Why I Have to Do “Wheel Balancing”?

INTRODUCTION

“Most of the car owners go for wheel balancing these days, Should I also go for it? What really it do to my car? What are the advantages of wheel balancing??? ” If you are reading this article; It is most probable that you also have above questions on your mind. The real case of this is that “Out of balance” tires cause car to vibrate at some speeds (typically between 50 - 70 mph). Tire is said to be out of balance when one part of the tire is heavier than the others places. Strictly saying, 1 oz of imbalance in a front tire is well enough to start a clear vibration in your steering wheel at around 60 mph.

WHEEL BALANCING EQUIPMENT

To precisely balance tires or wheels, tire seller or the repairing store must have a modern and precisely calibrated “spin balancer”. These apparatus should be competent of getting static (stopped) and dynamic (rotating) balance. Anyway, the old “bubble wheel balancer” can do a well-mannered work by getting static balancing correctly, but the dynamic balance only can be achieved by spin balancer equipment. This is especially vital with today's heavier tire rim sets, and totally necessary to run flat tires that have thick stiff side walls.

The majority of wheel balancers nowadays have self calibrated electronics with precision to hundredths of an ounce. Digital displays also put together information faster to read and realize, so the probability of making a fault is less. Modern equipments have automatic data-entry for wheel width/diameter save the time.

The majority wheel balancers nowadays function at lower speeds. This help to expand the life time of the motor and reduce the risk to the operator. But the old equipments operate faster at roughly about 500rpm equals to 55-60mph to produce a efficient signal. Anyway, further precise electronics in modern wheel balancers are competent of picking up the vibrations at lower speeds at about 100rpm equivalent to 10-5mph. Following image shows a modern wheel balancer.

WHEEL BALANCING

For the balancing purpose, Technician will mount the wheel on balancing instrument which will spin the wheel to find the heavier area. Then the technician will balance the heavy part by attaching small “lead weight” on the contradictory side. Most of the people are amazed by feeling smooth their car after balancing the all four wheels.High quality tires/wheels will go out of balance rarely. But as most of we are general public in every way, we are not always rich enough to afford those highly prices tires (As an example, I use 8 to 10 $ used tires for 2nd car at my home, the old Datsun 120 Y). So it is always better to balance the wheels at least in 6 months intervals or more frequently if you can.

What is Power Steering ???

INTRODUCTION

Really this is what helps us steer the vehicles by boosting up steering attempt of the steering wheel. The Hydraulic or electric system adds controlling energy to the steering machinery, so we only need to provide less effort despite the conditions. Power steering helps very much when a vehicle stopped or when moving slowly.

Representative power steering systems enhance steering effort using an actuator (hydraulic cylinder) which is element of servo system.These systems really have straight mechanical link between the steering wheel and the connection that steers the wheels. This means power steering system failure will still permits the vehicle to be steered using manual effort alone. If the power steering system needs oil, the oil level must be always kept at some satisfactory level to stop getting less performances or damage to the system.

Other power steering systems (e.g. largest off-road or construction vehicles) have no direct mechanical connection to the steering linkage and they require power. Systems of this kind have no mechanical connection. In other systems electric motors provide the assistance instead of hydraulic systems (electronically assisted power steering). As same as hydraulic types motor will supply power to the actuator and is controlled by the rest of the power-steering system.A small amount of construction vehicles comprise a two-part frame (with rugged hinge) and this hinge will allow the front and rear axles to become non-parallel to steer.

Identifying Power Steering Problems

If your power steering system looks like having some problem, it is more likely to have some kind of oil leak. It may be a sluggish or rapid leak. The leak has to be fixed quickly to avoid bigger problems. You can identify a leak by lowering of power steering fluid. You must always check the power steering fluid in your car frequently.

If your do notice that the power steering starts buzzing and then gradually get bad over a some more days/weeks, it is most probable to have some slow oil leak. Then suddenly the power steering not works properly, and then it must be due to some blown seal or the power steering pump has some leak. Also one can visually check the power steering lines and look over your drive-way to see whether puddle like fluid accumulates on floor. It is always better to go to a service personnel at once you identify a power steering fluid leak to avoid more costly to repair problems.

We will see some more deep ideas about power steering systems in my next article on this topic

Car Cleaning and Its Importance…

Car cleaning refers to cleaning interior, exterior and engine. But normally we are as busy people; we do not have time to clean all parts of the car. Cleaning the under side and engine of a car is not taken into consideration here for normal day to day cleaning (Cleaning in scheduled servicing is enough for under side and engine of the car). So as mentioned in the first part of this book, it is important to keep a car clean because it increases the life time of the car and keeps the car in nice condition.

