News & Events

You've seen them many times in your life: tire filling stations with endless loops of hose attached ending in that oddly-shaped, knobby little tip with the strange pin in the middle. They're at gas stations, car washes, and auto shops. If you're not familiar with their proper use and the proper fill pressure for your vehicle's tires you should take the time to learn. It will save you money on tires and gas. Here's what you need to know.

Under-filling and Over-filling

Proper tire pressure preserves the life of your tires. Under-inflating them causes them to ride soft, meaning they flatten too much, as if your vehicle rested upon marshmallows. Tire surfaces not intended to contact the road will do so, resulting in damage to the sidewall areas of the tire.

Over-inflating them makes tires too rigid. The overpressure strains the integrity of the tires and creates increased risk of a rupture. It also leaves less tire surface in contact with the road, resulting in decreased performance.

Antifreeze/ engine coolant maintenance is one of the basic engine care tasks that most car owners can handle by themselves. It is more complicated, however, than just topping off the coolant overflow reservoir with water when it runs low.

We've all seen cars sitting by the side of the road, hood open, with steam billowing out from the engine. This means that the car has overheated and the engine coolant is boiling away. Continuing to operate a vehicle that is overheating or in which the there is insufficient coolant left in the system can result in many thousands of dollars of damage to your engine, including break-down of your engine oil viscosity, bent piston rods, cracked heads, and even melting plastic components inside the engine compartment.

On January 6, General Motors held a live web chat for Chevy Volt owners to answer any questions Chevy Volt owners may have about the retrofits being conducted to resolve the potential risk of delayed battery fire after severe side impact accidents. To date, said Chevy Volt Marketing Director Christi Landy, 7997 Chevy Volts have been sold and have racked up more than 20 million real world road miles. In all that time, there has been not a single incidence of the type of battery failure that resulted in a fire during the severe side impact test conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) last year. However, out of an abundance of caution, GM recommends that all current Chevy Volt owners have the modifications to the battery support and cooling systems done at their Chevy dealer.