Auto Q & A
Auto Q & A
By: Dr. Wheels
Topics:
Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
Viewed 575 times
1 response 0 comments Dear Q & A: I know this is not a very timely question, now that we’re getting into the hottest months of the year. But I’ll ask it anyway. I’ve always heard that as the outside air gets colder, your car battery loses power. Is this true, and if it is, just how much of a reduction can be expected? Is there a formula for this?
— B.N.
Dear BN: The power loss in the battery caused by lower temperatures is only part of the starting challenge on wintry mornings. Not only does battery power diminish as the thermometer heads downward, your engine requires more power to crank it, in large part because the oil separating the moving parts becomes more viscous (thicker) as it cools.
Here are some figures that show the loss in battery power as the mercury sinks.
At 80 degrees Fahrenheit, you get 100 percent of rated power. At 60 degrees, only 85 percent; at 40, 71 percent; at 30, 63 percent; at 10, 48 percent; at minus 10, 31 percent; and at minus 20 degrees, 18 percent. You can see why people in Bemidji, Minn., plug in their engine block heaters on sub-zero nights. A warmed block radiates heat to the battery, so warming both makes for easier morning starts.
Dear Q & A: I’ve got a 7-year-old front-wheel-drive GM sedan with wheel alignment problems. The symptoms were uneven wear on the front tires. Luckily, I got two estimates for four wheel alignment, one for $78 and the other for — I kid you not — $178. Both were from established independent shops. If one shop consistently overcharges as much as that, how can it stay in business? I mean, this is a pretty routine job, that takes the same amount of man-hours wherever it’s done, right? You can guess which one I had do my alignment. Comments?
— Shopper
Dear Shopper: It pays to shop, and your experience proves it once again. Some auto repair shops charge more, basing their prices on the premiums charged by new-car dealers. Others, as you found, aren’t so greedy.
Dear Q & A: I had always thought that the outstanding Hudson Hornets made after World War II were the only real performance cars that company made. I just read that even some of the 1930s Hudsons were really fast, too. Can you give some details about those earlier ones?
— E.H.
Dear EH: Prewar Hudsons were among the top performers of their day, in contrast to their somewhat stodgy looks. In 1937, for example, Hudsons broke all of the existing class C closed car speed records over distances from 10 to 2,000 miles and for durations of one to 24 hours.
These weren’t mere company claims, but tests conducted under the scrutiny of the American Automobile Association (AAA). In one 24-hour trial, a Hudson DeLuxe Eight was driven 2,104 miles, averaging just under 88 miles per hour. In a five-mile run on Muroc Dry Lake, a Hudson averaged over 93 miles an hour, a new world record for stock Class C cars.
In tests from Daytona to California, Hudsons garnered an amazing total of 45 new speed records in 1937 alone. This respected make lasted from 1910 through 1954 when, just after the Nash-Hudson merger, the last true Hudsons rolled out of the Detroit plant, which was then closed.
Hudson made many unique and distinctive contributions to American automaking. The Hudson nameplate hung on until 1957, but only on slightly modified versions of Nash vehicles produced at Kenosha, Wis., as part of the American Motors Corporation.
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