It's that time of year again!

Every year about this time I get on my soapbox about preparing your car for the hot summer temperatures. Sometimes I wonder why, replacing engines and head gaskets, or A/C compressors could be a lot more profitable. Somehow that would be like a doctor telling his patients to smoke so he could have more business.

Already this year we have seen several blown head gaskets from overheating and a couple of A/C systems that had problems directly related to high engine temps. Most overheating problems are completely preventable with good maintenance. However, even if you have ignored the maintenance for years you can bring the system up to par pretty easily.

We suggest that the cooling system be service (flushed) every 2 years. Flushing gets rid of most of the build up of deposits in a system and removes all of the deteriorated coolant. This is done with a special machine that circulates the old out and the new in, much like a dialysis machine.

Many of you may do your own drain and fill of the cooling system, but that is not good enough to get all of the coolant from the engine block, heater and reserve tank. While it will restore the freeze protection, and improve the ability of the system to handle heat it is only about ½ as good as a flush.

At least once a year the hoses and belts should be checked. Look for obvious wear; missing pieces from the belts, cracks on either side of it, cracks in the hoses, brittleness or crunchy feel of the hoses, or corrosion indicating a leak around any of the hose clamps or joints in hoses. It is my belief that if you are going to change any one hose you really should change them all, after all they are all the same age and subjected to the same stresses.

Check you fan blades for cracking and the fan clutch for proper function. If you have electric cooling fans, as most cars do today, then check them for proper operation. Cooling fans (electric) will usually turn on when the A/C is running or when the engine temp reaches about 230 degrees. Weather you have a belt driven fan with a fan clutch or an electric fan, when it is running it should hold a piece of note book paper against the front of the A/C condenser.

The most common cause of being stuck on the side of the road is a flat tire and that is usually a fairly simple fix. The second most common reason is overheating. Often that turns out to be a very expensive and time consuming problem. A little attention now may save you grief and cash later.

Look for the coupon in this newsletter to save money on your cooling system check up.

Road Trip

In May my wife Janice and I took a couple of weeks off and took a road trip. We wandered through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. (one of the great perks of spending 20 years teaching your son to run the business) On the trip we got to visit the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. There were some things I learned on the trip that I thought may save you some money and aggravation.

We drive in Texas and never really consider that other states may have different regulations about some common things we do. Of the 4 states I visited all but Texas require seat belts for all passengers in the car regardless of seat position.

Nevada requires everyone over 6 to wear a belt and children under 6 years or 60 pounds to be in a child restraint of some kind and grownups to be in seat belts in all seats. Arizona requires children under 5 to be in a child restraint and all adults to be in belts. In both Nevada and Arizona the seat belt law for adults is secondary, meaning that they cannot stop you just for a seat belt infraction, it has to be ticketed in addition to another violation.

New Mexico is very similar to Texas in that it requires children under 1 to be in a rear facing infant seat and in the back seat if the car has one, a child under 4 has to be in a child safety seat and under 7 to be in a booster. All others have to be in seat belts regardless of where they sit. New Mexico's law is primary and they can stop you for just a seat belt violation.

California requires children under 6 to be in child seats in the back seat if available and all others to wear belts in every seat. Their law too is primary.

Cell phone use varies too. California bans all hand held phone use and texting for all drivers. They also ban hands free for drivers under 17. The other states we traveled through had no restrictions except for school bus drivers being banned from texting. However there are 6 other states that currently ban hand held phone use for all drivers and 26 that ban texting.

Before you travel go to this site and research the states where you will be driving, it may save you a lot of money.

Also, gas taxes, booze taxes and cigarette taxes vary a lot from state to state. If you are going from Arizona to California you may want to gas up before you cross the border .The state gas tax in California is 46.6 cents and only 19 in Arizona. That's a 25 cent savings per gallon. However, if you need cigarettes you want to wait until you reach California because the state tax there is only $.87 while it is $2.00 in the Grand Canyon State.

If you are planning to buy souvenirs the state sales tax is 8.25% in California but only 5.5% in Arizona and New Mexico.

If you want to bring home a couple of bottles of wine or booze the tax is almost twice as high in New Mexico, at $6.60 per gallon. The highest "Spirit Tax" in the country is in Alabama at $18.70 per gallon.

The information on individual state taxes may be found on this site.

Taking some time to check things out, local laws, taxes or other regulations related to whatever you plan to do on your trip may really pay off.