Engineering Magazines

Your car is a very important investment that you would never want it to experience a breakdown especially if it is new and you are also new as a driver.

Aside from your parents’ pieces of advice on road safety, it is also better to read some tips on the magazines or on the internet perhaps. Your parents may be experts on raising kids but they may not be when it comes to vehicular concerns. There are several write ups on car safety, repair and maintenance that you as a neophyte on the road should always keep in mind.

Examples of these tips are as follows:

Read your owner’s manual first. Written there is everything about your car that you need to know and remember always. From the auto parts to the proper repair and maintenance, all are written there. It is also important to obey the manufacturer’s recommended service schedule as written there.

To ensure excellent engine performance, at a good repair shop, have your engine drivability problems corrected. These problems include hard starts, rough idling, stalling, diminished power, etc. It is also much better to replace dirty air, fuel and PCV fuels to ensure a real quality engine performance.

In order to keep moisture from freezing in the fuel line, place a bottle of fuel de-icer in your fuel tank once a month. Remember that moisture formation is prevented in a gas tank that is always filled.

The oil and filter concerns are also specified in your owner’s manual. Change them according to the stated schedule. Most often, they are changed at least every 3,000 miles. This is so if driving is mostly stop-and-go or consists of regular short trips.

Flush and refill the cooling system as recommended in the manual. Needed to be inspected periodically are the level, condition, and the concentration of the coolant. The usually recommended concentration is a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze and water. If you are checking this part by yourself, do not remove the radiator cap until the engine has thoroughly cooled. Let the tightness and condition of drive belts, clamps, and hoses be checked by a reliable auto technician.

To achieve further comfort, the heater and defroster should be in good working condition.

Old windshield blades must be replaced. Buying rubber-clad or winter blades so that ice will not build up is a must in a winter season.

The brakes should be regularly checked. Consult the manual if you can replace the original ones with other brands such as EBC brakes.

Inspect the battery through professional equipment. This is the only appropriate way to detect a weak one. Remove the corrosion from posts and cable connections. Clean the entire surface. Make sure all connections are tightened. These should be your routine. Also check the level of fluid monthly if battery caps are removable.

Removal of cables might damage or loose data or codes on some newer vehicles. For further guidance, it is always safe to check your manual. Contact to acids is dangerous. Avoid contact with corrosive deposits and battery acid by wearing an eye protection and rubber gloves.

Before going out with the car, check all lights and bulb. Burned out bulbs must be replaced immediately. All lenses should be free from road grime. For simple lights cleaning, a dry rag can be used.

Examine the exhaust system for leaks through putting your vehicle on a lift. See to it that the exhaust trunk and floorboards do not have small holes. And take note of this: any sweat in the exhaust is deadly. To avoid this, regularly check the system.

Worn tires are also dangerous. Regularly check them to avoid short tread life, uneven wearing, and cupping. The sidewall should also be checked. Tire pressure should be checked once a month, but be sure tires are in cool condition before checking them. The manufacturer’s recommended rotation must be followed. And remember to always bring with you your spare that is in good condition. The jack, which should also be always present in your tools area, should also be in good condition.

And lastly, in case of emergency, you need to have some equipment to back you up. Always bring with you gloves, boots, blankets, flares, a small shovel, sand or kitty litter, tire chains, a flashlight, and a cell phone. This will further ensure your safety especially that you are a neophyte on the road.

Reading some materials on automotive can further add to your knowledge on cars.

When spring fever hits, it’s hard to restrain the excitement and urge to get outside and enjoy the outdoors, especially for bikers who have been able to enjoy their favorite pastime during winter. Although you may be anxious to hug the open road on your motorcycle right away, if you take the proper precautions when removing your bike from winter storage, it can save you time and money, as well as increase your safety. Use these helpful hints when preparing your motorcycle for your summer adventures:

Inspect your fuel tank – Basem Wasef, an expert author on motorcycle topics for About.com, provides some great insight into preparing your motorcycle for summer riding. Wasef recommends that you inspect your fuel tank by opening the cap and determining whether the fuel is clean or not. If you notice any decay or buildup of residue, drain the tank, and then clean the carburetor and fuel lines before running the engine.

Kevin Crockett, an expert author for Ezine.com and motorcycle enthusiast confirms the inherent risk that old fuel can cause by claiming, “old fuel can cause your fuel lines and carburetor to clog from gum.” He also recommends checking the tank for rust. “If the tank has rusted, you will need to clean and seal it to prevent flakes of rust from clogging the carburetor jets.”

Finish this step by adding a fresh tank of fuel before you ride your motorcycle.

Change your fluids – Drain old engine oil, replace the filter, and then replenish the engine with new oil before you ride your motorcycle this summer. Other fluids you need to check include transmission fluid, brake fluid and coolant.

Lubricate cylinders – Wasef claims that by removing the spark plugs and pouring two tablespoons of oil into the spark plug ports, you can lubricate the top portion of the cylinder walls. This can be useful if you failed to spray fogging oil on the top of the cylinder when you prepared your motorcycle for winter storage. Examine the chain and lubricate it, if necessary.

