Page 3 - AAA Schuylkill County – AAA Now! – March/April 2017

Engine Stop-Start Systems Make it Easy to Be ‘Green’
AAA
Volume 29, No. 2
HEADQUARTERS OFFICE
340 South Centre St.
P.O. Box 990, Pottsville, PA 17901 Telephone: (570) 622-4991 • 1-800-666-SCMC
BRANCH OFFICE
202 East Broad Street, Tamaqua, PA 18252 (570) 668-1003
OFFICE HOURS
POTTSVILLE
Monday through Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Saturday: 9:00 a.m. - Noon
TAMAQUA
Monday through Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Saturday: 9:00 a.m. - Noon
OFFICERS
ROBERT W. WACHTER - Chief Executive Officer GEORGE URITIS - Chairman of the Board DAVID J. HOLLEY - President RONALD DERENZO - Solicitor
DIRECTORS
Wayne S. Hamilton .............................Orwigsburg
David J. Holley ...........................Schuylkill Haven Allen C. Koch .............................Schuylkill Haven John Levkulic .............................Schuylkill Haven Lowell P. Martin.................................... Frackville Robert Mills.............................................Pottsville John D.W. Reiley.....................................Pottsville George Uritis ........................................... Cressona
JUDIE KARHAN - Editor-in-Chief DOROTHY CROUCH - Senior Editorial Director HANS FRUST - Creative Director ANGELA ILICH - Director of Production LORRIE MULHALL - Regional Editor
AAA Now! (ISSN 08988552; USPS 002-243) is published quarterly by AAA Schuylkill County, 340 South Centre St., Pottsville, PA 17901. Periodicals postage paid at Pottsville, PA 17901 and at additional mailing offices. A subscription price of $1 per year to primary members is paid through dues.
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to AAA Now!
Schuylkill County, 340 South Centre St., Pottsville, PA 17901.
AAA does not endorse any product or service advertised in this publication other than AAA club services and products. The publisher of AAA Now! Does not endorse or make any representations or warranties concerning any service or product advertised in this publication. The published is not liable to any advertiser or reader for any errors or omissions in advertising or editorial copy
appearing in this publication, provided, however, that the publisher will print a correction after the publisher has been notified of an error or omission.
TM
AAA Schuylkill County
ANNUAL MEETING Thursday, April 27,2017
George Uritis, AAA Schuylkill County Chairman of the Board, announces that the Annual Meeting of the members of AAA Schuylkill County is scheduled for Thursday, April 27, at
4:45 p.m. The agenda calls for the election of directors and the transaction of such other business as may be properly brought before the members. The meeting will take place at the club headquarters at 340 South Centre St. in Pottsville.
Nominees Named to the Board in 2017
The nominating committee of AAA Schuylkill County nominated the following person to the Board of Directors for a 3-year term, as of April 27, 2017.
Lowell P. Martin, Ashland
GEORGE A. URITIS
Chairman of the Board
Your inner Jiminy Cricket wants to drive an eco-friendly vehicle, but the car enthusiast in you balks at the thought
of a small, “powerless” hybrid. Oh, the anguish of a conflicted consumer!
Automakers have heard your cry – along with new government requirements
with the transmission in neutral and the clutch released. As soon as the brake pedal is released, or the clutch pedal is depressed, the engine restarts automatically.
Is this the ‘green’ for you?
Motorists in Europe and Japan are already familiar
with stop-start systems – 40 percent of new cars in those markets have them. Availability has been limited in North America, but automakers now predict there will be more than 8 million stop-start vehicles on the road by 2017. And why not? With an annual estimated fuel cost savings of $167 (over 12,000 miles) a system will pay for itself in less than two years and offer ongoing savings thereafter.
There could be a couple potholes. Drivers need to adjust to the off/on experience and lack of engine noise. Also, heater and air conditioning performance can suffer if the engine remains shut down for an extended period. Finally, the special high-capacity batteries required
by stop-start systems cost nearly twice as much as conventional units, which could cause sticker shock when replacement time arrives.
Still, it’s hard to argue with the successful compromise of driving a vehicle you love coupled with improved fuel economy and lower emissions. It’s almost as if you wished upon a star.
The data gathered by the maintenance reminder system is analyzed using algorithms that predict when the engine oil will begin to degrade. At the appropriate time, a dashboard alert gives the driver advance notice that the need for service is approaching. In a 2012
AAA survey, 63 percent of drivers reported their vehicle had a maintenance reminder system to alert them when service is due.
Changing oil changes
Advance in engines and lubricants have made the 3,000-mile oil change obsolete. The maintenance reminder systems in modern cars typically call for oil changes somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 miles, depending on driving conditions. Where an engine requires full-synthetic oil, the change interval is extended even further, commonly to between 10,000 and 15,000 miles. These may sound
like long distances, but the automakers that designed the reminder systems accept the calculated service intervals as sufficient to maintain the new-car warranty.
Still, some drivers remain unconvinced. The same 2012 survey mentioned above also found that 38 percent of motorists still change their oil every 3,000 miles or less. While this certainly won’t hurt their vehicles, it does increase maintenance costs and needlessly uses billions of gallons of oil each year.
to improve fuel economy. In response, vehicles with stop-start systems that automatically shut of the engine when stopped in traffic are beginning to roll off assembly lines.
Repurposed technology
Stop-start systems are old news on hybrid vehicles. The challenge has been adapting the systems for
use with conventional powertrains. At a modest cost of around $300, the new stop-start systems let you appreciate both better fuel economy (up to 12%) and reduced exhaust emissions.
With an automatic transmission, engine shutdown occurs when the vehicle is stopped for several seconds with the brake pedal applied. With a manual, shutdown takes place
Tune in, Not Tune Up
MARCH/APRIL 2017
3
ROBERT W. WACHTER
Chief Executive Officer
To ensure proper vehicle maintenance, AAA advises motorists to follow the factory- recommended maintenance schedule in the owner’s manual or maintenance booklet that came with the car. Missing documents can often be downloaded at no charge online. If it has been a while since you looked at your car’s
service recommendations, you may be surprised to find an old standby is missing. Modern cars no longer require “tune-ups” – today, sophisticated computer controls fine-tune the engine many times per second, and ignition parts that once needed regular replacement have either been eliminated or made far more durable.
Today’s maintenance schedule
But perhaps the biggest change on newer cars is that in-vehicle electronic maintenance reminder systems have replaced the old time/mileage schedules many of us grew up with. These systems take into account not just miles driven, but a wide variety of other operating conditions such as cold engine starts, ambient air temperatures, driving time and speed, engine rpm and load – and much more.
Now!