Dear Tom and Ray: I suppose it goes without saying that any father-in-law seems crazy to the son-in-law, and, perhaps more emphatically, the son-in-law seems crazy to the father-in-law.
To cut to the chase: My father-in-law turns off his truck at every stop. Why? My wife tells me that he insists that he is saving gas. We live in Las Cruces, N.M., a town not associated with traffic congestion. You are not likely to sit idling for more than five minutes anywhere at anytime probably 95 percent of the time. Is this loony or what? – Matt
Tom: Matt, this is obviously your first marriage. By the second or third marriage, every man learns that you should never try to get between your wife and her sainted father.
Ray: Particularly when you happen to have your head up your keister.
Tom: Your father-in-law is doing a good thing for the planet. Idling is a complete waste of fuel.
Ray: So turning off the engine when you’re going to be sitting for more than a minute or two is a great thing to do. Most hybrid vehicles do this automatically now. When you come to a stop, the engine shuts down, and the moment you touch the gas pedal again, it instantaneously starts up.
Tom: And at least one energy expert we know suggested that if ALL vehicles shut down automatically at idle, we could cut our fuel consumption by 10 percent. Or about 40 MILLION gallons a day! Still sound loony?
Ray: Some people are worried about turning off their air conditioner in the summer, or their heater in the winter. But if you leave the fan blower running, there’s enough residual hot or cool air to keep the car at a comfortable temperature while you sit there.
Tom: So here’s your to-do list, Matt. First, start shutting off your engine when you’re idling – especially if your wife’s in the car. Next, tell your wife that you feel lucky to have married into such a smart family. After that, buy your father-in-law a nice bottle of single malt, sit down with him over a ballgame, and ask him if he has any other tips for you.
Dear Tom and Ray: I often buy these stick- on-the-dash compasses. They seem OK when outside the vehicle, but when mounted inside and in use, they give directions, at times, that I know are false. Do cars have a magnetic field of their own that interferes with the readings, or are the compasses simply too cheap; or is Earth losing its polarity; or are you not the right people to ask this? – PaulTom: All of the above, Paul. But the biggest source of electromagnetism in your car is your alternator, which is, essentially, a big electromagnet. But I would think that if it was throwing off your compass, it would throw it off all the time.
Ray: Or it could be that as the output of the alternator increases with the speed of the engine, the magnetic interference increases.
Tom: And, of course, any time a current is going through any wire, you’re making magnetism. And there are lots of wires running behind the dashboard. So those could be throwing off your cheap little compass. But I’d say it’s even more likely to be affected by things outside the car, like overhead power lines.
Ray: So our answers are: Yes, there are sources of magnetism in the car; yes, you’re buying cheap compasses; and yes, we are not the right people to ask. If any of our readers have a better answer, drop us a note (you can e-mail us from ).
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