How far can I drive with a bad wheel bearing?
Main thing is - get it fixed PDQ (pretty darn quick). Driving with a bad wheel bearing can cause the axle/hub/spindle to weld itself from friction and heat causing the wheel to lock up and spin you out. More likely, the metal will wear away from the friction and the wheel/hub will become loose. If the affected wheel has a disc brake, the brake caliper and rotor might hold the wheel onto the axle for a while, but will eventually fail too.I drove a car I had just bought in a different state about 2,000 miles (3,200 Km) to get back home. The front wheel bearings were whining the whole time, but the wheels were still fairly tight (negligible play). One of the first things I ordered upon arriving home was a new set of wheel bearings.If you jack up the vehicle and there is any play (i.e.: slackness or wiggle) in the affected wheel(s), don't drive the vehicle because you might just get overtaken by your own wheel (no longer attached to & supporting the vehicle) while driving down the road. Any play in the wheel could also be caused by worn suspension and/or steering components which should also be replaced PDQ (and a wheel alignment done post repair). Again, this could cause a wheel to come out from under the vehicle and/or point in a different direction and cause you to have a wreck.Get it fixed posthaste.<><
How feasible is it to drive seven hundred miles in a day?
In the United States with proper preparation on the Interstate, this isn’t even particularly difficult. It is much easier with two drivers. Even better if the non-driver can sleep while the car is in motion.The key is good roads, a reliable car, and rested drivers. It is also important to assess the situation as you proceed. My wife and I had planned to drive just past Chicago on a trip to Alaska one February. Unfortunately, we ran into 14″ of snow and called it a night after only 120 miles which had taken 4 hours. We made it to South Dakota the next day as the roads had been cleared by the time we got moving in the morning. Later in that same trip, we did Billings, Montana to Bellingham, Washington (a bit over 900 miles) in a single day.I did a solo trip from Detroit, Michigan to Seattle, Washington by way of Salt Lake City, Utah (about 2500 miles) in three days. I also only had to stop for gas three times. It was in 2011 and I was driving a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid which allowed about 600 miles to a tank with a comfortable reserve. I started well rested with a full tank of gas.When I was attached to a US Air Force Reserve unit in Little Rock, we would drive a bit over 800 miles each way for the weekend. This was in a Subaru Legacy Wagon and there were two stops on the way in each direction. We did this once a month for two years before I transferred to a closer unit. This was almost entirely Interstate starting in Detroit. Driving overnight reduces the traffic you have to deal with.Currently, we drive back from Atlanta, Georgia in a single jump which is about 700 miles.The longest single day jump my wife and I did together was about 1100 miles from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. This took about 24 hours and a good part was on two-lane highway through the Ozarks.
What happens if you put water in a gas tank?
Please don’t do that!Let’s say you put some water in the gas tank, and by that your are diluting the gasoline. The gasoline which is still in the fuel line will allow for the motor to run as normal for maybe a minute more, then because he water doesn’t burn, and it would eventually get injected into the cylinder it will build up and there is a risk that during the compression stroke of the piston, because of the high pressure in the cylinder, your motor will simply blow, or also the distribution belt/chain can slip, break, and due to desynchronization of the valve timing, the piston head can actually hit the valves and bend them. It would create such a mess that my professors would call it `cylinder salad`. Also the connecting rod could bend. In a very bad case that would lead to a new motor required, in the most optimistic case changing the distribution belt, rectifying the cylinder head, changing some ripped bolts, changing the injectors, cleaning the fuel system of the car, new fuel filters.Same things can happen if you drive your car in deep waters and water manages to get inside your intake, where together with the air and the fuel it eds up in your cylinder.
What happens if you attempt to drive with a broken serpentine belt?
The serpentine belt powers many different accessories and required pieces of equipment on an engine. You can live without the air conditioner. The car is usable for a short time without the alternator working if you have a good battery. You can man handle the steering wheel without power steering. Some cars have a smog/emissions control pump that needs to work or the engine will run rough or even not at all.BUT, you will overheat your engine if the water pump is not turning and pumping coolant through the engine and radiator. You could make a short drive of 5 minutes or so before engine heat would be a problem. Hopefully, that is to a mechanic who will replace the broken serpentine belt.
How long does it take to repair a head gasket?
You don’t repair a head gasket, you replace it.Once I had a rally car - a bit of a ratty old junker if the truth be told - that had a 2.3 litre overhead cam engine. It was a bit like this, only this one is way nicer:Anyway I was heading off to do a rally on some Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before, I took it out for a blast around the lanes to shake down any last-minute faults, and blew the head gasket. It was too late to do anything about it that night, so next morning, I got up at the crack of dawn, stripped the engine down to the point of having the head off (it was OHC, so that involved also removing the cambox, timing belts, etc. plus the exhaust manifold, inlet manifold and carburettors) By then it was almost 9am, so I drove to the nearest big town - 25 miles away - to get a replacement head gasket set. 25 miles back, and by 10am had the head all cleaned and ready to be reassembled. Engine back together and running by 12pm, I then had to drive it 250 miles to where the rally started. It all went smoothly and I made it with plenty of time to spare.So the answer to your question, for me, on that occasion, for this car, was about 6 hours, including an hour to fetch the parts. Sometimes what you need, apart from the basic skills, which in my case don’t amount to all that much, is a great big incentive!As I recall, the rally ended in disaster, but that’s another story.
How is E10 gasoline different than regular unleaded gas?
In gas station when we see E10 (ethanol) and regular unleaded gas we ask why choose one over the other. Sometimes, we make our choice depending on the price difference. The problem is that there are some things that we don’t take under consideration when it comes to the difference between ethanol and gasoline.some of the differences are the fallowingA gallon of pure gasoline provides 30% more power than the same amount of E10Because it provides less power, E10 will effect the car’s MPG at high speeds.Because Ethanol is mostly alcohol, over time, it will effect badly the fuel system and engine. This means it is bad for the car.the only area where ethanol is better than pure gasoline is in the combustion because E10 burns cleaner which means it cuts down from the gas in the greenhouse. This makes E10 better for the environment but bad for the car.Bottom line is that it is better to use normal pure gasoline.for additional info The Major Differences Between Ethanol and Gasoline