Keeping the body of car with dirt will lead to corrosion on body. If you clean it regularly, beauty of the car will remain for a long time. Always use a good quality car wash ( eg. California Gold Car Wash) but not normal soap or any other reagent. It is important to not to keep mud and dust on the body.

To keep the shine of car, wax it in every six months. Waxing kit like Turtle Car Wax Kit will help you to do it at home on your own. Parking the under direct sun light reduces the shine of paint. So park your car under a shade whenever possible. When car is parked in a garage, it must be a ventilated garage.

Cleaning of interior includes cleaning dashboard, seats, carpets door boards etc. You not need to go to an interior cleaning center in every week. Vacuum cleaners, soft brushes and soft cloths can be used for simple interior cleaning at home. It is better if you can go for a complete interior cleanup for every six months. For that,you may use a product such like Meguiar's Complete Car Care Kit if you want to do it at your home. It will help to keep healthy not only your car; it will also keep you healthy.

Driving through Water....

When we drive a car in out day to day life, we find lot of obstacles in roads. Water covered areas or flooded areas are one of the main obstacles we may find on a road. The decision we take to Drive trough it or not is a very critical decision. Because if we don't know the road well it is dangerous to drive through since we have no idea about distance of the water area, depth of water, cracks or holes in the road etc.

Driving through a deep and long water area is always not recommended for a normal car. Because in a normal car, interior, engine and electrical systems are not water proofed. If water touches any electrical parts, electric shots may possible. If water goes in to engine through silencer, air intake etc, car will stop and water inside car engine means another engine repair! Also water goes in to internal parts drastically shorten the life time of the car.Also when we buying a used car, we should bring some mechanic to check weather the car is previously flooded. Especially a car flooded with sea water may quickly become unusable.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You may attempt to drive through a water area if you are familiar with that road and if you know it is safe to through. Typical procedure of driving through a water area is driving in moderate speed (10-20 Km/h) in gear position one without slowing down the engine until you cross the area. You can't stop the car in middle of water because if you stop, water may go in to the engine through the silencer and engine will stop eventually.

Dashboard Warnings…

On a car dashboard there are lot of indicators and meters. Meters of course we can clearly see what is happening as they displays what is all about and what is the level of it ( e.g. fuel meter shows fuel level, Speed o meter shows the car speed etc.) but when considering warning indicator lights, they have special meanings which we should have a clear understanding about them.

At Startup:

The meaning of startup here is that the instance you are putting the car key into keyhole and attempt to start the vehicle. When you turn on the car (before ignite the engine) all the warning indicators will glow. This does not mean that your car is in a trouble but it means that corresponding warning system is in test mode. Soon after you started the engine all of these indicators must be gone of if corresponding system does not have a problem. Following picture shows a car dashboard with warning indicators on at the startup position.

Car Body Kits...

People think that body kits are used for car only for the good looks but the truth is that they give more sophisticated good (sometimes bad) qualities! It's true that most of the body kits help to improve the looks (of course there are lot of awful looking body kits too....). In that matter, usual rule is that body kits improve the appearance of  newer cars but not of the older ones. As an example, how if a body kit is fixed to a Austin A10 or something like that? 

                                         Now for our case lets think that at least we have a brand new "Suzuki Liana"! (Suzuki Liana owners don't get angry with me...) Just a joke! Lets get into the discussion again. So what are the other qualities added by body kits to our cars? Most important thing is that most body kits do improve the stability or the handling. That means improvement of degree of control-ability. Most bad quality added by a body kit is that the added weight. More weight implies lower acceleration, Less top speed and hard to control in corners at high speeds. But above things can be avoided by using materials like carbon fiber for the manufacture of body kits which are light weight. But since the carbon fiber is not affordable, most people use fiber glass which have much higher weight than carbon fiber. A well designed body kit will also have air intakes for brake disk, engine and intercooler (if you got one) to improve performances by cooling them down. So when you think about a body kit, consider above tips if you really want to improve the quality of your car... :)

Turbochargers? Superchargers?...

I am sure that many of you people have heard these two words but most people do not know about the the differences between these two. So I am going to briefly discuss the differences, pros and cons of these two types.

 SUPERCHARGER UNIT

         

First thing is that both of these units are used to increase the boosting power of engines and both works as air compressors. They compress the air and increase the amount of oxygen atoms in a unit air volume so the engine will get more oxygen at a unit time. This leads to more power output ( Increases the horse power). So a car with turbo or super charger will have more horses under their hood than a same type of car that does not have any charger.

