Independent Rear Suspension

It always fascinates me. When someone is talking about the "go fast" attributes of their car, I'll ask them, "What kind of rear suspension do you have?" Inevitably, I'll get a blank stare.

If you're a "go fast" -- and don't really understand your car's suspension, something's kinda' suspect.

There have been volumes written on IRS and suspension issues but for the sake of brevity we're going to cut right to the chase.

Independent Rear Suspension, or IRS for short, is about how a vehicle handles curves and turns. Among many other things, it's about Camber. "Okay, so what's Camber"? Camber is basically the "tilt" or lack of tilt, of the wheels - in this case, the rear wheels. How rear wheels tilt or don't tilt significantly impacts the ability of the vehicle to handle (or not handle) curves and turns at speed. Do the wheels remain straight up and down, vertical to the road at a ninety degree angle? If so, our camber is neutral. If they begin to tilt in or out as our car leans into or out of a curve, we're going to be experiencing positive or negative camber.

While there are many variations, today's Rear Suspensions basically break down into two versions. First, there is the Straight Axel or Live Axel. Then there is IRS.

With a Straight Axel or Live Axel, each of the rear wheels are directly connected to each other. The Straight Axel will be found in front wheel drive cars. It reaches directly from one rear wheel to the other, connecting the two wheels together. The Live Axel is basically the same thing with a differential stuffed in the middle. This will be found on Rear Wheel or Four Wheel Drive vehicles.

With either of these configurations, what ever happens to one of the wheels, will directly affect the wheel on the other side because of that direct connection. If you hit a bump with the left wheel, it will jump up and cause the right wheel to tilt in the opposite direction. If the car or truck leans into a turn, the wheels will still be straight up and down. Not a bad thing, but not especially great, either.

With IRS, the rear axel is, in effect, two separate axels. Each side of the axel can flex up or down on its own. This allows each of the rear wheels to act independently of the other. By definition then, it also allows each wheel, individual camber or tilt flexibility. This is good.

Why would we care about all this? It makes a big difference. If those tires lean bottom-in toward the car, Positive Camber, will make the car unstable. It can get loose or even roll over. That's called Body Roll and it's not good. If on the other hand they squat - that is, if the bottom of the tires tilt out, it will increase stability and allow the car to glide effortlessly through curves you may never have thought possible.

Let's talk about the Positive Camber body roll problem first because this was definitely a bad thing. "Was," -- because the problem's been pretty much fixed.

Back in 1960, Chevrolet was one of the first American Cars to introduce IRS with their Corvair model. The Foreign makers already had plenty of them but then, they were more willing to spend the money and their customers were more demanding.

The Corvair was a pure delight if you knew how drive it and if it had a stick shift. But the IRS concept was sort of new to most American Drivers and they soon began rolling over the Corvairs in rather significant numbers. Those independent wheels would go positive camber with a hard emergency turn. Basically, they would just fold up under the frame and roll the car right over. Ruined a lot of door handles. Ralph Nader jumped all over the Corvair in his 1965 book "Unsafe at Any Speed" in 1965. Anyway, it didn't take too long (about five years) for Chevrolet (and the foreigners) to come up with solutions to the problem.

Today IRS vehicles have sway bars, multi links and other good stuff which basically eliminates the Positive Camber problem, leaving IRS equipped vehicles with only positive attributes - or more specifically, Negative Camber. This leaves most Independent Rear Suspension cars of today, with nothing but positive characteristics.

You can safely drive IRS today without ever even knowing you have it. But if you do, it's kinda' nice to know how it can keep you safer and more confident on the road.

Oil Filter Crusher and EPA Compliance

The average auto workshop will end up with hundreds of oil filters every year, and all of them are filled with sludge and used oil from engines. For this reason, they are viewed as contaminated waste by the EPA. This means that there are many tough regulations about their disposal. Finding a company that can repurpose used and contaminated oil filters can be a tough process, and once you have found one, the prices that you will have to pay per unit for disposal might have you scratching your head.

Of course, the best answer to getting rid of old used oil filters is to decontaminate them yourself, and then send them off to a regular metal recycling station where you actually get paid for the scrap value of the metal, rather than having to pay a fee for every unit. This is where an oil filter crusher can save the day.

Essentially, an oil filter crusher is a device that squeezes all of the engine sludge, grunge, and oil out of the old filter under high pressure, and flattens the old filter at the same time. This means that rather than having a stack of bulky oil filters sitting in the back of your workshop waiting to be disposed of, you end up with a neat pile of clean scrap metal, and an easy to manage container of used oil that can be disposed of cheaply and conveniently and comply with the EPA disposal guidelines.

Modern oil filter crushers such as the John Dow DOWAFC100-94 connect quickly and simply to your existing air supply, and are designed specifically to be able to smash open oil filters and crush up to 95% of the sludge and used engine oil out of the unit. This waste oil is separated from the metal, and placed in a large capacity bucket, to await proper disposal. The John Dow DOWAFC100-94 oil filter crusher is an incredibly compact and easy to use machine. It is able to remove 75% of the volume of a used oil filter when it crushes it, features a simple to use "close and go" system to operate, and can stand in less than 4 square feet of space. Because it only needs to be connected to an air hose, you can place the oil filter crusher practically anywhere in your workshop, and only get it out when required.

