Your car engine coolant is the most important fluid to keep the engine cool to perform as designed. With age your car engine coolant need a replacement after 20,000 – 30,000 kms or after 2 years. You can test your coolant for remaining life and if require get it changed. For replacing it you need to drain the old coolant and then replace with recommended coolant as per your car’s owner manual. Follow below procedure to drain the old engine coolant:

1. Car should be cold at least for 6-12 hours.
2. Raise the front of the car and support with jack stand.
3. Place a large drain pan under the radiator. Use pliers to loosen the lower radiator hose clamp and remove the hose. Allow the radiator and water pump to drain completely and later, reattach the lower radiator hose and clamp. 
4. Refer to your repair manual, locate and remove the radiator drain plug. 
5. Now open the radiator pressure cap on top and fill the radiator with water. Keep the heater control on high and start the engine for about ten minutes. Do not overheat. Allow it to cool and once the temperature is ideal enough for you to touch, drain the water out of the system into the drain pan.
6. Close the drain plug and refill the system with water and coolant.
7. Another efficient approach is the true flushing/back-flushing method. This method needs two access points and uses a pump to force new fluid through the cooling system, which forces the removal of the old coolant. This method allows for a forward flush or back-flush, depending on the method of vehicle connection used.

Useful tips:

1. There are several products available for cleaning the cooling system during the flushing process. These products remove rust and sediment that flushing with plain water may not be able to. 
2. Used coolant is a toxic waste. Dispose it responsibly to save the environment.
3. Read the manufacturer’s warnings and buy coolant from the right dealer and with correct specification. 
4. When refilling, follow the coolant manufacturer's directions on diluting concentrated coolant. Mix the coolant and distilled water in right proportion and never use the tap water. Leave the car raised while you refill the radiator to reduce the possibility of air pockets forming in the engine.

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While blue color could symbolize trust and wisdom, but with a car it could well symbolize the American concept of depression associated with the blue color. So, if blue smoke comes out of your car’s exhaust, it is a clear sign of worry -- Oil is burning, which means it is coming out of its supposed domain and leaking and getting burnt along with fuel to result in blue vapors. This could be because the piston rings or valve guise seals have got damaged. The leak may let the oil reach the combustion chamber, where it gets burnt.

Another reason could be that the car is turbocharged and the smoke is a signal that the blower’s time is up.

The blue smoke should not be confused with white smoke you see when you start your car. White smoke is water vapor collected while the car was parked.

To find the damage, you could first check the valve seals. The valves are covered in oil on top and the seals are designed to stop this oil from getting into the engine. Once worn out, the valve seals will be helpless and let’s oil get into the engine which gets burnt along with the fuel and air creating the blue smoke. 

If the valve seals are fine, check Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) valve. The job of this valve is to release the pressure that gets built in the oil pan into the intake manifold which is connected to the engine air filter. If the PCV valve is damaged, it will mix the air with oil and other gases in the engine, which gets burnt resulting in the blue smoke as well.

If valve seals and PCV valve are fine, then the damage could be in the engine. The engine pistons have metal rings around them called Piston rings. When the pistons move up and down and if the rings are worn out, oil from beneath the piston can come up, which gets mixed with air and fuel mixture and getting burnt inside the combustion chamber and leaving the exhaust valve with blue smoke indicating that engine oil is getting burnt in the combustion chamber.

The one and only solution for leaking piston rings is to open the full engine and rebuild the most of component including new piston rings, valve seals, gaskets etc. It’s a lengthy and expensive process so considering this overhauling engine vs replacing with another used engine is a very considerable thought.

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Carbon Monoxide (CO), Hydrocrabons (HC), Nitrogen Oxide (NOX), particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and smaller amounts of other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ammonia (NH3) are dangerous emissions produced by the exhaust in cars. The result is global warming which is responsible for high temperatures, rising seas, and severe flooding and droughts.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a poisonous gas while VOCs are a major component of smog produced from unburned fuel.  NOX is a contributor to smog and acid rain.

Fuel-efficient vehicles are the need of the hour and with the kind of fuel being used, the emission also differs. Some fuels, like those made from cellulosic biofuels, reduce emissions compared to gasoline. Electric cars produce fewer emissions.

There is an ongoing debate on whether diesel is cleaner than petrol but there is no consensus as yet. Diesel cars were thought to be cleaner, but studies have found that they have completely different emission characteristics, and an increase in such cars could have its own implications on urban air quality.

Incorporating catalytic converters in cars using petrol, which oxidize pollutants, especially CO to less harmful gases such as CO2, has come up as a solution, but at the cost of more fuel usage and lesser efficiency. But still, the emissions are more than that of diesel cars.

