So my girlfriend’s ’97 Honda Civic’s headlights were real foggy and didn’t project well onto the road.
Sound familiar?
Here’s the fix. It worked for a composite plastic lens. I don’t know about glass.
I read in Popular Mechanics that you can wet sand then buff them out to a shine.
Start by cleaning the lenses real well.
Some people swear that by paying the extra money for premium, high octane fuel, their cars perform dramatically better. Most swear the car runs at least a little smoother.
Do cars really run better on higher octane fuels?
That depends.
The first step is to read your car’s owner’s manual. It should tell you the recommended fuel type for your car.
If your car runs fine on cheap fuel you may be wasting your money on expensive fuel for a purely psychological gain in performance.
If the extra 10 or 20 cents a gallon doesn’t bother you for that piece of mind then just keep pouring 91 in your car.
Here’s how it works.
The higher the octane number the higher temperature the fuel needs to ignite.
High performance engines historically have higher compression engines which develop more hear. If the ignition temperature is reached too soon you’ll notice power loss, pre-ignition, detonation, or knocking and pinging.
Modern cars with fuel injection and electronic ignition systems have knock sensors, which can retard ignition timing. This device makes it possible to safely run lower grade, low octane fuel, even in high compression engines.
Your car may run better on high octane if you have a car that requires premium fuel, but it probably won’t hurt it to run the cheap stuff if you don’t notice detonation.
Engines today also use advanced cylinder heads with quench chambers. This technology allows engines to have higher compression on the same octane.
Older, carbureted, and mechanical ignition engines need the higher octane fuel to prevent detonation. They don’t have quench chamber heads, or knock sensors.
Some older engines were designed to run on leaded fuels, which helped prevent detonation too. The lead acted like a cushion for the engines moving parts. These engines can be modified to run on unleaded or can use a lead additive.
Detonation can be harmful to an engine by causing premature wear on engine parts, and in sever conditions can cause extreme heat to melt, overstress or break parts.
Pistons can melt, piston rings can break and score the cylinder walls and crankshafts can even snap if the power stroke is fired as the cylinder comes up to pre heat the mixture.
Most cars run on a four stroke engine. Those strokes are intake, compression, power and exhaust.
The first pulls a mixture of gasoline and air into the engine, the second compresses and preheats the mix. The third ignites the air/fuel mixture and the fourth pushes the exhaust, or burned air fuel from the engine to make room to start the intake stroke again.
This process is repeatedly done to make a motor go round.
Some people swear that by paying the extra money for premium, high octane fuel, their cars perform dramatically better. Most swear the car runs at least a little smoother.
Do cars really run better on higher octane fuels?
That depends.
The first step is to read your car’s owner’s manual. It should tell you the recommended fuel type for your car.
If your car runs fine on cheap fuel you may be wasting your money on expensive fuel for a purely psychological gain in performance.
If the extra 10 or 20 cents a gallon doesn’t bother you for that piece of mind then just keep pouring 91 in your car.
Here’s how it works.
The higher the octane number the higher temperature the fuel needs to ignite.
High performance engines historically have higher compression engines which develop more hear. If the ignition temperature is reached too soon you’ll notice power loss, pre-ignition, detonation, or knocking and pinging.
Modern cars with fuel injection and electronic ignition systems have knock sensors, which can retard ignition timing. This device makes it possible to safely run lower grade, low octane fuel, even in high compression engines.
Your car may run better on high octane if you have a car that requires premium fuel, but it probably won’t hurt it to run the cheap stuff if you don’t notice detonation.
Engines today also use advanced cylinder heads with quench chambers. This technology allows engines to have higher compression on the same octane.
Older, carbureted, and mechanical ignition engines need the higher octane fuel to prevent detonation. They don’t have quench chamber heads, or knock sensors.
Some older engines were designed to run on leaded fuels, which helped prevent detonation too. The lead acted like a cushion for the engines moving parts. These engines can be modified to run on unleaded or can use a lead additive.
Detonation can be harmful to an engine by causing premature wear on engine parts, and in sever conditions can cause extreme heat to melt, overstress or break parts.
Pistons can melt, piston rings can break and score the cylinder walls and crankshafts can even snap if the power stroke is fired as the cylinder comes up to pre heat the mixture.
Most cars run on a four stroke engine. Those strokes are intake, compression, power and exhaust.
The first pulls a mixture of gasoline and air into the engine, the second compresses and preheats the mix. The third ignites the air/fuel mixture and the fourth pushes the exhaust, or burned air fuel from the engine to make room to start the intake stroke again.
This process is repeatedly done to make a motor go round.
