Anchor Car Care Tips

 

• Avoid excess idling. Idling longer than 60 seconds consumes more gas than stopping and restarting. If your stop will take longer than a minute, turn the engine off to save gas and help the environment.  Even on cold mornings 30 to 45 seconds is plenty of time.

• If you see a gasoline tanker at the gas station, come back another day! Tankers can bring up sediment in the station's underground tanks, which can clog fuel filters and fuel injectors causing poor performance and potential repairs.

• Get the junk out of your trunk.  The more you carry the more fuel you burn. For every extra 100 pounds that a vehicle carries, fuel economy drops by 2%.

• Inspect your tires once a month. Under-inflated tires can cause a loss of fuel economy and premature tire wear. Tire pressure care is the least expensive form of preventive and safety maintenance.

• Don?t top-it-off! Overfilling results in sloshing over and out of tank, leading to inefficient gasoline use. After the first click of fuel nozzle, you are ready to go.
  

•  Fill up early or late. Gas has greater density at lower temperatures. Fill up during the cooler early-morning or late-evening hours, and you'll get more gas for your money.

• Drive sensibly. Rapid acceleration and braking wastes gas. Avoiding jackrabbit starts and stops can increase fuel economy by 5%.

• Observe speed limits. Fuel economy drops 2% for every mile per hour that you drive over 55. Just slowing from 75 to 65 mph can increase mpg up to 15%.

• Use cruise control. Maintaining a steady speed can increase fuel economy by 10%. If you're traveling on the highway, use your cruise control.

• Tighten the gas cap. A loose, damaged or missing gas cap can allows gas to evaporate and cause a loss of up to 2 mpg.

• Close the windows. At highway speeds, open windows cause air drag that burns extra fuel. Rolling them up can increase fuel economy by 10%.

All Subaru vehicles are equipped with maintenance-free batteries. The term "maintenance-free" can be misleading - as these batteries do require some attention to maintain their cleanliness and efficiency.

Your car's battery is the heart of its electrical system.  Why is it that people only tend to think about their car battery in the winter?  The fact is, summer heat can be even more damaging than winter's cold temperatures when it comes to car batteries.   When the mercury rises, a car Battery's strength goes down.  Extreme heat, like 95 degrees outside combined with high temperatures under the hood, accelerated corrosion of car batteries.  The Heat causes the water to evaporate out of battery fluid, breaking down the battery grids.

It is extremely important to have your car's battery checked by a Subaru-trained technician regularly. A battery check will include an examination of cable connections for cleanliness and tightness. Loose or corroded connections can dramatically diminish your car's starting power; and if the connections grow loose or crusty enough, they can shut off your car's electrical flow entirely and leave you thinking you have a dead battery. Check with your Anchor Subaru advisor the next time you are in for your normal maintenance and have them do a check of your electrical system.

Winter driving conditions frequently require the use of lights, defrosters and wipers for extended periods while driving at slow speeds. This additional load requires the charging system to work properly so that it sufficiently charges the battery the next time you start your car's engine. For this reason, your service technician should also check your battery's charging system and voltage regulator, and inspect your vehicle's alternator to ensure that all components are operating properly.