Posted on 9/27/2020
If you park your vehicle outside, you are exposing it to all sorts of critters that would love to use it for nesting, food storage and shelter. There are plenty of pictures online of people who've discovered there was more than an engine under the hood. In one case, the driver of an SUV started to smell a slight burning odor when she was driving. Turned out to be 200 walnuts and a lot of grass had been stored there by some industrious squirrels preparing for the upcoming cold weather. The SUV owners had their vehicle inspected not long before this happened, but it doesn't take some animals long to set up house in what they think is the ideal spot to make their winter home. Obviously, that can create problems. Squirrels, mice, rats and other small animals can chew through hoses and wires. Plus what they store as food and nesting material may prevent engine parts from moving the way they are supposed to. Imagine a radiator fan that wo ... read more
Posted on 9/6/2020
Bet you didn't know: Some of the earliest rearview mirrors were marketed as "Cop Spotters" so drivers would know when police were following them. Who wants a ticket, anyway? According to eBay Motors, Elmer Berger first patented a rearview mirror that was mounted on the front fenders, on the spare tire secured to the side of the car of at the top of the driver's door frame. About 80 percent of your vehicle is recyclable. So says The Balance. That means four-fifths of most vehicles can be recycled. Much of that recycling is done by automotive aftermarket recyclers. Between the U.S and Canada, they reclaim enough steel to produce 13 million new vehicles. The man who invented the first modern cruise control couldn't even drive a car because he was blind! His name, says Smithsonian.com, was Ralph Teetor. Blinded at a young age by a knife accident, Teetor was inspired to create a speed control by a couple of things. One, the U.S. imposed a mandatory 35 mph/55 kp ... read more