Degrease with petrol and you’re playing with fire – literally

Petrol is in theory a very effective degreaser. It’s just not a safe one, however, because it has the somewhat pesky habit of evaporating very easily to form an explosive mixture in air. It’s just not a good idea to clean dirty mechanical parts in an environment that envelops your head in an explosive cloud.

Disconnecting the battery: Why, where & how

For some jobs it’s a great idea to disconnect the battery. Often it’s recommended for work on the fuel system (because if you disconnect the negative terminal it takes the risk of inadvertent electrical sparks pretty much off the table).

The way a car electrical system works: the metal structure of the car is connected to the negative terminal. All the wires are connected to the

Turning the garage into a gas chamber is a really, really bad idea

There are two really good reasons to ventilate your garage. They boil down to: leave the garage door open because it could save your neck.

The first reason relates to any work you’re doing with the engine running. Car exhausts emit carbon monoxide – a combustion byproduct that also happens to be a deadly poison in very small amounts. Haemoglobin in your blood likes latching onto carbon monoxide about 200 times more than it likes carrying oxygen

Probably the wrong kind of belt buckle - on many different levelsWorking on your car? You really should tick the ‘pants down possibility’ box

You think this is a joke? It’s not. Belts hold your pants up, sure, but they also cause hundreds of dollars worth of damage to cars. Why? Well, when you’re

You can produce 240-volt (AC) electricity fairly easily, using a device called a static inverter.

Smaller units plug into a conventional cigarette lighter socket - suitable for charging mobile telephone, cameras, camcorders and PDAs. Larger units need to be hard-wired into the car's electrical system.

Selecting an inverter usually depends on what you want to do with it. Inverters are rated in watts (W).

• 50W is good enough for basic battery recharging of phones and cameras.
• 150W will run an average laptop computer.
• 250W willl run a 19-inch LCD TV.
• 600W is enough for