The Washington times., 1929-03-27

are going serenely along on the as.
sumption that the filter has made it
possible to keep the same oil at
work for 900 or l 800 miles. With
out know it, again, they are paying
the penalty invariably attached to
inadequate engine fabrication.
Back of the situation-and num-
ber of comparable stuations-is the
one of the individual mOtorists's
most common and costly fOibles, his
failure to keep his car-Care knowl-
edge modernized, AS service men
view it, he plays the game of bod
ern automobile ownership by rules
that may he five or ten years out Of
date. And. they add sagely, he in
Variably loses as a result.
No Profit In 1t
TO be even one year behind the
rules, figuratively speaking, is bad
enough, but hundreds Of thousands
of motor car owners are still further
behind. Cars are charging too rap
Nly if only in respect to refinement,
q permit of a profit from such a
procedure.
To moderniZe his car care, the in
dividual motorist simply must read
Np on the latest rules. They are
contained as they always have been,
in the Construction book" opera
tors manual" Owners guide or
whatever the individual label on it
happens to be.
If four years ago, owners had read
Nhe rules that came with their new
cars. they would now be reaping the
full benefits Of the oil filter that was
installed upon their cars at that
time. Many diu not read the filter
rules, though. They heard that
oil changes were necessary only at
much longer intervals. They never
went on to find that there were
many filters that became so clogged
at $500 ore 10000 miles that all the
oil was hy.passed around them; that
unless a new straininS element wa"
Installed. the filter was out of busi
ness permanently
The motorist who proha bly, holds
the worlds record for ignoring this
unit put $4,000 miles on his car be.
fore discovering his mistake.
Watch New Cars
At the moment, millions Of motor
car owners are looking about for new
cars. Before. they get them, they
may as we'll realize that care of the
1929 ear is going to be different than
was that of tine 1927 or even the 1928
model The rules vary for different
makes. which enforCes the duty of
the buyer to read the book If he
would get thu most out of the car.
Take. for instance. hydraulic shoC:
absorhers, more widely used than
ever before.
Il don't think so much of these
shock absorbers, man who bought
an early 1929 model last fall re-
marked recently. They worked all
right for while, but now they don't
seem to be any good at all. l can't
understand it."
Have you ever had the oil in them
checked?" he was asked. 70.
"Oil? Why l didn't know they
had oil in them. l thought YOU kept
oil away from shock absorbers, was
his reply.
Otherwise Sensible
Ii is hard to believe, but here was
a motorist who ranked we'll. in an
intellectual way. who was giving
hydraulic shock absorbers meChani-
cal shock abSorher care. The ser
vice station fixed his trouble in a
few minutes.
Another car owner, whose case is
typical of many, protested that his
very snappy new car engine with Its
high compression head did not give
the performance of his cd one after
the latter had been driven $4,000
miles He had heard somewhere that
some car with a high compression
head did not require a premium gas
oline. He was trying TO apply this
idea to his own car of quite diff
ferent make and cylinder head de-
sign Had he read the rules, he
would have known differently.
At the other extreme are motor
lists who, because they have not
read the rules applying to their
particular cars, are paying for
premium gasolineS when less eX-
pensive ones woulI do.
There still are motorists who
like to do much of their own ad-
iusting work. Brakes, especially,
aye regarded by them as fair game,
particularly since adjustment de-
vices have become easy to reach
and to turn.
Read the Rules
This type, particularly, should
read the EulSS p6lbIS HldkinS any
adjustment For the first time
since four-wheel brakes came into
general use there are some designs
this year that take a greater pro
portion of the braking force on
the ont wheels. One mechanical
system divides responsibility for
deceleratio 55.45 between the front
and rear brakes.
1t is the ideal proportion
although admittedly it may not last
long unless the most precise ad
justment job is done. Obviously,
the motorist could quickly change
the whole system unless he knew
the specific rules.
Several more cars this year have
chassis fabrication systems with
the motorists duty one of merely
pressing a plunger. On a car that
adopted this feature last summer
bringing ii down into the medium
priced field the failure Of mapv
buyers to read the rules has led
them to miss the fact that the
central reservoir must he filled at
periodic intervals.
Is Simple Matter
There must he something for the
plunGer to plunge If chassis hear.
ings and huShinSs are to be ade-
uuately luhr'cated. F'ilin" fHe
reservoir is a simple responsibility.
but unless the motorist reads the
rules he will not recognize it as his.
with the result that one of the fine
features of the car will be sacrificed.