Charge your battery – Inspect the battery leads for corrosion. Wasef advises topping off each battery cell with distilled water before charging. Make certain the battery is fully charged before going on your first motorcycle ride. Otherwise, you run the risk of becoming stranded because of a depleted battery.

Inflate your tires and shocks – Inspect the tires for hairline cracks, bubbles, weak spots or stress marks and address each issue separately. Inflate each tire to the specified quantity of air pressure. Continue by inspecting the shocks. Give the kickstand a few trial kicks, and lubricate it if uncooperative.

Wash and wax your motorcycle – Thoroughly clean the exterior of your motorcycle using a gentle cloth, and then protect it with a thin coat of wax.

Use a safety checklist – The Motorcycle Safety Foundation offers a free safety checklist that you should use every time you ride. The T-CLOCS checklist, which stands for tires and wheels, controls, lights, oil, chassis and stands, covers every critical safety aspect on your motorcycle.

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Like any piece of machinery, a car needs an extra amount of maintenance and protection during seasons where the temperature spikes or falls drastically. On such occasions, regularly checking your car for damage and necessary replacements such as car seat covers, windshields, engine oil status, and car floor mats, not only lengthens the service life of your car, but also maintains comfort and cleanliness.

Winter / Extreme Cold

Driving through blizzards, iced roads, and chilly air is way different than driving through the bliss of a summer breeze. While safe driving is imperative all year long, driving during winter requires a lot of precaution and necessary steps to ensure optimum car control, safety and comfort.

Speaking of comfort, changing the interior of a car to suit the cold weather is a must. Ditching those old sets of cotton jeep seat covers and switching to sheepskin car seat covers is one of the best ways to keep warm inside a car while a snowstorm is brewing outside. A great addition to provide some warmth inside a vehicle is a car warmer to complement those thick sheepskin jeep seat covers. Apart from generating heat to the car’s interior, car warmers also prevent vehicles from icing up and becoming brittle. Placing thick car floor mats can also help insulate your car and create warmth.

Replacing regular tires with winter tires is also a good option to maintain maneuverability of the vehicle whendriving on snow and ice-covered roads. Winter tires offer better grip and road traction because special treads enable the snow to slide off as the tire rolls.

To keep the car engine in tip-top shape throughout the winter, make sure that you put an antifreeze solution in your radiator every day to keep your engine from frosting. A 50/50 mixture of water and antifreeze solution at full level every single day will keep your engine running and protected from the biting cold. Keeping a daily track of the engine oil and other motor fluids, such as steering and brake fluids, is also a must to ensure the optimum performance of the car and your safety as well.

You must also stock on windshield washer fluid in conjunction to replacing the wiper blades as you need to keep the windshield clean when driving out. Battery state must also be checked frequently because extreme cold strips the battery of its charge. Washing and waxing the car on a regular basis not only gives the car a boost in terms of looks during the winter, but also protects the body, the chassis, and the tires from salt corrosion.

Extreme Heat

When driving though extremely hot regions, such as deserts, or areas affected by heat waves, it is best that you prep your vehicle and yourself for the significant rise in temperature. Unchecked vehicles cruising through a heat wave may end up with blown tires or melted rubber accessories under the hood. Hoses, engine belts, and tires are made of rubber. Under extreme heat, they can easily cause a total breakdown of your vehicle.

Checking the pressure of your tires not only prevents them from blowing up, but allows you to see if they need to be replaced. Worn-out tires are very vulnerable of blowing up under tremendous heat. Aside from tires, checking the engine for clogged air filters, corroded battery posts and the coolant level of your car before heading out to the road or desert trail is pretty much an imperative.

You can leave air-conditioning out in the equation, as it is the one that provides interior cooling. Checking the status of the air-conditioning system’s refrigerant is one way to keep the cooling system running smooth.

Preventative car maintenance in summer months is not much different from what it takes to maintain cars in winter. In summer, you have to regularly check and maintain the mechanical components of the car to tackle the rigors of the hot summer conditions. The following tips on preventative car maintenance in summer assures you trouble less rides:

The very first thing you need to take care is the cooling system. During the hotter months, the cooling system works more intensely to prevent overheating of the engine. For the mechanism to work effectively, the coolant and water mixture for a vehicle’s radiator should measure to 50:50.

The next point about preventative car maintenance in summer is tire pressure. Tire pressure is important in all contexts – irrespective of whether it is for speed or for safety reasons. If you need your car’s tires to last long and perform efficiently, you will need to inflate them properly. Properly pumped up tires help maintain the best possible contact with the road giving the vehicle steadiness and speed. Inflating tires improperly, on the other hand, leads problems like punctures.

Refer to your owner’s manual for the ideal air-pressure for your vehicle’s tire. Remember, summer heat causes the pressure within the tire to rise; hence, you will be required to check the air pressure when the tires are cold. The subsequent preventative measure for your car’s maintenance involves engine oil. The owner’s manual specifically mentions the best engine oil for your vehicle during hot summers. Yet, the general rule for engine oil necessitates you to use a little thick, viscous oil, which lubricates the integral parts of the engine.

