Got your driver's permit? Top 5 things to know about your car.

4. Fuses: Replace 'em yourself and save

Robert Harbison/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Amarveer Brar, foreground, prepares to head home from high school with friend Roger Gorog in this 2002 file photo. Learning how to replace your own fuse is one way new drivers can save money.

If something electrical in your car stops working, (like your power windows, headlights, or windshield wipers), it might be a blown fuse. Identify which electrical part isn’t working. Using the owner’s manual, locate the fuse box. Then, locate the fuse for the part that isn’t working. Remove the blown fuse with a plastic fuse removal tool, usually located in the fuse box. Install a new fuse with the same amperage rating. Test the electrical part for proper operation to verify the repair. Replacing a fuse is one of the easiest repair jobs you can, and should, do yourself. If you are unsure of what to do, ask an adult to help, go online to access how-to guides on this repair, and always consult your vehicle owner’s manual to learn more.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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