Reader just lives with the “idiot light”

Dear Bob: Your column in today’s Kansas City Star immediately caught my eye, the moment I saw the question about the coolant light on a Ford Escort.

I have a 1991 Escort with 97,000 miles. For the past five or six years, the “check coolant” light has come on almost every time I’ve used the car. This seems to be an Escort quirk.

When this first began to happen, it bothered me. Of course I inquired at the Ford dealership, but no fault could be found.

I have continued to use the car — after all, there is a heat gauge and the car never has overheated. So I pay no attention to the check-coolant light, but I do keep an eye on the heat gauge.

There has never been any loss of coolant, no oil has ever showed up in the coolant and no coolant has ever showed up in the oil. So I just live with that idiot light!

Yours truly,

H.K., Alma, Mo.

A: That’s not a bad method to apply to practically any of the “idiot lights,” as you call them — and as I call them too. If the light comes on, have the system checked by a competent technician. But if no cause can be found, and if the operation of whatever system the light is monitoring remains normal, then it’s safe to assume that it’s the light itself that is at fault.

However, you’re well advised to keep an eye on that particular system. The fact that at the moment there’s no problem with the system doesn’t mean that a problem won’t develop — and, without a functional alert light, any such problem could easily escape your notice until it got out of hand.

So if a “low oil level” light comes on, for example, and you check the oil but find that it is full, it’s OK to disregard the light … but it’s also a good idea to check your oil level more frequently than you otherwise might.

Dear Bob: I have a 1997 Buick Park Avenue, and prior to going south for the winter months I disconnected the battery by detaching the positive side, because it is easier to get at. It was left disconnected for six months.

This spring, when I came back up north and connected the battery, the gas-gauge needle was under the stop and not on top, preventing it from registering the gas level in the tank.

I have disconnected the battery on all the cars I have ever owned, including another Buick, and have never had this problem before. I called Buick, and they don’t know what is wrong.

Thanks.

C.C., via e-mail

A: I don’t see any connection between disconnecting the battery and having the gas-gauge needle end up on the other side of the stop, as this problem is physical and not electrical.

The stop is a small peg that sits on the zero mark, with the needle resting on it when the ignition is turned off or when the gas in the tank is near empty. How the needle got to the underside of the stop is a mystery to me as well. Are you sure that the upper portion of the needle hasn’t simply broken off?

In other words, I don’t have an answer, any more than Buick does. Maybe my readers can help resolve this mystery. Hello, out there — anyone have any ideas about how the needle could have ended up on the other side of the stop on which it is supposed to rest?

Incidentally, if you’re going to disconnect only one cable from your battery, you should disconnect the negative one, not the positive one, even if it’s a little harder to reach. I doubt that this holds the answer to your mystery, but it will be safer and better for the battery.

AMERICAN DRIVERS FIGHT BACK

Here’s a tip that will help you get better gas mileage and cut our nation’s dependence on Mideastern oil:

“Would it surprise you to find that your tires are significantly underinflated? Chances are that they are 8 pounds to 18 pounds less inflated than they should be. Of 100 cars we checked, only one was at the rated pressure. Most were in the mid-20s, while quite a few were as low as 15 pounds …”

So begins an Arizona Energy Office pamphlet — written several years ago by yours truly — on ways to save gasoline. It was a good idea then, and it’s a good idea now: Keeping your tires inflated to the manufacturer’s recommended maximum pressure is one of the easiest ways to save gas.

The same pamphlet notes that, if your tires are normally at 24 pounds and you inflate them to 32 pounds, you can increase your gas mileage by as much as 3 miles per gallon. That can add up to a savings of about $130 a year for someone who currently spends $800 annually on gasoline, as many of us do.

That’s a lot of money for such a simple, easily accomplished task. And if gasoline prices continue to climb, the savings will be even more impressive.

Remember always to check your tire pressure, and make whatever adjustments are necessary, when the tires are cool. When they’re hot, as they are after an extended drive, the tire pressure will sometimes rise above the designated cool maximum, but that’s nothing to worry about. There is a safety margin built into the tire that takes this into consideration.

It’s the cool pressure that you should be concerned about, so remember: When it comes to tire inflation, it’s cool to be cool.