Aftermarket Products

Engine coolant plays a vital part in keeping your engine running in top shape (and just running period) and prolonging the life of the engine and its components.

Clean windows are an important part of having a safe driving experience. Reduced visibility from dirty windshields and windows can increase the risk of an accident, especially during nighttime situations. Although it’s likely you wash your windows and glass each time you wash your car, sometimes you need a quick touch-up in between washes. That’s where auto glass cleaners come in, which are also great to use after a wash.

Between the invention of the self starter and the end of the 20th Century, the best portable car jump starters weren’t something you carried with you. They were heavy lead-acid automotive batteries that only garages and tow truck drivers used. Everyone else carried (and still should) jumper cables, which require two cars and enough knowledge not to short them out. If you had a dead or weak battery and you were on your own, you had to get to a phone or flag down another motorist to have a chance of getting going again.

Prompted by a call for ever-improving fuel efficiency, today’s tires are made to be more fuel efficient than ever — and many major tire manufacturers are evolving their product lines to include special fuel-saving, eco-friendly tire options that are designed to last longer and perform better while saving fuel and reducing emissions in the process.

There’s only one way to answer the question, “Is it my battery, or something else” when your car won’t start: Hook up the best car battery tester and get a readout of what’s going on. Skip the pointless troubleshooting, this one trick will quickly tell you if your battery is OK; or if it needs to be replaced. 

Want to join the growing ranks of overland campers? Here are 10 items you’re going to need.

If you’ve ever been to a monster truck show, you know the thrill that goes along with the sound of roaring engines and watching huge vehicles soar over jumps. Perhaps you’ve fantasized about taking the wheel of one of these wild machines, and then considered the realities of buying, fueling, maintaining, and storing a vehicle the size of a small house.

Unfortunately, no matter how careful you are behind the wheel, accidents happen. The good news is, dash cams have become much more affordable in recent years, allowing you to spend less than $100 to constantly capture footage while you’re driving. Purchasing and installing a dash cam has numerous benefits, and the footage it captures can be used as evidence if you are involved in or witness an accident.

Even if you’re only a casual car enthusiast, the ritual of washing your vehicle can be an excellent way to relax on a sunny afternoon. It’s a great way to get some alone time or reconnect with your family after a long week of work and other obligations. Regularly washing your car or truck can also pay off in more pragmatic ways. Bird excrement, tree sap, and even plain old dirt and dust can permanently damage the paint finish if you don’t clean it promptly, and that can have a negative effect on your vehicle’s resale value.

It can be tough trying to get just the right look for your car or truck. You find the right wheel, but it’s the wrong offset. It sits too far in or too far out. Maybe it doesn’t look right, or maybe it doesn’t clear your brake calipers by just the smallest amount? What do you do, spend thousands to get the wheels you want in the custom size you need? Cut up a set of factory wheels in hopes that a shop can get you what you want? No, what you need are wheel spacers.

While we do not condone speeding, we acknowledge the fact that drivers do exceed the speed limit from time to time. Whether it’s in a rural part of the U.S. with a long and uneventful freeway, or the road has just opened up after being stuck in traffic, drivers like to stretch their car’s legs every now and then. That’s where a radar detector comes in handy, so long as they’re legal in your state (they’re currently illegal in Virginia and Washington, D.C., and only legal in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in Canada). They’re also illegal throughout the US on any vehicle weighing over 10,000 pounds.

Tailgating season isn’t what it used to be, but that just means you need to think outside the box. Instead of a crowded parking lot, try your own driveway. Maybe a campsite or a park, where thanks to streaming services, you can still watch the game even if you aren’t at home. One thing hasn’t changed, and that’s that crowd or not, game or not, you still need the right grill to get your famous food served hot and fresh.

Maintenance is key to long life for your vehicle—and here’s the scoop on its replacement parts and fluids.

A windshield repair kit isn't a miracle solution, but for some minor chips, it will save you a trip to an expensive glass repair shop and could help stop those chips from becoming dangerous cracks.

A charged battery is a happy battery. Keeping your car’s battery properly charged is essential to long life and reliability. When you drive, your car’s charging system keeps your battery topped up. However, if your vehicle sits for an extended period, the battery will slowly drain and discharge.

Just as you don’t get great results washing your hair with dish soap, when it comes to washing your car, you’ll be a lot happier using a proper car wash soap. Dish detergents and other household soaps are designed to remove grease, which means they will strip wax or any other protective coating from your car.

Some people are perfectly happy washing their car by hand with a bucket of mild soapy water and soft wash mitt; some only have the time to run it through a drive-thru wash after a fill-up, and others can’t be bothered to wash their car at all. However, regular exterior cleaning will keep your vehicle in better condition in the long run, both in areas that use salt over the winter months and in places where dust, sand, and urban pollution are present.

