Under the Hood

How many wheels are in the world is a hotly debated question swirling around the internet. But it's not that easy to answer.

By Cherise Threewitt

Your car's ignition coil supplies the engine with the high voltages needed to get the car running. But how do you know if the ignition coil is malfunctioning?

By Talon Homer

When license plates were first introduced in the U.S. in 1901, you had to make your own. Nowadays, prisoners make them for you. Yes, it's true. Find out more about this and other strange facts about license plates.

By Talon Homer

Your car's serpentine belt is a single, continuous belt that drives lots of things like the car's alternator and power steering pump. So how do you replace it when it's starting to fail?

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

Sales of stick shifts are down around the world and even some sports car manufacturers have stopped making them. Still, many zealous auto enthusiasts are doing all they can to keep the old three-pedal motion alive.

By Talon Homer

If your car is built like a supersonic plane, you can sure reach blazing fast speeds. But what about a car you can actually buy?

By Talon Homer

Frunks, usually reserved for VW Beetles and classic European sports cars, are moving into the mainstream, as trunks take a front seat.

By Cherise Threewitt

The answer isn't as simple as it seems.

By Cherise Threewitt

How often should you change your oil? If you think it's every 3,000 miles, think again.

By Cherise Threewitt

Ever notice you see more tire debris on the side of the road during the hottest months of the summer? Could the heat have anything to do with it?

By Alia Hoyt

Even if you're not a car enthusiast, you might still want to consider one of these modifications to make your ride the best on the block.

By Cherise Threewitt

You may be surprised to know that self-driving cars never go on country roads because so far companies have only done the necessary precise mapping on city streets. An MIT project is changing all that.

By Nathan Chandler

Have the right Volkswagen execs paid for lying to the public about their car's environmental standards and emissions?

By Diana Brown

You might think your car is fine for your upcoming summer road trip. But if it's more than 10 years old, you might want to think again.

By Cherise Threewitt

All you have to do is sit back and relax.

By Cherise Threewitt

Fighting the funk brought on by an animal decomposing inside your car engine can be hard, but not impossible. Here's how to do it.

By Dave Roos

Winter tires are very different from all-season and snow tires. So who needs them?

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

There are a lot of vanilla vehicles being churned out these days. What's the deal?

By Kate Kershner

As many as a third of new 2017 cars didn't come with spare tires. So what's the deal?

By Cherise Threewitt

Will the programming of truly driverless cars prevent them from violating traffic laws? That might actually make traffic move faster.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Will the world's first commercially available gas compression-ignition engine finally be a success?

By Cherise Threewitt

2017 has been a crazy year for hurricanes, which means it could be a crazy year for flood-damaged cars hitting the market, too. How can you spot one?

By Kate Kershner

Whether diesel- or gasoline-powered cars spit out more toxins depends on the pollutant measured, a new study says.

By Shelley Danzy

Autonomous vehicles could prevent a lot of car accidents from occurring. And that's good news — except for one particular population relying on organ donations.

By Jonathan Strickland

Thanks to some open source software on the internet, other people are trying it too.

By Alia Hoyt