Thursday, May 16, 2013

5 Serious Mistakes in Car Maintenance
  • Roaming Around with Burned-out Lights
Compared to most other car maintenance, it's relatively easy and inexpensive to replace light bulbs. So do it. You should know pretty quickly if your headlights or high beams burn out since you won't be able to see, and the turn signal indicators on your dash should clue you in if something's wrong there. Running lights, taillights and brake lights aren't quite as obvious, so just take a look every now and then.

  • Attempting a Jump Start Without Really Knowing How
Putting jumper cables in your trunk doesn't mean you automatically know how to jump-start a car, but at least you did it before your battery died, right? But if you don't use jumper cables properly, you can fry your car ... or yourself. Though the procedure is really simple, you should learn how to do it before you actually need to. Not standing on the side of the highway while reading this article on your phone. That's dangerous

  • Haphazard Electric Work
Some automotive pros say that the current in your car isn't strong enough to really hurt you but it's always better to be on the safe side, which means assuming that you could sustain injury [source: AA1Car]. Even if you don't suffer an electrical shock, you could easily start an electrical fire, or possibly overload your car's wiring or other electrical components. So, you should know what you're dealing with ahead of time. Make sure your car is off when it needs to be off (which would be most of the time) and remember to disconnect (and then isolate) the battery's negative cable. And if you drive a hybrid car with a high-voltage battery, avoid touching the battery at all costs. Since hybrids are designed specifically for heavy-duty electrical power, the battery has much more shock potential than an average car and can cause injury on contact.

  • Assuming Bald Tires will last a bit Longer
It's always tempting to try to squeeze a few more miles out of your rubber, but it's certainly not wise. You need to give your car what it needs to maintain proper contact with the road. Think of all you ask your car to do for you, every single day. Now imagine picking up the kids from school in a snowstorm wearing flip-flops, or taking the dog for a run while wearing stilettos. It's all wrong. Your feet need better equipment to get the job done. So does your car.
  • Sloppy Lube Job During Brake Repair
Even though brake jobs typically aren't (strictly speaking) all that difficult, a lot of amateur mechanics like to hire a pro for this kind of work. And it's understandable. Screwing up a brake job can have pretty serious consequences, for obvious reasons. Your car's brakes work because of friction. It's not entirely that simple, but that's the basic principle. When you press (or slam) the brakes, hydraulic pressure in the system makes your brake calipers and brake pads squeeze in, and this friction causes your wheels to slow down.

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5 Ways to Improve Engine Response
  • Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
There's actually a good reason your car's computer might be limiting engine response. Fuel economy is the biggest one. Hard acceleration is one of the biggest fuel drains on the road. By dampening engine response, the computer can save fuel. That saves you cash and also gets the car a better fuel economy rating. Since car companies have to hit a certain average fuel economy rate for all their models, limiting engine response benefits them as well. In some cases, however, the electronic throttle control systems on some cars are just not well-engineered, leading to poor engine response and delays between the driver's request for more engine power and the car actually delivering it.

  • Sense the Problem
Two main sensors are usually the culprits for bad engine responsiveness: the mass air flow sensor and the engine speed sensor. The mass air flow sensor (MAF) measures and reports on the airflow into the engine so the computer can request the appropriate amount of fuel. If the MAF is bad, the engine won't be getting the correct amount of fuel, which will throw off the engine's combustion (we're talking about internal combustion engines, after all) and decrease engine response.
  • Do Some Lines
The fuel pump sends fuel from the gas tank to the engine, but that fuel has to get there somehow. That's where the fuel lines come in. A leak or a kink in your fuel lines, even a tiny one, can rob your engine of performance. Because the fuel lines won't be able to maintain the pressure needed to transport the fuel through the lines, a car with a leaky fuel line won't respond quickly to driver inputs. The fuel lines are like train tracks: If there's a problem with the tracks, the train won't be coming through -- at least not a full speed.

  • Get PUMPED!
Most cars today use an electric fuel pump (but if your car has a carbureted engine, it will likely have a mechanical fuel pump). There are two types of electric fuel pumps: suction type and pusher-type. True to their name, sucker-type fuel pumps suck fuel from the tank by creating a vacuum. Pusher-type pumps are placed in a car's gas tank and push gas to the engine. They should really try to make these pump names less complex.