Ready to hit the great outdoors but need to rock some tunes or listen to the game? You’re not alone and your choices for tailgate speakers have never been better. Thanks to developments in batteries, like the ones that power your phone or your car, you can find powerful outside speakers that will run for dozens of hours on a single charge, while topping up your other devices while they’re at it.

Your guide to changing your oil at home and all the tools you'll need to make it easier.

Car vacuums are often very affordable, they list cool features and have great reviews. Then they usually don’t work. The best car vacuum promises to make car cleaning easy: Just plug it into your 12V port or pick it up off the charger, and in just a few seconds you can clean up your seats, floor mats, cupholders, and console. Your actual experience is likely to be a lot more disappointing: When we started testing, we were surprised by just how bad they were. After testing, we didn’t find any 12V car vacuums we thought were worth your money. Struggling to remove dust, crumbs, and dirt, and absolutely failing against pet hair.

Every car owner should include one of the best tire pressure gauges in their toolkit. Keeping your tires properly inflated ensures they wear evenly, and that you’re getting the best possible gas mileage. It’s a small investment that will keep you from having to replace your expensive tires too soon, and save money on every fill up.

Shopping for engine oil can be daunting, with numerous brands and options available in today’s marketplace. How do you choose from all the different companies offering motor oil when they all sound the same? Well, truth be told, most reputable brands will offer similar products, and in the case of this list, you really can’t go wrong with any of the options. Some oils are better quality than others, offering more performance and working harder to keep your engine clean. But many would argue that the general consumer won’t even notice the difference between Quaker State or Pennzoil. In fact, there have been studies conducted that show most oil brands have similar products.

There’s a good chance you frequently give your car a nice wash. But how often are you devoting attention to your car’s interior? As you can imagine, the seats, floor mats, and carpet of your car experience plenty of daily abuse. From dust and dirt to mud and grime, thorough interior detailing can go a long way in preserving its resale value. If you often travel with children or pets, you’ll want a bottle of quality upholstery cleaner.

After a great floor jack and a tool chest, getting the best air compressor is probably next on any home mechanic’s wish list. Cordless tools are so good now that in some cases they’re even better than air tools, but we don’t know any electric tool that can sandblast, spray paint, inflate a truck tire in a few seconds, or blow off a work surface like an air compressor. Air tools are also less expensive than comparable cordless tools, and never run out of batteries. Once you have your compressor set up, you can turn it on in the morning, and it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice at for the rest of the day.

Any number of people might require safety cones for work, play, or ensuring the public’s safety. Whether you’re marking off a gymkhana course, directing traffic, or need to indicate where the delivery van bearing the Royal Warrant is to park, there’s a safety cone perfect for the job.

Few things make at-home car-repair or garage activities more unpleasant than a freezing cold workspace.

Health and safety aren’t things you want to skimp out on, so having a well-stocked first aid kit in your car should be something you’re willing to spend on.

One important but often overlooked vehicle maintenance product is paint protection film.

We pick our favorite tools, equipment, and accessories for people who love cars, drive cars, work on cars, look at cars, and most importantly—play with cars.

The type of vehicle you have will help point you toward the right type of bike rack.

Photo Credit: Mike Schlee and Thinkware

The home EV charger market has changed significantly since I took delivery of my first EV (Tesla Model 3) in 2018. Back then, buying a Tesla made it simple and straightforward when it came time to choosing a home EV charger because of its (at the time) proprietary plug. I did, however, shop around for J1772 chargers in the chance that in the future I decided I no longer wanted a Tesla. Back then, there weren't too many options to choose from, which is why I ended up getting a Tesla Wall Connector since I really didn't want to use an adapter.

Going Skiing (or snowboarding, if that’s your jam) takes a lot more than just the gear you need on the mountain. With resort prices soaring lots of folks are resorting (get it?) to making their cars their primary base camp while on the mountain. That means you’ll want lots of the comforts of the lodge in your car, in addition to your gear. Today, we’ll take a look at all the skiing (or snowboarding) essentials you’ll need for your car this season.

Fantastic Hardware, Promising App

When it comes to washing my car, I prefer using a pressure washer, but I'm well aware that isn't feasible for everybody. One of the main reasons why I enjoy using a pressure washer is because of the foam cannon, which blankets my car with a nice layer of soapy car wash. But if you aren't able to use a pressure washer with a foam cannon, the Foam Blaster 6 from Chemical Guys is a great alternative.

The brightness of your vehicle’s interior lights usually doesn’t cross your mind until something goes missing in the cabin’s depths or you need to buckle a squirming baby into her car seat at night. Most vehicles come with standard, inexpensive bulbs to light the passenger compartment; they do the job, but little more. Having experienced both of the aforementioned circumstances over the last few months, I decided to spend the time and money to upgrade my vehicle’s incandescent interior lights to LED bulbs.