TURBOCHARGER UNIT

                           Most people have a wrong idea that supercharger will give more power always than a turbocharger. That mistake has happened since the word 'super'. Turbo works with the power of useless exhaust gas of a engine but supercharger will absorb some power directly from the engines main output mechanical power and this decreases the amount of power we are using to drive our car! But supercharger has good throttle response because it drives directly by engine. But in order to get the maximum effect of the turbocharger, engine must work at high RPM such that more exhaust gas runs through the turbo. This means we have to always drive at high RPM to get the maximum power. 

  INTER-COOLER  UNIT

                                                                                                 

Turbochargers are commonly used than superchargers because of energy efficiency described above. So my suggestion to you is to use a turbo if you want to increase the boost of your car engine. Also use an inter-cooler device between engine end the turbocharger to get the maximum out of a turbo unit. Good luck for Power!

The Most Basics of Car Maintenance ...

The Most Basic Thing You Have to Check before You Start a Journey In Your Car Are,




1. Check the Tires - Check them for their nice shape and satisfactory air pressure.

 
2.  Radiator Coolant Level - Check the radiator for water/coolant level. It should be at maximum level.

3.  Engine Oil Level - Check using the dip-stick for correct oil level. It should be between low and high.

4. Windshield Washer - Check windshield washer for correct water/washing reagent level.

5. Check the Lights - Check head,tail,signal,break,reverse,fog(if have) lamps for the correct operation.

 
6. Look at Dash Indicators - All dash indicators must be gone off after you turn on the engine.

7. Check the Breaks - As you start your journey, apply the breaks twice and check for its operation carefully.

Following Above Seven Simple Car Tips Will Bring You Longer for Sure! 

Why & How to Clean Underside of My Car....?

You know, the whole car is on the chassis of your car and most of hard parts of the chassis belongs to the underside of the car. If the this chassis get corrosion and loss its hardness, the whole car including you are in big trouble. So we must keep it corrosion free always. For that purpose we need to clean it in shorter intervals.

This can be easily done at a service station for some

less amount of cash.But even if the better way is to going to a service station, you can do it at your home at a low cost. You just need some brushes, car wash detergents, a high pressure water supply ( high means high OK) and a way to lift the car for some amount. Since this is a routine process, you can prepare a small ramp using something like concrete at your back yard with the help of a mason and you may prepare the high pressure waterline using a water pump connected one end to your home water tank and the other end to high pressure pipe fitted to a smaller nozzle.

Using a system described above you may properly wash the under body of the car very easily. After washing, allow the underside to dry properly. If your car is a new model, the job is almost finish now. But if you have an older car that only has underside with only metallic surface, grease the underside with a grease pump properly for added safety.

Unnecessary Modifications : Large Alloy Wheels

These days one of the most popular modification trend is using larger diameter alloys for old vehicles (sometimes for new vehicles also). This is mostly done to get a modern modern look for the car. Of course it gives a nice shape for some old cars but sadly not for all the cars!

Most people prefer larger diameter wheel than what their cars had originally. But they pay the price later since usually cars are made to use some specified sizes of wheels which have decided by the manufacturer after lot of tests. The major problem experienced by the owner just after they put new wheels is that wheel hiring the the mud guards or wheel arches while the car bumps and when they are steer the front wheels. If the above problem is too worse they not gonna use those wheels longer. For our case, lets assume that we do not have the above problem.

So! the car goes fine now. Now let's talk about the secondary problems. Since the wheels are larger, they hit the ground more. So the friction between tires and ground increases, this leads us to many problems. Bigger weight is put on engine, gearbox, transmission system,steering system, breaks and literary every mechanical part of the car because whole car is on its wheels.
This means that the wastage of above parts increases. It is sure that you car will start to drink more fuel and your wallet will loss its weight faster! Your loving car may get into more troubles even which have not discussed here.




Therefore the conclusion is simple, you must really think several times before putting new set of wheels to your car. Most of the time it is between "Beautiful car+ Wasting money" and "originality car+ Saving money". It is always better to go to a qualified professional mechanic or an engineer before you change your wheels.

Importance of Cleaning Mud Guards...

By the meaning, you can understand the what the mud guard does. Simply, those are made to prevent spilling of mud on the body while your car is moving. So! after you drive some distance, considerable amount of mud will be accumulated on all four mud guard of your car.

Now the problems arise when you allow mud to be in mud guards for some long time because the mud guards are made from metal and metal will get corrosion due to mud and water in mud. Therefore if mud holds on mud guards longer, you are in trouble! You may need to spend some good cash in body shop for repairing the body. Also this will degrade the quality of your wheels.