  • Cough it Up
One of the easiest ways to improve engine and throttle response is by making sure your fuel filter is clean. When you stomp on the gas pedal, it sends a signal for more fuel to go into the engine. To get there, it has to pass through the fuel filter (which filters out impurities and sediment, keeping your engine clean). Asking and engine with a clogged or dirty fuel filter to respond to throttle input is like asking someone to sprint with a muddy towel over their nose and mouth. They can probably do it, but it won't be pretty

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Useful Driving Tips on Skiz Melbourne Driving School Blog

Good driving skills should be developed and practiced at all times. You should also know you physical and mental limitations and not drive a vehicle when you are too tired or sleepy. When traveling long distances, plan ahead, know your route and be alert to the driving conditions. Your ability to safely operate a motor vehicle may save your life as well as the lives of others.
No one can be completely protected from being in a crash. You cannot predict what other drivers will do.

Useful Driving Tips on Skiz Melbourne Driving School Blog


Issued in public interest by www.skiz.com.au.
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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Did You Know Your Car Is Recording You?


Did You Know Your Car Is Recording You?

For well over a decade, essentially every new car has been equipped with an event data recorder similar to an airplane's flight recorder, or "black box."

Normally part of the system that knows when to deploy the airbags, the event data recorder continuously tracks a multitude of facts, such as the vehicle's acceleration rate, speed, various engine functions, seat belt use and more. Such systems are not connected to the GPS and so do not know where the vehicle is located. Furthermore, the data are continuously overwritten, so just the few last seconds of data before an accident may be available. The idea is to give accident investigators a big boost in understanding why a vehicle crashed.


More involved are optional concierge services such as General Motors' OnStar and Ford's Sync. These powerful data links do have GPS and do know where the vehicle is, and they accumulate a huge amount of speed, acceleration and engineering data. So far these systems do not communicate with anyone outside the car unless you ask them to — by pushing the OnStar buttons, for example. But when you do, all sorts of remote control is possible, from unlocking doors and reducing engine power to shutting the car off, as well as tracking the vehicle's position in real time.


Visit us at www.skiz.com.au for all your driving lessons in Melbourne.



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Driving Lessons in Melbourne

Driving in traffic is more than just knowing how to operate the mechanisms which control the vehicle; it requires knowing how to apply the rules of the road (which govern safe and efficient sharing with other users). An effective driver also has an intuitive understanding of the basics of vehicle handling and can drive responsibly.


Driving as a physical skill 

In terms of the basic physical tasks required, a driver must be able to control direction, acceleration, and deceleration. For motor vehicles, the detailed tasks include:

-Starting the vehicle's engine with the starting system
-Setting the transmission to the correct gear
-Depressing the pedals with one's feet to accelerate, slow, and stop the vehicle, and if the vehicle is equipped with a manual transmission, to modulate the clutch
-Steering the vehicle's direction with the steering wheel
-Operating other important ancillary devices such as the indicators, headlights, and windshield wipers
-Observing the environment for hazards



Driving as a mental skill 

Driving as a mental skill is like a constantly re-adjusting flowchart.
Avoiding or successfully handling an emergency driving situation can involve the following skills:

-Making good decisions based on factors such as road and traffic conditions
-Evasive maneuvering
-Proper hand placement and seating position
-Skid control
-Steering and braking techniques
-Understanding vehicle dynamics
-Distractions can compromise a driver's mental skills. One study on the subject of mobile phones and driving safety concluded that, after controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, drivers talking on a phone exhibited greater impairment than drivers who were suffering from alcohol intoxication.
-Another survey indicated that music could affect adversely a driver's concentration.
-Seizure disorders and Alzheimer's disease are among the leading medical causes of mental impairment among drivers in the United --States and Europe. Whether or not physicians should be allowed, or even required, to report such conditions to state authorities, remains highly controversial.

Visit us at www.skiz.com.au for all your driving lessons in Melbourne.



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