Tips on Buying and Installing Car Parts

The Neophyte’s Guide To Replacing Car Brake Pads

Your braking system relies heavily on the pads that apply pressure to the rotors. Due to continuous use, they can wear down, which will make them less capable of applying the necessary pressure. As a result, you’ll need more space in order to stop your vehicle. In emergency driving situations during which you need to stop suddenly to avoid colliding with a car, pedestrian, or structure in front of you, this can pose a major safety issue.

Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to replace your brake pads. If you have the proper tools, you can remove the old ones and put the replacements on without the help of a mechanic. Below, I’ll provide a step-by-step tutorial for doing the job yourself.

Safety And Tools

Your safety (and the safety of anyone who is helping you) is the most important factor. In order to perform the work, you’ll need to lift your vehicle onto sturdy jack stands. Don’t use stands that seem rickety or wobbly. If your car slips, it can be deadly.

Before you begin, make sure you have the right equipment. You’ll need a lug wrench, an adjustable wrench, and a hammer. Also, if you don’t already own one, consider buying a C-clamp. You may not need it, but it will be there in the event you do. You should also have a set of Allen wrenches nearby.

Before raising your vehicle on the jack stands, break the lug nuts. It’s much easier to do it when your car is on the ground rather than struggling with the lugs when it’s raised.

Remove The Lugs And Calipers

Once your automobile is off the ground, take the lug nuts off. Then, remove the wheels so you have a clear view of the calipers. You’ll see two lug bolts that are near the top of the brake disc. Once the bolts are off, you should be able to jiggle the caliper and move it slightly upward and out. This will give you clearance to take the brake pads off.

Remove The Pads

Before taking them off, look at the assembly. You’ll probably see some metallic clips that are holding things together. Make a mental note because you’ll need to replace everything. Once the caliper has been removed, the pads should slide out easily. If they put up any resistance, give them a few light taps with the hammer to loosen them. After you have removed them, slide the replacements into position. Be sure to refasten any clips that you detached during the process of taking the old parts out.

As your brake pads wear out, a piston inside each caliper makes adjustments in order to apply sufficient pressure and ensure you have the stopping power you need. You’ll need to recalibrate it with your C-clamp so it fits over your replacements. After recalibrating the piston, the last step is to replace the caliper, wheel, and lug nuts.

The entire job of putting the placement brake pads on isn’t complicated. As long as you take a methodical approach, you can perform the work within a couple of hours.

An Exploration Of Car Batteries And Proper Maintenance

Without batteries, today’s vehicles would be useless. The part may seem inconspicuous, but it plays a key role in your vehicle’s charging system. It is made up from a collection of lead-acid cells which provide power to the ignition system and other parts of the electrical assembly.

A standard battery provides a 12-volt charge through a connection of six cells in a series. The plates are made of lead and the electrolyte solution is roughly 65% water and 35% sulfuric acid. As the reaction progresses and electricity is generated, the surface of the plates transforms into lead sulfate. When recharged, the lead sulfate turns back to lead and lead oxide. Below, I’ll describe the two primary types of batteries and explain how to properly maintain them.

Types Of Batteries

The two main battery types are shallow cycle and deep cycle. Shallow cycle units are designed to create the large bursts of power needed for your engine’s ignition. While these batteries are continuously charged by the alternator when a car is running, a shallow cycle or “starting” unit is meant to undergo a small amount of discharge. For this reason, overexerting and draining the device can shorten its lifespan and cost more in the long run.

Deep cycle batteries, on the other hand, are intended to provide power for extended periods of time. In addition, they are used to store energy, similar to the way a residential solar panel system stores energy for a home. Other applications include trolling motors and electric vehicles such as golf carts.

Proper Care And Maintenance

With any type of battery, proper maintenance is important in order to lengthen its useful life. The first step in the maintenance process is to check the fluid levels and refill them, if necessary. During electrolysis, water is lost and must be replaced. If the unit is newer, the manufacturer may have added extra in order to compensate for this phenomenon over its useful life.

If you’re planning to store a battery, special care must be taken to prevent draining. It must be fully charged and stored in a cool dry environment. It must also be stored upright; if the unit is tipped, the electrolyte will leak out. This problem can be overcome by the use of an absorbent glass mat (AGM) or gel design. In the case of an AGM layout, a panel of fine glass fibers is immersed in electrolyte until the proper amount has been absorbed. The mats are then left flat or are spun into spirals and loaded into the enclosure with the lead.

In gel designs, the electrolyte is mixed with a binder in order to immobilize the mass. The main advantage of this process is the resilient nature of the resulting product: the units are more resistant to shock, vibration, and temperature extremes.

Most motorists won’t have reason to store their car batteries; they’ll be in use under the hood. That said, follow the tips I’ve given above to store them properly if the need arises.

Running the 4-Square when Buying a Car

The 4-Square has to be the number one sales tool used by car dealers in the US today, but chances are that unless you have been in the industry you have no idea what this is.

The 4-Square is an innocuous form for the salesman to take his notes on while discussing what car you should be buying.

This is not something to be afraid of as a car buyer, but you should be aware of what it is being used for, and more importantly, to understand how it can be used against you.

The 4-Square is a worksheet, divided into 4 boxes (hence the name, 4-Square), and the car sales person will use this to form their basis for the negotiation on the car deal.

The boxes will cover:

Car Trade-in – how much your car will be taken in part exchange for the new vehicle and a typical dealer will look to have you put a third into the deal, though this is negotiable and can be more or less.

Purchase Price of New Vehicle – this is the dealer’s price for the car, and the sales person will usually write the “price + fees”, so this leaves room for sales taxes, titles and licensing fees plus any other extras you choose to have as optional extras, such as a warranty.