To prevent corrosion, the solution is simple and clear. You just have to make sure that no mud lives longer on your car's mud guards. That's all! For that, you need to clean the mud guards thoroughly using a brush, car wash and water at least ones a week. But keep in mind that car lovers do it every day! I wish you are a car lover anyway!

Importance of Engine Oil...

This indicator may goes on due to many reasons related to engine oil. But the main indication is car sensors that engine oil level is low. If you see this immediately check the engine oil level and if the level is low, fill it to the level as shown below.


Engine oil is one of most important thing for a car because it lubricates whole engine to reduce friction between moving metal parts of engine and it helps to cool down metal parts to avoid expansion of engine parts due to intense heat. If you drive car with insufficient amount of engine oil, after some time engine will heated to a very high temperature and after that lot of problems may possible. Some of them are quick wastage of metal parts, cracking of cylinder head, braking of gasket, braking of pistons etc. Over heating of an engine may lead to sever engine damage. Repairing of an engine is one of most costly repairs of cars.

Why Accidents??

Most of the accidents take place due to high speeds because stopping distance increases with the speed greatly. As an example, if you can stop your car completely within 25 meters at 30 Km/h, even you cannot stop your car within 100 meters (25 x 4) at the speed 120 Km/h (30 x 4). You need at least 150 meters for a normal car. This means that stopping distance is not proportional to the speed! Therefore it is very important to drive cars in moderate speed. High speed also decreases the fuel efficiency. From following plot you may easy to understand that a car gives its maximum mileage in moderate speeds (For this particular car at 40 Mph)

Next thing is driving after using liquors. Because after taking liquors, reaction time of human decreases and takes lot of time for driving actions. As example, Driver cannot stop the car rapidly to avoid an accident because he takes lot of time to get the decision of hitting the brakes!

So it is important to drive without having liquor, in moderate speeds wearing the seat belts. Seat belts are very important because if your car has air bags, they will also not work in case of an accident if you don’t wear your seat belts properly.

All About Seat Belts...

Wear your seat belts :

Why every one says to wear the seat belts? Why almost every car has seat belts? There is a reason for that. Because in case of an accident, seat belts can greatly reduce the probability of sever damage to the passengers.

Even if the accident is a big one you may live 85% if wear seat belts and if you don’t you only live 20%! Therefore it is very important to wear the seat belts.

Seat belts for babies..???

NO! It is not recommended use normal car seat belts for children under age of 5 years. Because seat belts are installed to save adult passengers. Therefore whenever babies are carried in cars, a baby seat must be used.

Special baby seats:

These are specially developed seats which can be fixed into cats to carry small children safely. This is the safest method to carry a baby in a car.


These seats are available in market in several qualities and several types. It is advisable to not to go for cheaper ones and to buy a good quality product because this is all about your child’s life.

About Spare Wheels…

Spare wheels:

Normally, Car tires are air filled and in case of a tire damage air comes out and tire become flatten. So with a flatten tire you cannot drive your car safely. Car loses its stability and may cause big accidents. Therefore when ever any tire becomes flatten you must change the tire. In such situation we need the help of a spare wheel.

In case of a tire punch you are in trouble! You need at
least one good spare wheel in your car!

It is better if you can bring two spare wheels when ever you are traveling to remote areas. This is not necessary if you are using the vehicle in an urban area because there are places to repair the tires and carrying added weight may decrease the fuel efficiency of your vehicle.

If you drive without changing the tires, it will cause unrecoverable damages on tires…

At the stage soon after the tire punch, it can be repaired or rebuilt. But if you drive further with the punched tire, it becomes unusable and you cannot repair it again by any means.




Wheel changing tools:

Even if you have a good spare wheel in your car you cannot replace a punched tire with the spare wheel if you don’t have wheel changing tools. Therefore you must always carry wheel changing tools in your car…

Have a Look around before you go !....

If you are a car user, you should try to have a quick check around your car before driving off. Because you can identify roughly whether tires have the right air pressure and car is in stable condition.

It is good if you can check your car weekly for following things,

External:

- Head lamps, tail lamps, signal lights, brake lights, reverse lights

- Wipers

- Air pressure of tires/spare wheel

- Any damages in body

- Wash and clean car carefully



Inside Car:

- Dashboard indicator lights

- All meters working???

- Clean carpets, seats, door boards and dashboard






Engine Room:

- Coolant/Water level of radiator

- Engine oil level of engine

- Brake/Clutch oil level

- Wind screen washer soap/water level

- Water Level of the battery

- Any Strange sounds???