Under the Hood

The Under the Hood Channel explores the systems that make your car function correctly. Learn about car parts and systems and how to do routine maintenance.

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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

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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

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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

Every major car maker in the world is focused on developing self-driving cars. Automotive manufacturers from BMW to Ford are pouring tons of money and resources into getting self-driving cars on the roads, as are leading tech companies like Apple and Google. In fact, Google spent last summer testing their version of the self-driving car […] The post 10 Reasons That Self-Driving Cars Might Actually Suck appeared first on Goliath.

By Jack Sackman

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Putting 300,000 miles on a vehicle may seem like an impossible goal, but there are plenty of ways to extend a car's life span.

By Laurie L. Dove

Cars made today are pretty quiet. A car that is working well and firing on all cylinders, so to speak, barely makes a whisper. This can make it particularly jarring when you hear your car making some unexpected sound—either under the hood or in the rear of the vehicle. It helps to know what the […] The post The Most Common Noises Your Car Makes (And What They Mean) appeared first on Goliath.

By Jack Sackman

Nothing blows a budget faster than a car repair. Getting items fixed or replaced on any make or model of car is expensive and can set people back financially. Unless a part is under warranty, motorists are forced to shell out big bucks themselves to keep their car running properly and safely. And some car […] The post The 10 Most Expensive Car Repairs appeared first on Goliath.

By Jack Sackman

Does it feel like your new car is already old by the time it rolls off the lot? If you feel this way, remember that it's probably by design. Learn the subtle and not-so-subtle tricks car makers use to make you yearn for a new vehicle.

By Cherise Threewitt

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You've proudly driven a stick shift all your life, so you already know that manual transmissions accelerate faster than automatics. End of story. Well, that was once true, but things have changed.

By Cherise Threewitt

You check the mail and notice that you've gotten another recall notice about some defect in your vehicle. Seems like they send them every day. But in reality, car companies do all they can to avoid a vehicle recall.

By Cherise Threewitt

The best part of getting a new car is that new car smell, right? Well, don't breathe it in too deeply — that smell is produced by hundreds of chemicals, many of them harmful.

By Cherise Threewitt

You simply love your car. You've been all over the place with it, but now you're staring at the 30,000-mile service — the first major check up on the vehicle. Is it worth it?

By Cherise Threewitt

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Electric vehicles always seem to look so shiny and new. Shiny, yes — but they're not necessarily new. Turns out electric cars have been around since long before the Model T.

By Cherise Threewitt

There's perhaps no single person more associated with the automobile than Henry Ford, who's credited with bringing the car to the masses. But did Ford actually invent the car?

By Jamie Page Deaton

We've all heard the same old line countless times: Red cars get pulled over more often for speeding than cars of any other color. But is it true? The answer may surprise you.

By Cherise Threewitt

Most modern cars and trucks are powered by an internal combustion engine. But was there ever a time when vehicles were powered by engines that required an external source of heat?

By Cherise Threewitt

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It had to seat five occupants. It had to be easy to maintain. It had to be capable of traveling quickly on the autobahn and be affordable on an average salary. Was the VW Beetle really a Nazi design?

By Cherise Threewitt

It's common knowledge that dark colors absorb heat while light colors reflect it. But does that really mean that black cars tend to get hotter in the summer?

By Cherise Threewitt