You do not want to miss out on these Cyber Week automotive deals.

The dilemma over whether your trusty truck needs a tonneau cover has plagued truck owners for years, sparking heated debates among the automotive aficionados and leaving many a pickup owner pondering the pros and cons. So, does your truck really need a tonneau cover, or is it just another overhyped and needless accessory in the world of vehicular extravagance? Let's delve into the reasons behind using them and not.

It's 10 pm instead of 10 am thanks to flight delays, I'm headed two hours out and seven thousand feet up into the San Bernadino Mountains, and the temperature display on the dashboard of this Ford Bronco Raptor is quickly dropping toward the low 30s. My tires are a set of big and chunky Xtreme All-terrains from a brand I've never heard of. Hit it? Or is this going to be a very hairy drive?

If you're planning on heading off-road, then it's time to upgrade the tires on your SUV or pickup.

Help is there when the worst happens off-road

Getting out of cell service is more than just a side effect of exploring the outdoors. Sometimes it's the point.

Keep Cool This Summer

Going off the grid is great until you realize just how many modern conveniences you don't want to live without.

The best roof rails, cross bars, and roof racks should be high on the list for anyone looking to add storage capacity to their car, truck, or SUV. You can put any odd-shaped cargo that won’t fit inside—or that’s dirty and you don’t want inside—up and out of the way, and still have all your interior room. You can use roof racks and rails to attach a secure, weatherproof cargo carrier; use as a rooftop attachment for kayaks, surfboards, snowboards, skis, fishing rods, bicycles, or just about anything else you can think of.

One of the best parts of having a truck is just how versatile it can be. You can tow a camper behind it, put a tent on the roof or a rack, or you can even turn the entire truck bed into a tent.

The Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 UHP is the Italian tire company’s latest entrant in the Ultra High Performance all-season tire category.

The Toyota 4Runner is an iconic off-roader.

The latest entry in Pirelli’s Scorpion line of crossover and SUV tires is the Pirelli Scorpion All Season Plus 3.

Going doors-off is one of the best parts of driving a Jeep, but it can also be one of the more frustrating. Taking your doors off can make things more complicated when it comes to safety, convenience, and even the law. Fortunately, there are some great Jeep tube doors available that can solve all of those problems but still give you all of the benefits of no doors.

One of the biggest battles in keeping vehicles clean has to do with their wheels.

One of the industry leaders in after-sales dash cams, Thinkware, has introduced the brand’s latest product, the U3000 dash cam.

The fight for supremacy between the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco could go on forever, but there’s one line where Ford is the clear winner. When you take the doors off of your Wrangler, the mirrors come with it. Ford’s Bronco lets you see behind you. But thanks to the aftermarket, you can even the score in a hurry. With Jeep Wrangler doors off mirrors that give you options to let you see traffic behind you when you’re feeling the breeze.

If you’re like us, you love camping. But you might not love sleeping on the ground. A tent is great to keep you out of the elements, but it is also, well, a bit of a pain. Finding the right site takes work, avoiding rocks, worrying about water pooling, and then there’s the setup itself. A rooftop tent takes all of that work out of the equation.

A Value Tire for the Budget Enthusiast

If you’ve spent any serious amount of time as a shadetree mechanic, more than likely, you’ve watched as the number of diagnostic tools in your toolbox has grown steadily over the years. OBD-II scanners, borescopes, multimeters, circuit testers, oscilloscopes – you’ve likely shopped around for one or all of them at some time or another. But there’s one particularly versatile, yet often overlooked, piece of diagnostic equipment that’s been growing in popularity over the past few years, owing both to the breadth of applications in which it can be used, and to the steady growth in availability of the technology: the thermal imaging camera.

Car subscription services have really struggled to take off in the US.

Owning a pickup truck has plenty of benefits (like making you very popular with your friends when they’re moving), but everything you have sitting in your truck bed is exposed to the outside world. That means weather, thieves, and even just falling out in the wind on the highway. To protect your truck bed, you need a tonneau cover. A cover that sits over the bed, usually mounted to the sides of the bed, keeping everything out of the weather and out of sight.

In the world of portable power stations, the EcoFlow Delta Pro stands at the edge of where “portable” and “big” meet. It’s only portable because it comes with wheels and a telescoping handle like a piece of carry-on luggage, because even with two wrapped handles, you’re not slinging this nearly 100-pound box around casually. We have moved ours quite a bit, including bringing it to a Level 2 charger and literally out into a field, but unlike the smaller Jackery we recently reviewed (and EcoFlow’s own Delta 2, which we have in testing right now), tailgating isn’t what the Delta Pro is aimed at.

What’s less than an inch in diameter and keeps your car’s wheels from flying off the axles? Lug nuts. Besides securing the wheels, a spiffy set can enhance your vehicle’s appearance.