If you trust your shop, bring it there, tell them what you're doing, and ask them to look it over. They know what to check for. Ask questions about what they find - is it in imminent need of repair or is it just something to watch? If you don't trust your shop, have a friend bring it into their shop with the same instructions. If you don't trust your shop and have no friends, bring it in anyway, get an itemized list with estimates, and post it up for us to help sniff out the bullshit. This will probably cost you an hour of labor. The biggest stuff that will be of concern are things like brakes, wheel bearings, tie rods, tires... those are things that can break and hurt you. I mean, some stuff will just fail without warning and you can't do anything about it, predict it, or prevent it, but if your car quits because your water pump failed, you call a tow truck. If your wheel falls off, maybe you call an undertaker. So it's important to fix stuff that's suspension or wheel related.
My opinion is a little different from Binary's. If you have maintained your car then nothing is in danger of falling off. If the car is not making any noises and the check engine light is not on, then all you need to do is check all the fluids - oil, ps, brake, trans, coolant, windshield washer, etc. If you're not familiar with how to do all these checks, now is the time to learn. It's all in the owner's manual. Also check the tires for tread wear and check the pressure. The main thing to look for is uneven wear on the tires which would indicate an alignment problem that you would want to fix before you go. If you don't regularly drive at highway speeds, take it out on the freeway somewhere to check it out at speed. Sometimes you can't feel a tire out of balance until you're up to speed and that would be annoying and bad for your tires on a long trip. If all these things check out, drive it, and enjoy your trip. The scenery of the American Southwest is like no other in the world.
Power bottom... hahaha Anyways, the Z4 appropriately outfitted is a fun ass car to drive. I took a 3.0L manual over to Albany NY for a customer and it was a blast. It's a BMW so it'll last. There's a fair amount of aftermarket performance parts available too so you can always build it up as you get bored with it. I'm more surprised the insurance is better than on an S2K. Weird. Which package are you pricing out?
I'm going to agree with zzr here. Since your car is only 4 years old, no major maintenance items should be due. As long as it's running good, I wouldn't worry too much. Change the oil if it's due or will come due at some point during your trip, check the air in your tires (including your spare) and coolant level. If you're still nervous, join AAA. Get the higher level membership that includes unlimited mileage towing.
Because it's 11 years old and has 150k miles and it's getting worn out. I don't want to put any more money into it than I have to until I can get something newer. I have the 1990 Bronco to play with (headers, basically open exhaust... You want rumble rumble, it's got it) and the Expedition is a kid/dog/karate equipment daily driver. We looked at quad cab pickups, but Tonka won't fit in the back seat with the kids. I'm leaning Suburban/Excursion now.
This might be more R&R thread worthy but it's entirely automotive so I'll post it here. My mechanic/builder is fucked up. I've been busy and haven't been keeping up with the projects he's working on for me since January. But since he was one of the most professional guys I knew I figured things were probably ok. Apparently not. Ran into him and some mutual friends at a house warming party a few hours ago. He's sloshed, and a little annoyed when I ask how things are going with my cars. I chalk it off to it being the weekend and him not wanting to talk shop. Completely understandable. A little while later one of his close friends approaches me and pulls me aside. Tim's new girlfriend owns a bar and he's been spending a little too much time there. Now I knew this guy was a drinker but he only tipped them at night when he was working on his own stuff. During the day he was 100% straight laced. Not so much anymore. They have regular repair jobs coming back because he's missing shit, and this isn't some 20-year old recent auto tech school grad either. He has about 30 years of experience. As for my projects... nothing has been significantly worked on since February. More concerning is some custom pieces I needed ordered that had long lead times were never ordered. I'm not happy at all. The problem is that it's going to be almost impossible to pull my shit out of there. I have three vehicles in various stages of tear down, not to mention parts strewn about two whole bays. All I can think to do is go see him tomorrow or Wednesday and see whats up.
What can you tell me about tires? Specifically, I need to replace all four on my 2006 Jeep Liberty before winter this year. I know that there is typically a trade-off in regards to performance/durability and touring/traction. I carpool to work most days, so my vehicle is used primarily on the highway - but it also becomes the only mode of transportation during Minnesota blizzards. The stock tires have served me well so far, but I would like to know what other options are available. The perfect tire would have huge lugs for good snow traction, but it would also have low road noise and wouldn't affect my mpg too harshly (while I'm at it, I would also like a unicorn). Any brands or series of tires that you would recommend, or alternatively that I should stay away from at all costs?
