If you want to keep your car safe and valuable, it is best to regularly check it. Or if you buy a second-hand car, there are a number of things to check before making your purchase. In addition you can acquire a cover at MyCarCovers to protect it best when you are not using it.
Check Tyres
A vital part of safe driving is a legal set of tyres. If you have your car regularly serviced, the garage should tell you when it’s time to change your tyres. For your own peace of mind, check the correct tyre pressures for each make of car.
Check Registration
All you need to know about car number plates, giving the years of registration and the letters that show where it was first registered. The new registration is designed to last until 2050, with changes every March and September. The second two characters are numbers that indicate the age of the car.
Check Battery
Batteries are probably the biggest single cause for non starting, especially in colder weather. There are tips to get you going if your battery is flat how to jump start or push start your car.
Check Engine
Most engine repair jobs are better off performed by a qualified mechanic but with a few tips you can carry out minor repairs and servicing yourself or just make sure that you’re not being ripped off by a dodgy garage.
Check Brakes
Checking brakes is usually a job for experienced mechanics it is advisable to have them checked each time you have your car serviced. Tell tale signs if its excessive brake effort or excessive brake travel our troubleshooters will give you some possible causes and solutions.
40 mph FRONTAL OFFSET CRASH TEST.
A major part of NCAP current testing program is Crashworthiness Evaluations of new passenger vehicles. The principal component of each vehicle’s rating is performance in a 40 mph frontal offset crash test, based on certain criteria.
All of the passenger vehicles for which the Institute has 40 mph frontal offset crash test results are shown on their website. The Institute tries to cover as much of the marketplace as possible with this testing program.
The vehicles represent a range of manufacturers and the largest portions of new car sales. The Crashworthiness Evaluations of new passenger vehicles tests a car’s performance in a 40 mph frontal offset crash test, to measure its structural design.
Suspension Testing
A safe vehicle must be able to stop and maneuver over a wide range of road conditions. To be able to stop and maneuver quickly there must always be good contact between the tyres and the road. The suspension is responsible for keeping the tyre firmly planted on the road. The suspension also provides a comfort buffer between the rough road and the passenger cabin.
There are many different types of suspensions. Each is a compromise between comfort, cost, and road holding. To meet these compromises for each vehicle, many types of suspensions have been developed. Each design shares two essential components springs and shock absorbers.
Some vehicles have struts instead of shocks. In reality, a strut is just a shock absorber built into a suspension link. The strut is generally replaceable as one unit. In this discussion, any reference to shock absorbers will also apply to struts.
There are also some variations in the type of springs used on vehicles. There are coil springs, leaf springs, air springs, and torsion bars. Despite the differences in design, these variations all react with the suspension in the same manner. Any further reference made to springs will be general and includes any of these types.
The Shock Absorber
The shock controls spring motion by damping (absorbing) energy from the spring. A shock absorbs energy by forcing oil through valves whenever it is moved. It takes a lot of energy to push oil through the valves so when the spring is done pumping, it doesn’t have much energy left to keep bouncing.
Imagine running 50 yards on bare ground – you could do it and have plenty of energy to run back again. Now imagine running the same 50 yards through 6 inches of mud. How much energy would you have for a return pass?
Shocks also control the reaction of the body to road undulations. A stiffer shock tends to transmit more road irregularities to the driver but will also not pitch and roll as much as a vehicle with softer shocks. Thus shocks, like springs, can be changed to obtain a personalized ride.
Shock absorber condition is difficult to evaluate. Shocks are wear items, like air filters or tyres , and do need to be replaced occasionally. The Car Care Council recommends inspection at 25,0
What if the shock absorber is just wery expensive diagnostic technique. The only way, up until recently, to check shock performance was a test drive or bumper jounce test – both of which are very subjective. In any case it was difficult to identify the worn part because all the shocks are working together.
The Need for Suspension Testing
Why is it so important to keep good tyre contact? All actions a vehicle performs – acceleration, cornering, and braking are transmitted through the tyres . The tyres perform all these actions through a phenomenon called friction. The most important rule of friction is that the more two objects are pressing together the higher the frictional forces between them. Therefore, it is necessary for the tyre to be pressing firmly on the road at all times if the vehicle is going to brake and turn.