Daily Kennebec Journal

The Old Mechanic Says

It makes a difference when you do the things that you figure are necessary to keep the car in trim. Too many owners seem to think that they can do a car job any time and have it just as effective as if they did it at the right time.

I've seen this happen many a time with batteries. A motorist keeps puttin' off the matter of addin' a little distilled water to the cells, and finally decides that he will do it the last thing before leavin' the car on a certain night that is convenient to him. What happens is that he finds the battery more or less dead in the morning.

A battery should be given a little charging after water is added, which is just another way of sayin' that the right time to add water to a battery is when you're startin' off on a ride and after you've started the engine runnin'.

It isn't a good idea to change the oil in the engine on a very cold day because the fresh and stiff oil will only increase the chances of burnin' out a bearin'. What's more you'll be addin' a lot of raw gasoline to the oil and dilutin' it by usin' the choker every time you start off.

There is the right time to do a job on the car, and the wrong time as well. You can be just a little too early with a valve grindin' job, or just a little too late. Results are as bad one way as another.

You see this illustrated when a motorist has his engine gone over before the real cold weather is over. After he gets the engine thoroughly cleaned out he is forced to use the choker excessively, and that starts the carbon process goin' again. When he postpones the valve grindin' work too long the repairer has got to re-bore the seats and do so much extra work that the cost runs to nearly double and the results may not be entirely satisfactory.