Archive for July, 2007

Toyota Matrix – How To Keep Your Rear Tires From Wearing On The Edges

We are the proud owners of a 2003 Toyota Matrix XR. For the most part it has been a really good car except for the way it wears out the edges of the rear tires. I have taken it to several tire shops and they all seen to say that either the problem is with the shock absorbers or it needs a rear wheel alignment.

Most tire dealers also mentioned that after you have the rear wheels aligned the car may pull to one side of the road all of the time. Since the car doesn’t pull at all now I decided not to do the alignment.

One other important thing to look out for is when you have the tires replaced pay attention to the direction of rotation stamped on the side of many tire brands that fit that car. The tire shop installed two new tires on the car and never paid attention to the direction of rotation and I never thought to look at it. I just let them do their job and install the tires. Well, around two thousand miles after the tires were installed the grinding noise started in the rear of the car again. I checked the tires and sure enough the tire with the rotation backwards was wearing rapidly on the inside. I contacted the tire shop and they told me that they wouldn’t make a mistake like that and besides the rotation makes no difference in the tires performance. I wasn’t sure what to believe. If it didn’t make any difference why put a direction of rotation on the tire in the first place.

I found out that to keep the tires from wearing out on the edges you have to keep a close eye on the tread wear every thousand miles. Once you see that the outside edges of the tire are colored differently that means that the surface of the tires are not contacting the road surface evenly and the tread is beginning to wear in the lighter colored areas. This usually happens at two thousand miles. Even though the owner’s manual recommends rotating the tires every three thousand miles that is too late. The tires will have cupped by then. It has been working great for us during the past year to rotate the tires every two thousand miles. If you are already having the problem because your tires are cupped out you may be able to save them by reversing the direction of their rotation. You will, for example, have to have your tire shop swap the tire from the left side and put it on the right side rim and do the same with the other tire. If the tire is too bad though it will have to be replaced. Once you have the tires reversed or replaced then rotate them every two thousand miles.

Bob Crane is the author of http://www.toyota-matrix-cuv.com - a site that helps many find what they need for their Matrix.

Saving Money On Home Repairs – Sometimes You Can Save Money Hiring A Specialist

We had just bought a fifteen-year old house that needed a lot of cosmetic work but nothing major.  So we could live in the house and still fix it up we worked on one room at time allowing the rest of the house to be uninterrupted by construction projects.

After being in the house for one year we began to have problems with the drain pipe that led from the house to the street.  Since we had a municipal sewer system there was no septic tank to worry about so the problem had to be in the pipe itself.  There was till a homeowners warrantee intact so I called them to look into the problem.  They came out with a drain clean out tool that went down into the pipe to clear any obstructions that it came across.  The machine seemed to hit something and then smooth out so the plumber went out a few more feet still unobstructed.  When he pulled the cable out of the pipe on the end of it was a clump of small roots.  That told us that there must be a break in the pipe around fifteen feet from the house.  I started to dig and around five feet down I found the broken joint.  It turned out that the land running underneath the pipe was a mini sink hole and the earth was being pulled down in one section and not the other shearing the pipe joint as the weight of the soil pulled part of the pipe down.  I replaced the joint and filled in the dirt that had sunk into the sink hole and filled everything in planted new grass and everything.  After everything was added up the job didn’t really cost that much.

The drains worked fine for around eight months when the same thing started happening again.  It started backing up for no apparent reason.  I thought that the joint broke again so I dig that up first and it was fine.  I called the plumbing company I do business with and asked them what I should do and they said snake out the pipe again.  They had a machine to do that and they could do it cheap.  Once they were finished snaking the drain it worked fine for around three weeks when it backed up again.  I called the plumber again and they snaked the drain again.  That went on for four plumber visits needless to say it was getting expensive and frustrating dealing with a problem that should be so simple to fix.