Thankfully, because of the hot weather in GCC, emissions from cars are lesser than in the colder countries, since a car in a cold climate could take up to 5-10 km to warm up and colder engine produce more emissions than at idle temperature. 

A method of pollution reduction currently being utilized involves the use of cleaner petrol and diesel and carefully controlling the amount of fuel they burn. And then there are alternative fuels. Compressed natural gas (CNG), Liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG), city diesel, hydrogen,  alcohol fuels, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery operated vehicles are being developed and in various stages of competing with the efficiency provided by petrol or a diesel car, while dramatically reducing the harmful emissions. 

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A carburetor’s main role in the car is to use intake vacuum and supply fuel to the engine. And to fulfill its job, it relies on many add-on devices. So, if your mechanic says that there is a problem with the carburetor, there are several other devices which also need to be looked at before deciding that the carburetor needs a replacement or repair. 

When, clean and working properly, the carburetor allows the engine to start easily, idle evenly, and accelerate smoothly. Problems caused by the carburetor include hard starting, rough idle or idling too fast, poor fuel economy, etc. It is often difficult to rebuild a carburetor and expensive to replace, so it is better to check on all other add-ons.

1. Check the choke. Sometimes a small adjustment or cleaning the choke mechanism can solve the problem. A broken choke will also prevent the engine from idling properly. A choke repair kit or a new bimetal spring is all that would be required if the fault lies with choke. 
2. If there is too much heat near the carburetor, then you will experience hot starting problems. All you have to do in such a case is to reroute the fuel line away from sources of heat. You can also insulate the fuel line by wrapping it with insulation. Hot start problems can also be because of excessive resistance in a starter, poor battery cable connections, or a faulty ignition module .
3. When there is too much of air and not enough fuel, the result is hesitation. It can be caused by a dirty or misadjusted carburetor, or because of a poor accelerator pump. You could also have a worn out throttle shaft. In such cases, replacing the carburetor may be required. 
4. Air leaks in the engine can also cause hesitation, resulting from loose vacuum hoses, emission hose or the PCV system. A defective EGR valve can be another cause of hesitation. A defective distributor advance mechanism, a weak ignition coil, bad plug wires, worn off spark plugs could be other causes which needs to be rectified before deciding on the fate of the carburetor. 
5. Check for any faulty power valve inside the carburetor. A new power valve is usually included with a carburetor rebuild kit. 
6. The carburetor may have to be rebuilt or replaced if there are internal air leaks in the carburetor itself.
7. Check the needle valve. If dirt enters the  valve, it prevents it from closing, which results in flooding of the engine. A carburetor can also flood if the float inside the fuel bowl is set too high or develops a leak. Floats are not part of a rebuild kit so you will have to buy a new one or a new kit.

If the problem is with the carburetor, it can be rebuilt with a kit or replaced with a new or remanufactured carburetor. Always consult your owner’s manual for specific carburetor tuning and recommendations.

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The backbone of all cars engine performance is the engine oil, that’s why it is advised to use the best quality oil for the car as the engine life, performance and reliability depends on the engine oil. There are many different kinds of engine oil for specific car types and requirements like fully synthetic oil, semi synthetic oil and mineral oil. If oil is not changed when getting car serviced you can end up with accelerated wear of the engine like loss of performance and fuel economy, and increased emissions and oil consumption. 

Engine Oil is best to change after 3,000 to 15,000 Kms or go with what the car owner's manual recommendation from the car manufacturer, which is based on what type of engine oil is used as mentioned earlier. In general each type of engine oil has basic life span:

1. Fully Synthetic: 10,000 to 15,000 Kms
2. Semi Synthetic: 5,000 to 8,000 Kms
3. Mineral Oil: 3,000 to 5,000 Kms.

How to check Engine Oil level?

1. Car has to be cold and resting overnight or few hours at least
2. Open the car engine hood and secure it safely in open position
3. Look for engine oil dipstick (shown above) usually placed on left or right side of the engine
4. Draw the dipstick out and wipe it clean with tissue or cloth
5. Insert the cleaned dipstick inside fully and draw it out again
6. At the end of dipstick there is two mark showing Maximum and Minimum (shown above)
7. Engine Oil level should be safely in between these two Max-Min marking

How to check Engine oil condition?

1. Engine oil viscosity (thickness) should be reasonably thin and not too thick
2. It's color should be close to golden or red, and not brownish black
3. Oil should have smooth oily property and not sticky and tacky feel

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