Protect your ride

Many simple and inexpensive options exist to keep your vehicle running

Cars can be very expensive. Sure they get you from point A to point B, but with so many moving parts, things are bound to go wrong, and sometimes that can get costly.

Many serious care troubles can be easily avoided by just being aware of simple maintenance procedures. And if you know how to perform them, you can save even more money.

Here are five ways to help keep your car running smoothly:

1) Check and change your oil regularly. Most cars – excluding diesel and hybrids – strongly recommend changing the oil every 3,000 to 5,000 miles (or every three months) to keep buildup from the old oil. Check your oil – think with your dipstick! – when you fill up with gas, and if the oil level is low, add, at most, one quart of oil.

Adding too much oil can actually blow your oil gasket and can cost about $600 to fix. If you change your oil, DO NOT throw it away. Pour it back into the oil bottles and bring it to any car care center to have it recycled.

2) Check your fluid levels regularly. In addition to the oil, your car needs to have coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid and transmission fluid, amongst others, to function. The coolant burns the most easily and you can blow your engine if the car over heats.

3) Check and change your air filter. The air filter does exactly what the name implies, it allows the passing of air throughout your car’s engine. This should be changed every 10,000 to 15,000 miles as it can get dirty and a dirty filter can lead to poor gas mileage.

4) Brakes and tires. That squealing you hear when you push your brake pedal is bad. If you are hearing noises when you break, or are having to push harder to stop, then check your brakes because they probably need to be changed. Most brakes last between 30,000 and 60,000 miles and should be checked every 10,000 miles or so.

Check your tire pressure. If you are running low on air pressure, you can destroy your rims and rims can get pricey. Try sticking a penny in between the treads and if you can see Honest Abe’s head, its time for new tires. Have your tires rotated every 10,000 miles, as tires get more wear and tear in certain parts of the car.

When buying new tires, always buy a minimum of two of the same kind for uniformity and keep them on the same side of the car.

5) Jumper cables. There may come a time when you need to jump your car because the battery is dead or dying. It never hurts to have these handy, because if you jump someone else, score one for car karma.

- The Red & Black editorial board

A quick ticket fix

Athletic Association acts quickly to allow students entry after halftime

We would like to commend the Athletic Association for its rapid response to upset students who were denied entry into Saturday’s game after halftime.

We are still unsure why the Athletic Association would think it prudent to close the gates to student fans halfway through a game. Some fans prefer to see kickoff, others prefer to see the win. Some fans prefer to stand in the rain, others prefer to wait until the clouds clear. Whatever the reason, there were droves of fans who stood hopelessly outside the stadium gates with student ID’s in hand and ready to go cheer on the Bulldogs, but were turned away by security.

Students denied entry rightfully turned around and complained to the Athletic Association. Less than 48 hours later, the Athletic Association has changed the unprecedented, and yet unexplained, new rule to readmit student fans into the stadium until the middle of the fourth quarter.

At the home opener two weeks ago, the Athletic Association made another blunder that it failed to communicate to students. The association qualified seat sections 307 to 316 as general admission, but in fact, these sections would only seat fraternity members until kickoff.

All in all, we are thrilled with the Athletic Association’s quick response to its epic error on Saturday, but we are wary of what kind of surprises the association could have in store for us next Saturday…

- Hayley Peterson for the editorial board