The next time it backed up I called Rooter-Rooter a company that specializes in clogged drains.  They cautioned me right up front that they charge a little more than a plumber would because they have expensive equipment engineered to clean drains.  They came over and had to use a winch to unload the machine from the truck.  The plumber just carried his like it was a suitcase or something.  It was a really big difference in equipment.  The end of the Rooter-Rooter cable had an auger on it to chew through whatever was in the pipe and restore the pipe to its original inside diameter where the plumber had just a cable end that merely punched a small hole in the obstruction.  That was over a year ago and I have not had problems with the drain since.  That was one instance where it would have been better to call the specialists first and pay a little extra instead of paying for someone who doesn’t specialize in that type of work. I still use the same plumber because they are excellent plumbers.  But if I need a drain cleaned I will definitely call the specialists in that field, Rooter-Rooter.

Swimming Pool Filters – Sand Or Cartridge Which Should You Choose

About a year ago my sand filter cracked and I had to replace it. The pool center person told me that since my sand filter needed to be replaced anyway I would be much better-off going with a new cartridge filter. The benefits that he stated were the water savings that I would realize from not having to backwash the filter and that the cartridge filter filtered to a finer degree than the sand filter.

The cost of the cartridge filter was only slightly more that a new sand filter so I decided to go with the cartridge filter. In hindsight I wish I had chosen a new sand filter instead. What the pool technician didn’t mention and I never considered is the fact that I do not have a covered pool. The way my property is configured the pool edge is too close to the neighbors border to put up a pool cover or even a screen cover so I have to leave it open.

Having an open pool surrounded by pine and oak trees is great to keep the sun from directly bearing down on the entire pool all day, but the debris from the trees is tough on the cartridge filter. The cartridge clogs very quickly with the seeds and husks that come from the trees in spring requiring it to be removed and washed twice a week. Not only is it more time consuming to do it uses just as much, or more water to rinse it out than the sand filter required. The sand filter was a whole lot simpler and faster to maintain and backwash. To backwash the sand filter, when it begins to show signs of getting clogged, you just turn and push a lever that diverts the water backwards through the filter that frees and washes away the debris out of the bypass hose. You run it for three minutes and you’re finished as long as the water runs clear. Once you backwash a sand filter you should be good for a month before it needs it again.

A cartridge filter would probably be a great filter for a hot tub or a covered pool; it is just not the best choice for a pool that is open to the environment.

Toyota Matrix – The On Again Off Again Check Engine Light

We are the proud owners of a 2003 Toyota Matrix that we bought in the fall of 2002. For the most part it has been a good dependable car. It seats four adults comfortably and is a snap to park in tight places. The gas mileage isn’t bad either at 29 to 33 miles per gallon around town and highway.

One pesky issue with the Matrix that we have been having is the check engine light comes on from time to time and then goes out by itself. I was going to the dealership to have it looked at when the light just went off. So as not look like an idiot I never went to have it looked at by a dealer mechanic.

After speaking to several people about the Matrix and the check engine light problem I learned that the trouble code that is being set is in the fuel evaporator system. It seems that the fuel evaporator systems on the Matrix are sensitive to vacuum changes within the system that can be caused by simply not tightening the gas cap tight enough. There are more serious causes for this problem with the fuel evaporator system but the gas cap being lose or defective is the most common cause especially if the light goes on and off by itself. If there were a real problem the light would stay on until it was diagnosed and reset by a mechanic.

After learning that the evaporator control system was located above the rear suspension system I wasn’t really anxious to disturb that unless it was really the cause of the problem. I decided to do the easy work first and check for vacuum leaks and any other type of seal issues with the gas cap. What I found that seemed to correct the problem was the gas cap seal was contaminated by some type of sticky thread that must have come from a gas pump nozzle. The sticky thread was stuck so tight to the gas fill neck on the Matrix that it looked like it was supposed to be there. The thread was causing the gas cap not to seal that caused the check engine light to come on when the vacuum wasn’t what it should have been within the evaporator fuel system. The tread on the fill neck was the same reason that a new gas cap didn’t fix the problem either.

So if you are having intermittent check engine light, check your gas cap and the fill neck to be sure that you are getting a good seal so the right vacuum can be developed in the system.