Author: 1A Auto Team

Why Won’t My Car Start?

1A Auto Team 2 Comments

We depend on our cars to always be there when we need them. That’s why it can be such a shock when you turn the key and your car doesn’t start. If that happens to you, don’t panic. A lot of times the problem is relatively simple to fix. To figure out what’s going on, pay careful attention to what happens when you turn the key.

Click what happens when you turn the key to jump down to your specific issue:

 

Nothing Happens When I Turn the Key

Say you turn the key and nothing at all happens. Dead silence—no dash lights, no interior lights. That means your car’s systems aren’t getting any power from the battery. The most likely culprit is a dead battery, but before you spring for a new one, you should check that your battery connections are good. Check by hand that the terminals are tight on the battery. If they feel loose, tighten the nut on the side of the terminal. If they feel tight, but there’s a lot of corrosion and buildup, that might reduce the effectiveness of your battery. You might want to take the terminals off the battery posts and carefully clean the posts and terminals. Often you can get the terminals clean enough just using a wire brush, but this video will show you a more thorough procedure to keep your terminals cleaner long-term:

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Car Shaking After a Snowstorm? Here’s Why & How to Fix It

1A Auto Team 1 Comment
Cars driving in a snowstorm

While driving, it’s common to feel your car shaking after a snowstorm. Many people experience vibration in the steering wheel, the seat, or underneath the car. You might not feel it until you pick up some speed. This can be alarming and sometimes concerning, but the cause is usually benign.

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Fix a car shaking after a snowstorm yourself with quality auto parts and tips at 1aauto.com
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Do I Need Premium Gas?

1A Auto Team 6 Comments
Gas station

Does your car recommend you use premium gas? Or if it doesn’t, when you’re pumping your regular gas, do you ever wonder if you would get a boost by paying for high-test? Or have you ever had an old-school car guy tell you that you need to run premium sometimes to clean out your gas tank?

There’s a lot of confusion out there about premium gas, what it’s good for, and who does or doesn’t need it. So, let’s clear things up.

Why Do Some Cars Use Premium Gas?

Some cars either recommend that you use premium gas or require it. Many cars will have a sticker inside the fuel door that tells you if it recommends or requires premium gas. You can always check your owner’s manual.

So why would you need premium gas? Cars that call for premium gas tend to either have high compression engines or forced induction (supercharging or turbocharging). That means that the fuel and air is under very high pressure in the combustion chamber. That’s one way to make a high-powered engine.

High compression and forced induction introduce their own complications. High pressure (along with heat building up in the engine) can cause the gas to combust before it should. We call these complications pre-ignition, detonation, or engine knocking. Knocking can cause damage to engine components, especially if it recurs over a long time. You can recognize knocking as a metal-on-metal “pinging” sound under the hood.

You may have noticed the different octane ratings on the fuel pump: usually numbers like 87 for regular, 89 for mid-grade, and 92 (or thereabouts) for premium. A higher octane rating means that the gas is less likely to pre-ignite.

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Car Won’t Start After Getting Gas? Here’s Some Potential Causes and Fixes

1A Auto Team 4 Comments
Car Has Trouble Starting After Getting Gas

My 2007 Hyundai Accent has a bizarre problem. My car won’t start after getting gas unless I depress the gas pedal while cranking.

Other days it starts right up, but whenever I add fresh gas it has problems starting. It doesn’t matter how much gas is in the tank, and there is no check engine light.

Turns out this odd problem also happened to others that own Accents, Sonatas, and other vehicles, and there could be a few fixes. This post explains what may be causing your car to not start after getting gas, what might fix it, and how I approached this problem on my Accent.

Fix a car that won't start after getting gas yourself with quality auto parts at 1aauto.com
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Why Does My Tire Pressure Light Come On When It’s Cold?

1A Auto Team

low tire pressure light symbol
Low tire pressure light.           Photo by Machalov is licensed under CC BY 3.0

It’s a bitter cold morning in January. You start your car and this icon lights up on your dashboard. It’s the low tire pressure light. What’s wrong? How did your tire go flat over night? And do you need to get air?

What the Light Means

Cars built after 2008 are required to have sensors in the tire that measure the tire’s air pressure. The light comes on if the pressure in your tire drops to 25% below the recommended pressure, according to Edmunds. How Stuff Works points out that the sensor can be off by as much as two pounds per square inch, but that’s far from enough to make your tire 25% low. If the light comes on then your tires are probably too soft. That can cause tire squealing, poor handling, and increased tire wear.

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Heater Stopped Working: How 1A Auto Helped Me Fix My Chevy Truck’s Blower Motor Problems

1A Auto Team 6 Comments

I have a 2003 Chevy Avalanche 1500 and the fan abruptly stopped working for both heat and A/C. I know just enough about cars to be dangerous. So when the heat went out on my Chevy Avalanche that I purchased a week before, I knew I wanted to fix it myself. Turns out it’s common to have a Chevy truck with blower motor problems.

Disclaimer: That is definitely not me featured in the video above.

Diagnosing the Cause of my Chevy Truck Heat Failure

Trying to diagnose why the heater stopped blowing air, I turned to 1A Auto. I read an article on the 1A Blog about A/C failure. It was a thorough article on generic A/C issues but also covered when the fan stops working entirely, so I thought I could get some insight.

After removing the blower motor, I confirmed about 12v coming out of a 2-pin connector. I also hooked the motor directly to the battery and the fan started spinning, so I knew the problem wasn’t the blower motor. I didn’t have a way to test amps going through the wire when I changed the resistance. At this point, I assumed the problem was with the control panel but wasn’t sure how to troubleshoot it.

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