B5 - Sunday, May 15, 1983 - North Shore News

AN _ART AND A SCIENCE

Car maintenance like baking a cake

By PATRICIA BURNS

Did you know that
maintaining your car is like
baking a cake? According to
a veteran G.M. technician
who now runs a diagnostic
car clinic, just as baking is
an art, so is car maintenance
and not knowing enough
about our cars, is costing us
a lot of money.

A recent study done by a
provincial consumer pro-
tection office revealed that a
compact car costs its owner
an average of $3,000 a year

for insurance, licencing.
repairs, gas, and
depreciation.

You could take a lot of
taxis for that kind of money,
but very few of us seem to
want to part with the con-
venience of instant mobility.

But, what has baking a
cake got to do with car
maintenance? Gilbert Gag-
non, whom we interviewed
recently, points out that
when you've been baking for
a while you know all the
tricks for avoiding a failure.
Experienced cooks take that
accomplishment for granted.
But ask most of us to find the
air filter on the car’s engine
and we wince at the idea that
we should even know where
the engine is.

Gilbert Gagnon claims
that most of the people he
sees spend about $800 to
$1,000 a year on repairs —

Best golfer

FROM PAGE B3

match against the Sentinel
par-breakers. Al Cameron
shot a 72 for Argyle. Bob
Lewis 76, and Jeff Dalgarno
‘oO to carry Argyle to a 42
victory over Sentinel But
the best golfer that day was
again Blair Erb from Sen
tunel, witha 71

Other scores to date
Argyle S'i, Sutherland ‘2.
West Vancouver 6.

Balmoral 0, Handsworth 6,
Windsor QO. Haliside 6,
Carson Graham 0, Hillside 3,
Sutherland 3, Windsor 4,
Balmoral 2. Handsworth 6,
West Vancouver 0,
Sutherland § 6,
Graham 0

Carson

Rough
for rugby

FOURTH PLACE

was the
best any North Shore high
school rugby team could

manage ino the combined
North Shore and Burnaby
New Westminster Secondary

Schools Athletic
Associations cugby league
this year

Carson Crraham wath 3
wins tblosses and oa tie for
pomnts tinished behind
undefeated Burnaby South
6 Od) Crete: Pei  wans ft
loss | thet amd New West
minster alse. wath wis a
loss and a tre

Hiillsacle prlors cob fobety wottr 4
wins amd cb bosses tolhowed
by Sothertlansd Hurnaty
North and Hurnaby South

much of which could be
saved by gaining some
knowledge of the vehicle
and what it needs in the way
of TLC to run smoothly.

For instance, most of us
are pretty faithful to the
sume that whatever needs to
be oiled has been oiled, and
that’s that until the next
time. ;

Not so! Cars need regular

though simple maintenance
to keep parts from wearing
out. In the summer, engine
oil should be changed every
two months along with the
oil filter itself. In winter this
should be done every month.
The kind of oil is also crucial
to maintenance. In the sum-
mer a heavy oil (Gagnon
suggests 10W30); in winter a
lighter lubricant, 5W20 is
recommended.

Now you know

Ventriloquism comes
from the Latin venter (belly)
and loqui (speak). It was the
mistaken belief among the
Romans that the voice of the
ventriloquist came from his
stomach.

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China is bigger than any
other country except the
Soviet Union and Canada,
but it has almost three times
as many people to feed as
these two bigger nations
combined.

Changing oil frequently ts
the key to maintaining an
engine because old oil loses
its viscosity and so parts
begin rubbing together,
heating up, and wearing out.
Some products are ad-
vertised to provide a
protective  varnishlike
coating to preserve the
engine but Gagnon is against
these because they tend to
seal the natural apertures

and prevent oil from flowing
through.

He also says money can be
saved and _ rust _ proofing
accomplished by having the
underbody of a car coated
with a mixture of oil and
grease. This can be done
very easily, lasts a long time
and costs no more than $50
or $75. Whereas the
treatments for rustproofing
underbodies normally cost

$300 although they = are
sometimes guaranteed for
five years.

I'll leave you to wash the
grease off your hands and
will be back later with more
tips on how to stretch your
automotive dollar.

Patricia Burns, is Man-

ager, Consumer Educa-
tion, Bank of Montreal.

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