AutoTools blog
Long-form, practical articles on maintenance, diagnostics, tires, brakes, fuel economy and buying a used car — written for people who work with their hands.
How to Safely Jump-Start a Dead Car Battery
A dead battery almost never picks a convenient moment. You walk out, turn the key, and get that slow, sad click instead of an engine. Ten minutes from now you can be back on the road, or you can be standing there with melted jumper cables and a fried fuse. The difference is mostly in the order you…
Read the article →What to Do If Your Car Overheats While Driving
The temperature gauge is climbing past the middle. Maybe steam is curling out from under the hood, or you smell something sweet and hot. Your stomach drops, because you know this can turn a normal drive into a very expensive day.
Read the article →What to Do If Your Car Breaks Down on the Road
Your car makes a noise you have never heard before, the steering goes heavy, or the dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree. Then it stops. Maybe you are on a busy highway, maybe on a quiet back road with no signal. Either way, your heart rate jumps before your brain catches up.
Read the article →The Ultimate Emergency Car Kit Checklist
Most emergency car kits are a flashlight with dead batteries and a blanket that smells like a wet dog. That is not a kit, that is a decoration. A real kit is the difference between sitting on the shoulder for twenty minutes and sitting there for three hours waiting for a tow you did not want to pay…
Read the article →How to Remove Bad Smells From Your Car for Good
A smell in a car is rarely just a smell. It is almost always a source: spilled milk under a seat, mold in the vents, a damp carpet, a dead mouse in the cabin filter, or a leaking heater core. Masking it with an air freshener works for about a day. Finding and removing the source works permanently.
Read the article →10 Things You Should Keep in Your Car at All Times
Most of this costs less than a single tow. Put together a decent emergency kit and you will spend roughly $60 to $150 total, depending on what you already own and how much you want to prepare for. A bare-bones version can come in under $40.
Read the article →15 Easy Car Cleaning Tricks That Make Your Vehicle Look New
I dropped a full cup of coffee in the driver's footwell on a Tuesday morning. Not a sip. The whole thing, lid off, right as I was backing out of the driveway.
Read the article →What Happens If You Drive With Low Tire Pressure?
Your car feels a little vague on the highway. Maybe the steering wanders, or there's a faint thrumming you can't quite place. You meant to check the tires last month. You didn't. Now you're wondering whether it's actually a big deal or just one of those things you can ignore until the weekend.
Read the article →How to Check Your Tire Pressure the Right Way
Checking your tire pressure takes about ten minutes once you know what you are doing, and it is the single cheapest piece of car maintenance you can perform. Get it right and you will feel it in the steering, the fuel gauge, and the life of your tires. Get it wrong and you are either driving on und…
Read the article →Quick answers?
Prefer step-by-step? See the guides or the encyclopedia.