Odometer. The odometer measures the distance the car has traveled. When your mechanic asks how many miles are on the car, the odometer is where you look.

  Fuel Gauge. The fuel gauge measures the gas level in the fuel tank (which is located underneath the backseat). When your fuel is low, a sensor in the fuel tank turns on a switch that illuminates the low-fuel warning light or sends a message to your information center.

  Coolant Temperature Gauge. This gauge measures the temperature of the coolant, the fluid that keeps the engine at an optimal temperature. Once the car is warmed up, the needle on the coolant gauge should remain squarely in the center. Do not drive the car if the coolant temperature gauge is running too hot; in some cars, a dashboard light or message center alert will also pop up. For more, see “Under the Hood,” page 63.

  Battery Voltage and Oil Pressure Gauges. Present in only some cars, these gauges measure bat
tery life and engine oil pressure. In cars without such gauges, oilcan and battery symbols will light up on the dash if and when there’s an issue. These dashboard lights are both red—because continuing to drive when they are on is a recipe for serious engine damage or even losing all electrical power.

  Heating and AC. Most people forget that climate controls are mounted on the dash—and that many of their parts are inside the dash.

  A Well-Stocked Glove Compartment

  Along with being command central for your car, your dashboard contains a storage unit: the glove box, which is a great place to store the following essentials:

  • Vehicle registration and insurance information

  • Owner’s manual

  • Flashlight

  • Tire pressure gauge

  • Pen and small pad of paper

  • Repair and maintenance receipts (neatly stashed in an envelope or folded into your owner’s manual)

  • Emergency and other important phone numbers

  • Extra taillights and headlights for quick and easy replacement

  • Cell phone charger

  • A copy of this book

  Mechanics often check for vehicle information inside your glove box, and in the event that you’re pulled over or get into a collision, you want to be able to find your registration and insurance info quickly—so it’s best to keep your glove box as tidy as possible and clean it up once a year.

  Dashboard Lights

  A close-up of the odometer, where dashboard lights are often clustered; they may also be lined up at the bottom of the instrument cluster (see page 26).

  Dashboard light symbols are designed to communicate with you about potential problems with your car. So being able to read them is essential.