I was thinking of a 2023 Toyota Highlander but recently read that they are doing away with the six-cylinder engine and using a new four-cylinder turbocharged motor. Just the fact that it’s a new engine concerns me. I’ve heard that turbos put a lot of stress on engines, wearing them out sooner, among other problems.
A: Today engines that use turbochargers are typically more robust than their non-turbocharged versions. Although turbochargers will put more stress on an engine, this only happens under hard acceleration. That's something that happens in a smaller percentage of driving time, such as merging with traffic or rapidly passing a slower vehicle.
Engines with turbochargers can be tuned differently, delivering acceleration when needed. When the turbopower fades out, the vehicle is in motion, and even a very small engine can maintain highway speeds quite easily.
Q: My mechanic recently repaired the air conditioner on my 2003 Buick Century. After several attempts, finding leaking parts, it is ice cold from all vents — usually.
When I'm driving since the repair, it starts off ice cold, then sometimes seems to get less effective. When I dropped by to see my mechanic, it was blowing ice cold from all vents. He moved the hot/cold levers up and down, and it restored to ice cold. He is stumped.
Is there some valve that perhaps "collapses," or some other factor? This is a totally manual air conditioning system, not auto climate control. Any thoughts or direction would be helpful.
A: There is a temperature-blend door, even on manual systems. It's possible that the blend door motor/actuator could be failing and allowing warm air into the cabin.
The second possible issue could be that the system is low on charge and the evaporator is freezing and limiting cooling.
Another possibility is that there is moisture in the system, causing the expansion valve orifice tube to freeze up.
If this were my car and the blend door was operational, I would evacuate the system to remove any moisture and recharge it with the correct amount of refrigerant and then check the overall performance.
Q: We have two Honda Fit vehicles, a 2008 and a 2010. The air conditioning in the 2010 has never been fabulous, and it wasn’t working recently. We took it to a Honda dealer and they repaired it. They also put in some kind of dye in order to trace a possible leak. We have to bring it back in a month so that they can check the dye.
We were also told to always have the AC button pushed in and the control on. They said that we could regulate the interior temperature by lowering or raising the AC temp or by making the heat higher, but in all cases the AC button must be depressed (even when the heat is on).
In all my years of driving cars with air conditioning I was never told such a thing. What happened to just having the windows open on a pleasant day?
A: The 2010 second-generation Honda Fit was never known to have a very good air conditioning system. The system was designed to trade fuel economy and performance for some level of passenger comfort.
At 12 years old, the system could have a slight leak, and having the dye put in the system to find a leak makes sense.
Regarding keeping the AC on all the time, perhaps this was suggested to try to find the leak. Keeping the air conditioner on all the time makes no sense. On a nice day, open the windows and enjoy the fresh air without air conditioning.
Q: Somebody has been loosening lug nuts on vehicles parked outside in my driveway. This happened on the two front tires on one vehicle, and another lug nut was found on the ground from a car my son just bought.
My son was telling me about locking lug nuts. Before I invest in these for all five vehicles, I wanted to know what you know.
A: Locking lugs would at least keep you from having your tires stolen — usually. They use a specially designed lug nut that requires a special adaptor/key to be used to remove them. You typically put one on each wheel. The only one issue is that you do need to “hide” the key in the car, just in case you get a flat tire and you need to put on a spare.
Many times, we end up towing a car because the owner cannot find the key. At this point I would report the incident to the police and buy a wireless security camera. There are some cameras that combine floodlights, alarms and remote notification. This may provide some additional peace of mind.
John Paul is the AAA Northeast Car Doctor. He has more than 40 years of experience in the automobile industry and is an ASE-Certified Master Technician. Write to John Paul, The Car Doctor, at 110 Royal Little Drive, Providence, RI 02904. Or email jpaul@aaanortheast.com and put “Car Doctor” in the subject field. Follow him on Twitter @johnfpaul or on Facebook.