Car Maintenance Tips
Preparing Your Family Car for a Long Trip
If you and your family are gearing up for a long road trip, make sure you put some effort into preparing your vehicle. Your car will be one of the most important elements of your adventure and unless you are looking out for it, you will be taking a big risk with the entire trip. The following is a brief guide to preparing your family car for a long road trip.
Get a tune-up
Even if you only recently had your car serviced, it is smart to have your mechanic give your vehicle another quick tune-up before you head off on your big adventure. It would be a shame to break down on your trip due to a problem that a car service would have been able to solve beforehand. You can also have your mechanic check the levels of your oil, water and other fluids, which you would otherwise need to do yourself before leaving on your trip.
Extending the Life of Your Brakes
It is important to always have a high-quality braking system on any vehicle that you drive, and unless you want to have to replace your brakes all the time, it is important that you try and give them a bit of TLC. Out of everything on your car, your brakes are the most likely feature to save your life, so make sure your brakes are ready if you ever need them by considering the following brake maintenance tips.
Don?t ride the brakes
The worst thing you can do for the life of your brakes is to ride them, which means maintaining constant pressure on your brakes while going down a hill. This will cause your brakes to heat up and lead to rapid deterioration of your brake pads. You?re better off applying short spurts of pressure on your brakes and gradually slowing down your car; being mindful enough of your speed to take your foot of the accelerator earlier can add months to the life span of your brakes.
5 Ways To Get The Best Out Of Your Car
We rely on our cars a lot, from getting us to work each day to taking us on those great road trips, though if you want your car to be around for a while, you have to show it some love. You car is kind of like your body and needs to be taken care of in order to prevent serious problems arising. Most things you can do for your car are simple and inexpensive, so be smart and look after your car, this will avoid you having to deal with a huge repair bill later on. The following tips are a great way to start looking after your precious vehicle.
Get It Serviced Regularly
You car doesn?t run on good vibes or magic, it is a mechanical structure which though impressive, can only keep functioning if it is maintained properly. At least once every six months or every ten thousand kilometres you should get a mechanic to do a thorough service of your car. Car service in Sydney and car service in Melbourne have great mechanics that won?t cost you an arm and a leg, so be good to your car and take it in for a service regularly.
Things You Should Do At Least Once Every 6 Months
As our lives getting busier and busier each year, with our lists of things we need to get done on a daily basis growing longer and longer. While our modern conveniences have made a lot of things way more convenient, at the same time it seems we have created more ways to fill up any free time we have created. Some things are definitely more important than others, so even if you only do them once every six months, be sure to make time for each of the following things.
Get Your Car Serviced
If you want your car to be at its best and to last for a long time, getting it serviced every 6 months is an absolute must. Especially if you are doing mostly city driving, it?s important to get your car looked at and kept in good shape as there is a lot that can start to go wrong if you aren?t getting it looked at regularly. It doesn?t need to cost you a lot of time and money either, as whether you are looking for car service in Sydney or car service in Melbourne, there are a lot of great companies that offer competitive deals and some will even come to you.
How Your Car’s Alternator Works
The alternator helps the battery to generate enough electricity to power many components of a modern vehicle, including the headlights, radio, instrument panel and more. It does this with the help of electromagnetism that is created through the rotor and stator — two key parts of the alternator which we’ll discuss later in this article. From there, the electricity is fed into the battery. In this article, we’ll look at the mechanics of the alternator, as well as some of the most common alternator problems.
What does an alternator look like?
Alternators are actually pretty small — about the size of a rockmelon. Most alternators are made with an aluminium housing, as the aluminium doesn’t magnetise, which is key to helping control the large amount of heat produced.
How Your Car’s Ignition System Works
The ignition system creates an electric spark that ignites the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder’s combustion chamber. Because the ignition system is so crucial to the proper running of your vehicle, it is one of the most important things to be checked during a car service. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the ignition system, including the different types of ignition systems and the parts that constitute them.
Key parts of an ignition system
The ignition system consists of:
Why Won’t My Car Start in the Cold?
It’s 6am in the middle of July and you dart through the cold morning air to your vehicle to begin the drive to work. After removing the frost from your windscreen and windows (using cool water, of course, as hot water has the potential of causing a costly crack!), you jump into the car and turn on the ignition? only to find that your vehicle stutters to a halt before it can start purring. If you have an older vehicle, you’re probably used to these types of winter blues. In this article, we’ll take a look at why cars have a harder time starting in the cold, and we’ll also look at a few mechanics‘ tips to fix the problem.
Why won’t it start?!
Generally, if you’re experiencing this problem there are three things that may be going wrong. These are as follows…
How Your Car’s Timing Belt Works
In modern vehicles, the timing belt is a rubber belt (or, occasionally, a chain) responsible for keeping the crankshaft and camshaft synchronised with each other in order to ensure that valve timing is correct at all times. Incorrect valve timing can have devastating effects for your engine, causing the engine to either run poorly or not run at all. Mechanics will look at your timing belt during a service, and if it is worn out it, may need replacing immediately.
Understanding the engine
These days, timing belts are also used to control a vehicle’s water pump and power steering, but it’s traditional use is to control the valve timing of the engine. In a standard four-stroke engine, there are four key phases or “strokes”. The timing belt is responsible for regulating these strokes and ensuring that the valves open and close at the correct time. The four strokes are as follows:
Three Ways to Retain Your Car’s Value
We all know that cars are terrible when it comes to depreciation. As soon as you drive a new car off the lot, (so the adage goes) it immediately depreciated by 50%. As car owners we understand this, but it doesn’t prevent the financial sting from hurting. Therefore, the best way to limit the amount of money that you lose on your car in the end is to take care of it in a way that allows it to retain as much of its original value and condition as possible. Regular visits to the mechanic , protection from the elements and small alterations are all ways in which you can try to retain value. Here are a few ideas to get you started..
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3 Common Reasons Cars Break Down
There’s nothing worse than that sinking feeling you get when your car starts to cough and splutter in the middle of the highway and you have that dreaded breakdown. It always seems to happen at the worst possible times–on the way to a funeral, when you’re late for a job interview–or when you’re off on a road trip around the country! Any mobile mechanic will tell you, however, that there are some reasons for breakdowns that are much more common than others, and while we can’t guarantee that this will stop you from breaking down in the future, knowing some of the more common reasons might just help you avoid them! Here they are, folks, three common reasons why cars break down:
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