The price of oil filter crushers varies depending on the exact specification of the model that you choose. Prices start from around $1750 for a basic model like the John Dow above, which is ideal for a small workshop, and range up to nearly $7000 for a top of the line model which can take a wider variety of filters.

Although these initial prices seem quite high for a single tool, when you consider the cost of the specialist treatment required by EPA law for disposing of contaminated waste, couples with the rebate you can get from a scrap metal dealer for selling the clean oil filters, the unit will pay for itself quite quickly.

It is important to remember when purchasing an that different models are required for different types of oil filter. If you want a crusher that will be able to deal with everything right up to the large size filters that are used in trucks and recreational vehicles, it will be necessary to invest in a larger and more powerful machine such as the OTC 1896 oil filter crusher.

This monster can reduce anything up to a full sized 15 inch truck oil filter to 20% of its original size while removing all but the last traces of oil from inside it. The OTC 1986 is designed to accommodate a standard 30 gallon oil drum in order to collect waste oil, making it the perfect tool for a larger garage.

Domestic Automotive Maintenance - 5 Preventative Maintenance Repairs

Preventative maintenance is important because it keeps your car running smoothly, avoiding the problems that come from a lack of care. Having your car serviced at a good foreign or domestic automotive maintenance shop is important to ensure that it gets the best care possible.

Here are some of the standard foreign and domestic automotive maintenance procedures that you should be sure to have done periodically:

Oil Changes: This is one of the most obvious, yet it is also one of the most frequently overlooked. Changing your oil and oil filter every three thousand miles keeps your engine running smoothly. Not changing your oil and oil filter often enough, on the other hand, can be disastrous: Over time, the additives in your engine oil break down, and the oil becomes thick and sludge-like. When this happens, the oil creates resistance on the engine, causing buildup and premature wear. Old engine oil can also cause the rubber seals in your engine to prematurely dry out and crack, creating leaks that can be quite expensive to fix.

There are a lot of quick-lube places that will change your oil quickly and cheaply, which may make you question the need to take your car to a good foreign or domestic automotive maintenance shop. However, it is definitely worth the extra money to make sure an experienced professional services your car. It is not uncommon for quick-lube shops to employ inexperienced teenagers at minimum wage, and horror stories (driving off without oil in the engine, finding months later that the oil plug won't come out because it was stripped) abound.

Air Filter Replacement: Replacing the air filter is another important precaution that many people forget about. The silly thing is that this is also the easiest thing you'll have to do on your car. Just as easy, if not easier, as filling the washer fluid on some cars. In fact, this one is so easy that you may not even have to get a foreign or domestic automotive maintenance shop to do it for you. Just make sure you get a high quality replacement filter. If you are not sure where it goes, ask. There will be a couple of clips you'll have to undo to open the air filter box, but that's about it.

Your air filter should be replaced once or twice a year. Every six months, you should at least check it. If it looks dirty, replace it. The better airflow your engine gets, the better it will perform, which to you means higher gas mileage and lower maintenance costs over time.

Basic Tune-Up: A tune-up basically involves replacing a bunch of inexpensive, quick-to-wear-out parts, and checking out a bunch of more expensive, slower-to-wear-out parts. This should be done once a year, but again, many people aren't very good at making sure it gets done regularly.

A basic tune-up involves replacing (or cleaning and re-gapping) your spark plugs, replacing your distributor cap and rotor, and checking and/or replacing your spark plug wires. Other parts that might need to be replaced during a tune-up are your PCV (positive crankcase ventilation valve) and your oxygen sensor. All of these can affect the way your car runs, causing your gas mileage to go down and the carbon monoxide in your exhaust to go up.

Radiator Flush and Coolant Replacement: Your cooling system is a vital system. It prevents your engine from overheating, which can ruin an entire engine in mere minutes. Your cooling system therefore ought to be treated with respect, which means flushing your radiator and replacing the coolant every year or so, preferably at the end of summer or fall, before the cold weather hits.

The reason for flushing your radiator and replacing the coolant is that the Ph balance in antifreeze breaks down after a while, destroying many of its protective properties. Not only will it not cool to as low a temperature, but it will also begin to allow rust to form in your cooling system, which may lead to premature leaks in your radiator.

Be sure your replacement coolant is half water and half antifreeze. The 50/50 mixture has the lowest possible freezing temperature, the highest possible boiling point (meaning your coolant won't boil on hot days), and will protect against corrosion inside the system.

Automatic Transmission Fluid and Filter Replacement: Many people don't realize that their automatic transmission contains fluid and a filter that need to be replaced periodically, just like an engine. Unfortunately, neglecting this maintenance repair can result in parts in the transmission going out more quickly than they should, requiring you to overhaul or replace your transmission, which is a costly venture, to say the least.

The fluid and filter in your automatic transmission should typically be replaced about every 25,000 miles, which is less than a year's worth of driving for most cars. The oil in a standard transmission doesn't need to be replaced as frequently. Replacement about once every couple of years, unless you happen to do a lot of hard driving, such as towing.

Keeping up on these five preventative maintenance repairs will ensure that you maximize the life of your car. A good foreign or domestic automotive maintenance shop can help you keep track of the required maintenance, making sure that you don't miss anything important.