Not too many years ago, car owners expected to get about 30,000 miles out of a set of spark plugs. Today, with advances in automotive design, 100,000 miles or more is not uncommon.Spark plugs are an essential part of a combustion engine found in most automobiles. They are designed to fire an arc of electricity across two contact points. That arc initiates an explosion of compacted air and fuel particles.

“Hey, Hey!!” yells Jack Brickhouse over the car radio as Willie Smith slaps a three-run, 3rd-inning homer to help propel the Cubs to another division-leading victory. It’s July 12, 1969, and the temperature is nearing 90-degrees here in the Chicago area. Of course, you have your car windows down. Rolling the windows up on a day such as this is just crazy. Inside the car would quickly turn into

With some exceptions, motorcycle riders make better drivers. The skills they develop and refine to stay safe on motorcycles translate to behind-the-wheel driving, too. In a sense, those skills are the antithesis of the level of attention drivers have while texting. To put it simply, qualified motorcycle riders are hyper attentive when compared to many drivers of automobiles.Hyper-attentive driving

What do you have planned for this summer? Are you going somewhere on vacation? Will you drive there? Maybe you’re not taking an extended trip but still planning to make same day-long excursions. In either case, you’re certainly expecting to have a good time at your destination. You may even expect to enjoy the drive.The last thing you want to deal with while driving to the Milwaukee Zoo, fishing

You missed McHenry’s Green Street Cruise Night last week? That’s a shame. After all, a good time was had by all – hot cars, entertainment, good food. If you’ve attended Green Street Cruise Night before, which means that you’ve attended the annual summer event last year, or a previous year, you know what that means.Green Street Cruise Night is the equivalent, for automotive enthusiasts,

Are you one of those people who have a love affair with the automobile? Do your eyes widen at the sight of chrome and lacquered layers of custom paint? Does your pulse quicken at a hint of extra horsepower? If you have these symptoms you may have the custom-car virus. If so, you’re probably not looking for a cure but you might appreciate a treatment that addresses your symptoms.An extra dose of

Early autos required auto maintenance, too. The automobile has played a significant role in American society. With Henry Ford’s development of the assembly line, even someone with a moderate income could afford to purchase a car. With their new car, they had new options. For starters, they didn’t have to live within walking distance of their place of employment. Imagine if you didn’t

I was probably about 12 when I caught the bug. I collected hotrod cards: just like baseball cards but with pictures and statistics about dragsters. I was just outgrowing MatchBox and Hot Wheels, replacing them with building plastic models. With the models, I was able to build the cars I dreamed of owning one day when I was old enough to drive. Of course, I only built models of hotrods. While building

There’s something about cruising on the open road – a kind of freedom you feel as the mile markers go by, local radio stations fade in and then fade out as they’re replaced by other local stations that track your route as the aural equivalent of mile markers. Whether you’re headed north, south, east or west – sometimes, it’s just great to get away. And, when you get back, folks will ask

The ad for new tires says $55. That’s not too bad, though four times $55 is $220. Then you have the other associated fees that run the price even higher – new valve stems, mandatory disposal fees for the old tires, etc. Oh, and did you notice the part of the ad where it reads “Starting at …” What does that mean?What that means is that $55 is for tires a little bigger than those on the wheelbarrow