Girls Auto Clinic Glove Box Guide
Page 21
If You Need a Tow
It is nice to have a local towing company you can call if your car breaks down or is not drivable. If you need a towing company, your PCT can recommend one. Keep their information in your glove box.
The towing company should ask whether your car is two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive. Four-wheel-drive and AWD vehicles require a flatbed truck to tow them. Two-wheel-drive vehicles can be towed with a wheel-lift tow truck or a flatbed truck. Towing a car incorrectly could damage your transmission.
4WD and AWD vehicles should be towed on a flatbed truck.
FWD vehicles must be towed backward, and RWD vehicles must be towed forward.
The Well-Stocked Vehicle
There are some nonnegotiable essentials every #shecanic should keep in her car’s glove box and trunk at all times. And there are some other nice-to-have items for overachievers. Putting some of these together into a gift basket is a wonderful gesture for brand-new drivers and grizzled road warriors alike.
Glove Box: Nonnegotiable Essentials
Napkins/rag
Small flashlight
Small first-aid kit
Important phone numbers
Tire pressure gauge
Owner’s manual
Proper paperwork: insurance and registration card
Car charger
Cell phone
Pens
Small pad to write on
Trunk: Nonnegotiable Essentials
Full first-aid kit (a small one should be kept in the glove box in case you can’t get to the trunk)
All the equipment and tools to change a flat tire:
Spare tire
Lug wrench
Jack
Trunk: Nice-to-Have Items
Jumper cables
Warning sign: small traffic cones, a flare, or a reflector triangle
Extra oil and coolant if the car has over 100,000 miles
Water
Extra clothes, shoes, and blankets in the winter
Duct tape
Large flashlight
Never underestimate the power of duct tape.
DIY #8: How to Jump-Start a Car
Don’t you wish that if your cell phone lost power, you could just touch it to your friend’s and have her phone bump some juice over to yours? That’s essentially what a jump-start is: a buddy coming to the rescue, giving you juice from his or her alternator to charge your battery so your car has enough electrical power to start.
Tools
Two people
An extra functioning car of any type
Jumper cables
1. Position the front of the car with the properly functioning battery as close as possible to the front of your stalled car, whether head-to-head or side-to-side. Jumper cables are several feet long, though, so they can reach some distance.
2. Pop open both hoods and locate the battery on both cars.
3. Turn both cars off all the way—making sure all electronic accessories such as radios, automatic lights, and AC are turned off on both cars. Engage the parking brakes on both cars.
4. Place one end of the red (aka “dead”) clip on the red or positive or plus terminal of the stalled battery (see image, opposite, for additional guidance).
5. Place the other end of the red clip on the red or positive or plus terminal of the working battery.
6. Place one end of the black clip on the black or negative or minus terminal of the working battery.
7. Connect the other end of the black clip to the black or negative or minus terminal of the stalled battery. (To avoid causing a small spark, you can also connect the clip to an unpainted metal bolt on your engine block, but that’s an advanced move.)
8. Turn the car with the working battery on and let the engine run for at least a minute. Give this car some gas to lightly rev up the engine.
Assuming the problem car is to the right, here’s an overview of the correct cable position to jump-start a car.
9. Turn on the car with the stalled battery.
10. If the car starts, remove the jumper cable clips in the oppositeorder in which you attached them: the black clip on the stalled battery, the black clip on the working battery, the red clip on the working battery, and lastly the red clip on the stalled battery.
Let your car run for at least twenty minutes so the alternator can charge up the battery. Go for a spin, getting out onto a highway if you can. If you turn the car off before the battery can sufficiently charge, you may need to jump-start the car again.
If the car does not start, make sure the jumper cable clips are correctly connected to the battery terminals. The metal clips should be touching the metal terminals. Let the cars stay connected, allowing the car with the working battery to run for a few more minutes until your battery gets enough juice to start your car. Depending on how weak your battery or the cables are, this process can take thirty seconds to ten minutes.
If your car won’t start after a second try, you likely need a new battery.
Graduation Time
Congratulations, #shecanics. You embarked on an empowering journey of auto care knowledge, and you stuck with it to the finish line. But this journey, which started with a renewed commitment to maintaining your ride, doesn’t end with the last pages of this book. It’s a ride-or-die kind of thing. So keep in touch with the @girlsautoclinic and #shecanic community on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and beyond. Share your triumphs, frustrations, and questions. ’Cause one thing is for sure—we’ll always have one another’s backs.
And now, in honor of your hard work, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the ranks of the certified #shecanics.
Certificate of Completion and General Awesomeness
_______________________ is hereby certified as a lifelong #shecanic. She has demonstrated her ability to tell car care myths from auto maintenance facts, and she pledges never to be intimidated by her ride.
Note: This certificate never expires, even if its owner occasionally procrastinates on nonurgent maintenance tasks.
Happy driving!
Acknowledgments
Safiya Simmons of SJS Consulting, thank you for being the first person to believe in Girls Auto Clinic Glove Box Guide. You gave me the most significant gift anyone can give an entrepreneur: a lesson about the responsibility of paying it forward. I take that responsibility very seriously.
Savannah Ashour, I am so proud of this book. Thank you.
Dianne Castillo, thank you for stepping up to the plate, making it work, and creating the illustrations on such a tight schedule.
Thank you to Susan Sweeney and Sean Johnson for having my back, and to my agent, Eric Myers, for discovering me.
I appreciate the hard work and encouragement of everyone at Touchstone—especially Matthew Benjamin and Lara Blackman, who got us through to the finish line, and Lorie Pagnozzi for her design. I can’t believe I wrote a book in the middle of launching a start-up. I lived like a college student again—broke, hungry, tired, recycling outfits, less frequent showers, frozen pizza for dinner and breakfast. There is nothing sexy about the grind, but in these moments I felt like a writer. I’m humbled and grateful for this experience.
DIY Index
DIY #1: Under the Hood
DIY #2: Check and Add Windshield Washer Fluid
DIY #3: How to Check and Add Oil
DIY #4: How to Check and Add Coolant
DIY #5: How to Check Brake Fluid and Power Steering Fluid
DIY #6: How to Check Air Pressure and Tire Tread
DIY #7: How to Change a Tire
DIY #8: How to Jump-Start a Car
About the Author
Patrice Banks is the founder of Girls Auto Clinic, a female empowerment company that educates and empowers women through their cars. After working for twelve years as an engineer, Banks went back to school for auto repair and began leading car-care workshops, blogging car tips, and inspiring women to get their hands dirty. Now she ru
ns an auto repair shop/salon outside of Philadelphia staffed by female mechanics. She hopes to reach every woman driver with her message.
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First Touchstone trade paperback edition September 2017
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Interior design by Lorie Pagnozzi
Illustrations by Dianne Castillo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-4411-0
ISBN 978-1-5011-4412-7 (ebook)