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" Senior Editor Mike Allen answers readers&amp;#039; car questions. Q: I have a 1985 Evinrude outboard engine and am wondering what effect fuel with ethanol will have, if any, on performance or maintenance issues. DAVE GRANT A: A small percentage of ethanol won&amp;#039;t have much affect (&amp;amp;lt;10%). More will make the engine run lean--and 2-strokes are not very tolerant of running lean. So stick with fuel that is less then 10% alcohol. And don&amp;#039;t overdo the oil in the gas--this also makes the engine run leaner. Use the manufacturers recommended fuel mix. Q: I own a 1999 Mercury Sable that has the very annoying feature of self locking doors. This feature is so irritating to me, that I have strongly considered selling the car. I&amp;#039;m wondering if there is any way that I can disable the self locking doors myself. SHAWN CHANEY A: This is one of my own pet peeves. I&amp;#039;m always trying to open a door that&amp;#039;s locked itself and having to go back around to the other side or dig in my pocket for the key fob. Some vehicles can be reprogrammed to stop this, but on others it&amp;#039;s hard-wired in. Ask the dealer. Your other option is to pull the fuse for the central locking system and go with manual locks. Q: Occasionally the right front power window won&amp;#039;t go back up. It will always go down, but there are times that it won&amp;#039;t go back up until I fiddle with the switches. I tried swapping one of the rear door switches but that didn&amp;#039;t help. Is there a limit switch or something mounted in the door panel? I don&amp;#039;t want to take the panel off if I don&amp;#039;t have to. A: Usually the problem is not enough lubrication, bad seals binding or a frame that&amp;#039;s cocked, not an electrical problem. Q: Like many people interested in keeping their vehicle a long time I liked to use synthetic oil from the start. But with the high cost I&amp;#039;d like to take advantage of synthetic&amp;#039;s long life and only change the oil once a year. But this would void my warranty. Is it worth switching to synthetic after several years with petroleum-based oil? Why haven&amp;#039;t the car manufacturers come into the 21st century in regards to using synthetic? MARK MAISONNEUVE A: Several car manufacturers have already switched to synthetics for factory fill.. But although synthetics are superior, they still need regular changing. It&amp;#039;s not a good place to save money. Q: I have a 1999 Mercury Sable with 75,000 miles. While driving at 70 mph with Cruise Control on, I noticed the speed of the car was going up &amp;amp;amp; down a small amount. Suddenly the speed went wild; it kicked it back a gear, and the speed &amp;amp;amp; RPM increased until I hit the brake to disengage the Cruise Control. Then I noticed the speedometer was going from 10 MPH to 50 mph. The only way I could judge my speed was with the tachometer. The speedometer gradually slowed down and after 60 more miles it returned to normal. After the car sat for 5 hours, it was back to normal. Does the speedometer have a cable that controls the speedometer or is it controled by computer? When this happened I almost panicked. I actually lost control until I realized what was happening. I&amp;#039;m afraid it might happen to my wife or this winter on our icy Michigan roads. GLENN VOISIN, Saginaw, MI A: It&amp;#039;s pretty obvious to me thhere&amp;#039;s something wrong with the speedometer, which is electronic. Get this fixed before somebody gets hurt. Q: What is your opinion of filling car tires with nitrogen to improve wear and gas mileage? Is it worth the $30 the local dealership is charging for the service? FRED WEBER, Vermilion, OH A: Nitrogen is good at least partly because it&amp;#039;s devoid of any moisture. But not $30 good. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a1001/4202036/>