Car Repair and Maintenance Tip of the Month

What your Car Costs to Drive

AAA recently released the results of its annual “Your Driving Costs” study, revealing a 3.4% rise in the yearly costs to own and operate a sedan in the U.S. The average costs rose 1.9 cents per mile to 58.5 cents per mile, or $8,776 per year, based upon 15,000 miles of annual driving.

“Despite seeing reduced costs for maintenance and insurance this year, there is an overall increase in the costs to own and operate a vehicle in the U.S. this year,” said John Nielsen, AAA national director of auto repair, buying and consumer programs. “The 2011 rise in costs is due to relatively large increases in fuel, tire and depreciation costs as well as more moderate increases in other areas.”  read more

Ignoring that Check Engine Light   

When the first GM cars with onboard computers and diagnostic capabilities came out in the early 80’s, they could recognize a limited amount of problems and could store less than 20 trouble codes. It’s not unusual for an average car today to recognize and set 125 codes or more just for the engine and transmission.

Then there is Anti-lock Brakes, Traction Control, Air Bag, suspension and other systems that have their own codes. 

Some of these engine and transmission codes are for problems that usually won’t cause problems we notice while driving. We often hear, "that light has been on for years, I don’t worry about it anymore" or "Since this is a minor problem, can I continue driving it and not fix it right now?"
Unfortunately you only have one check engine light. If you ignore the light because of a problem that doesn't seem to affect the way the car drives, something else might crop up that will cause big problems and you may not know until it's too late because the light is already on.

Some problems that the light can come on to warn you about can cause poor mileage or be a warning that you may be left by the side of the road soon. Other warnings can be about things that can cause catalytic converter, transmission or engine failure.