Next in order of importance is the car’s battery. Car batteries hardly signal failure well ahead of time. It is advisable to leave all cares of car-batteries to professionals, especially in summertime when the excessive heat causes further damage to it. Changing your car battery every three years will save you a lot of trouble.

Beside these essential tips about preventative car maintenance in summer months, your cars need some lesser yet significant maintenance programs too. Replacing belts and hoses is one such car-care as is inspecting the wipers and wiper fluids.

Round up your preventative car maintenance in summer time by placing an emergency kit including basic tools like flashlights, pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches, etc. inside your car. With your car ready to budge, you can hoard some rations if you are really thinking of a long journey. Placing a first-aid kit in the car will make your journey 100% safe.

I am going to start this article with an obvious cliché that says that the car is one of the most important and useful inventions of all times by far, in the whole history of humankind.

Yet, getting over this aspect of the problem we land on this: how important is the maintenance to a car (owner). This is a very suitable question because there are many people that would rather buy an expensive car and not to make those indispensable maintenance changes that simply have to be done at some point, or simply there are people that do not take care of their cars but only when they do not seem to work at all anymore.

Yet, no matter if we are discussing about a car as a personal asset, a car as a public transportation mean it is suggested to avoid different difficulties that may appear when owning a car.

Try not to be one of those owners rather indifferent to their cars that simply start the car, drive and then park it. Not knowing what may be wrong with your car or how it works it makes it impossible to maintain it in a perfect condition.

Do not think of keeping your car in a perfect condition as another way to lose money – think of if you keep it in a perfect condition you will get to sell the car at a great price in a few years.

Think if you really afford not to pay the attention, you should to your car, and go for learning how to take care of it. Even if you do not know basic things about cars such as how to do a rudimentary check of your car engine, or how to check your engine oil level, the spark plug change (if it may be the case) or even the windscreen wiper change it does mean you have to worry.

All these can be learnt very easily and the Internet is full useful advice on this subject. Another important thing you should learn (if you do not already know, of course) is how to take care of your car during winter months when winter tires are required and sometimes even chains. I have listed below a few basics when it comes to owning and maintaining a car.

First of all, you will need to know how to buy a new car, what values you should look for and how to spot possible problems. This will take just a few hours because all you have to do is check car guides and see a few aspects and their meaning.

Second, assuming you do not want to buy a new car, or simply want to buy a used one too, you should know how to buy a used car and not be scammed. This way you will know how to sell it yourself in the future and obtain a good price for it.

Third, you will need to prepare some kind of a schedule based on which you will do a routine check-up. This will avoid any serious problems in the future.

Fourth, something very important is to how to change a tire because there are many people who simply do now know what to do.

And last, but not least you will need to know when the battery is flat and how you can either replace it or recharge it.

Of course, aside from these, there are a few other general aspects that you should note, but these will give you a great start.

With the long cold days of winter about to start, you may be thinking that with nobody looking to travel long distances now is the time that both you and the car can rest. Guess again! Winter requires as much and perhaps even more car care than summer time because winter could just worsen whatever technical problem your car was showing in summer. The following tips will show you how to avoid some common winter problems.

Engine

Note down problems like stalling or difficult starts, less power, rough idling and try to get your hands dirty and fix them. Else, get a technician at a repair shop to look at them. These problems might well have existed during summer but winter always tends to make them worse.

Oil

It is important that during winter times, you use oil that can handle the cold weather and manage to flow quickly to critical engine parts, even during severe winter conditions. The frequency of oil changes will depend on the kind of driving you do in the winter – the Owner’s Manual will suggest to you how often you need to change the oil for various driving types. Usually it is suggested that oil be changed every 3-5,000 miles.

Battery

It is again important to check on the battery. The battery’s power comes down significantly in severe cold weather. This is made worse in older batteries. They tend to work fine in summer but fail as soon as the temperature drops. It is therefore essential that a technician check your battery, especially if it is at least four years old. Of course, despite all this it is better to be prepared at all times, with a set of good jumper cables. It might also be a good idea to have a portable power pack in the car, which can again be used in emergencies.

Heater/Defroster

A properly working heater/defroster not only helps passengers stay comfortable but also helps the driver’s visibility, as to drive safely you need to be able to see clearly through the windshield. Keeping a full gas tank helps in being ready but also reduces the chances of any moisture forming in the lines that carry the fuel, which can freeze up and cause problems.

Tire Care

Maintaining proper inflation in tires during winter is also essential. During cold weather, air contracts and so air in the tires also contracts. Highly inflated tires will increase the wear and tear on tires and also increase the fuel consumption. On the other hand, under inflated tires will just reduce traction. You could also consider going in for special tires, which are designed to grip slippery roads when snow and ice can be a problem.

Lights and Wipers

Always make sure that lights are inspected regularly to ensure that bulbs can be lit and headlights be aimed properly. Also, even wiper blades have to be taken care of. Replace them regularly and even consider special snow blades if you are going to be driving in severe weather.

Warm Up

During winter, when you start the engine, just wait for a few seconds so that a proper flow of oil has been started and there is adequate lubrication before driving off. However, waiting for too long is also not good, as that will just waste gas.

Take care of your car for the winter and your car will ensure your safety even during the worst of winter.