If you want good snow performance, get snow tires and a set of cheap-ass rims for them. NO ALL-SEASON TIRE WILL COME CLOSE to the performance of even the shittiest snow tire in the snow. Continue to use average all-seasons for the non-snow months. If you don't want to do that, then any all-season will perform the same, so just go find a somewhat name-brand cheap set. It's a Jeep Liberty... it's not like you're going to put R-compounds on the thing. $0.02
I am sure lots of brands do it by now, but Nokian, do what they call an all-weather tire, not all-season. It is basically, half winter tire, half all-season tire. http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=11955&group=2.01&name=Nokian+WRG2+SUV My dad has the them on his 07 Camry, and was putting 400km a week on them. And he loved them, not quite as good as a pure winter tire, but more then good enough for the driving he was doing. It was in northern BC on Highway 16, between Prince Rupert and Prince George, not the whole way, but part of it. Should give you and idea of the drive conditions.
Large lugs and large lug voids aren't necessarily going to give you good traction in snow. In deep snow, yes, but for normal winter roads where there's also ice you want as much of the tire as possible to be in contact with the road. Aggressive lugged tires, even in the same size as a road tire, will lower your mileage a decent amount just due to the softer rubbers used. If I were you I would look into the all terrain tires from BFGoodrich or Pro Comp.
So I went ahead and got a 2008 Ford Fusion SE, and I've been spending some time trying to get Sync updated on it. Is anyone familiar with the system? I'm trying to update it to the latest version and Ford's instructions are pretty vague. Anyone have experience for how long it really takes for it to update? Leaving the car idling for 20 minutes just to "update" the system seems unnecessary.
So I spent Memorial Day weekend in Delaware. It was hot as balls. Evidently my a/c shit the bed in the saturn. I can't remember if it worked last summer or not. I want to say it worked, pretty damn well at that, but I might be confusing the saturn and t-bird. Shop wants $40 for a vacuum test, but I figure there's got to be something I can/should check by myself first? When I hit the a/c button, the revs kick up as expected. Not sure if that's because the compressor is legitimately kicking on or if there's a switch/relay that forces the idle revs up. Anyone confirm? Aside from that, or is there anything I can/should check next? The heater core's still clogged up (I think), but that shouldn't affect a/c.
http://www.covercraft.com/ Try those guys. The performance shop i deal with sells those. And a few other places.
The A/C compressor kicks in electronically. When this happens it forces the engine to work harder which will drop the RPMs a bit. The computer will then raise the RPMs to compensate. The heater core is part of your coolant system and is totally separate from the A/C system. I would say the clutch on the A/C compressor is bad or, more likely, you have a leak somewhere. I don't have a lot of knowledge of A/C systems though. There's a few other components the Freon flows through but since it's a gas[which gets liquified at one point in the process] I doubt anything in the system is plugged. EDIT: Here's a good read I found on A/C troubleshooting. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.aa1car.com/library/ac98.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.aa1car.com/library/ac98.htm</a>
FYI, the high-pressure system in AC isn't something to be fucking with if you don't know what you're doing. I'm stupid enough to dig into just about anything on my vehicles, but I leave recharging and fucking with the coolants in the AC to the pros.
Saab had a little fire yesterday. The recirculation tube apparently ruptured, melted, and then started shooting scorching hot air into the under hood insulation. Nice smoldering mess when I popped the hood. This is why every vehicle I own has a fire extinguisher in it.
Several months ago I asked for some advice about some spots on my car where the paint seems to be wearing through. It was partially from taking my car through an automatic wash, which I haven't done any more. I've tried waxing over the spots but they seem to be getting a little worse. Today while I was washing my car I notice another, smaller spot on my hood as well as a couple of places that looked like the clear coat was wearing through. I don't really have the money to paint the whole car (and even though I love my car, it's not really wise to paint a 9 year old car). Are there any secrets I don't know about? Is there a way I can stop it from getting worse? Those damn Maaco commercials are tempting but I know there's no way they could do a remotely decent job for $300, or whatever their deal is. Any advice is welcome. Thanks.
When you say its "wearing through the paint" do you mean you can actually see primer through the color? Or do you mean the clear coat is flaking off? What kind of vehicle? Certain cars have known paint issues. (Dodge Dakota's for example) Can you post a pic?