Deposit or Downpayment – how much cash you are prepared to put into the deal.

Monthly payment budget – how high a monthly payment you are prepared to make on the deal. This is a crucial figure for the sales person who will to focus your attention on it – you may be pleased with the high trade-in value offered or negotiated up, but the dealer will try to inflate this figure to counteract this and still take the same profit on the deal.

The 4-Square works because of two things: firstly, when something is written down it becomes a powerful statement for those who read it , and especially if it is a record being made of something you have said. If you tell the sales person your maximum monthly budget is $400, then it becomes very difficult to back away from that figure and the deal is likely to be made using your maximum and frequently, more than that. The second thing the 4-Square does it to give structure to the negotiations, especially helpful for the sales person because it helps them to keep you focused on the key areas which are important to the dealer.

This is simple sales psychology at work in practice, but there are things you can do to make sure you do not get trapped into a negotiating corner and turn the 4-Square to your advantage.

The first piece of advice is to keep the negotiations and the deal very simple. This allows less wriggle room in negotiations by the dealership, so for instance, look at selling your old vehicle separately rather than throwing it in as a part-exchange. Another suggestion is to shop around and secure car financing before you start negotiating on the deal with the sales person. By taking the trade-in and financing out of the negotiation, you have eliminated half of the 4-Square and will probably be getting a better deal for those elements than you could get from the dealer. More importantly, you have taken the ability to manipulate monthly payments out of the dealer’s control altogether – they only have the price of the car to negotiate with and it becomes clear to them that if they want to sell it, they must negotiate on price.

If you wish to go through the dealer for financing (and many do have access to very low rates), or take advantage of the ability to trade your old car in, then do yourself a favor – work out the numbers for yourself using your own version of the 4-Square.

Leasing Vs. Buying A Car: A Comparison

Buying a car versus leasing it. That decision continues to plague millions of people each year. There are a lot of factors to weigh and despite what some people claim, one choice is not necessarily better than the other. The decision depends mostly on the individual buying the car. Today, I’ll provide a point-by-point overview comparing the most important factors to consider.

Initial Investment

Regardless of whether you’re buying a new or used car, or leasing one, you’ll need to pay registration fees, taxes, and a down payment. A lease will also require a security deposit (usually refundable later) and the payment for the first month. On the surface, it’s impossible to tell which is better.

Size Of Payments

You’ve probably heard that a lease offers “more car for your money.” This refers to the size of the monthly payments. In effect, the payments you make on your car loan are always higher than lease payments on the same make and model. The reason why loan payments are higher is because the value of the car is built into the payments. With a lease, you’re simply paying for the depreciation.

Mileage And Usage

Leases carry mileage caps. A dealership will usually build a cap of 12,000 miles into the contract. If you drive more than that amount during any year of the lease, you’ll pay a fee (and it’s often hefty). You may be able to negotiate a higher annual cap, but it might drive your lease payments up. On the other hand, if you’re buying a car, you can drive it as much as you’d like. That is, there’s no annual mileage limit.

Custom Car Parts

When buying a car, you can add any parts you’d like. Whether you’re doing it for aesthetics or to bolster its performance on the road, you won’t be limited by the terms of your contract. Leasing is different. While you can add or replace car parts according to your preferences, the vehicle must be returned at the end of the lease in its original condition. That means you’ll need to remove any customization you’ve done. If that results in damage, structural or otherwise, you’ll be charged for the repairs.

Lease Or Buy?

The biggest factor is one of ownership. After paying off your car loan, the vehicle belongs to you. You can replace parts, drive it as much as you wish, or do anything you’d like with it, including selling it. At the end of your lease contract, you’ll either need to enter another lease, buy the current car, or purchase another. That’s why the payments are higher for a car loan. In the end, consider how important each of the factors above is for your individual circumstances and preferences. That’s the most effective way of making the right choice for your lifestyle.

Possible Reasons Your Car’s Engine May Be Randomly Misfiring

You might hear your mechanic groan if he sees an OBD P0300 when doing a diagnostic check on your car’s engine. That is a diagnostic code that means multiple cylinders are randomly misfiring. There are several potential culprits and identifying the root cause is often time-intensive.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the reasons your engine may be experiencing a random misfire (RM). I’ll describe some of the symptoms that suggest the presence of a vacuum leak (one of the most common causes of an RM). I’ll also describe other factors that may be contributing to the problem.

Symptoms Of A Vacuum-Induced P0300

A common sign of a vacuum leak is a faster than normal idle speed. Normally, your power control module maintains the idle, even when small vacuum leaks are present. However, if the leak is substantial, the power control module cannot compensate. That causes your idle speed to accelerate. The leakage may be coming from any of several places (e.g. body gaskets, hoses, intake manifold, etc.).

Another sign is stalling while idling. This can occur when the vacuum leakage is big enough that it causes the air-fuel mix to lean out. This can be caused by an EGR valve that is sticking in an open position or a PCV valve that is leaking.

If your car is misfiring when you’re accelerating, this too, can be caused by a vacuum leak. But, it’s less clear whether this is the case since the misfire can also be caused by bad spark plugs, clogged fuel injectors, and even a failing ignition coil.

Looking For Vacuum Leakages

If you (or your mechanic) suspect a vacuum leak, the quickest way to identify the source is to use a bottle of propane gas. Stick a hose into the gas valve and open it up. Then, place the other end near suspected areas. If a leak exists, you’ll see the propane being drawn into it. Of course, be careful if you intend to use propane. It’s flammable.

Other Potential Causes Of A Misfire

There are several other factors that can contribute to a random misfire. For example, your EGR valve may allow exhaust into the intake manifold. That leans out the air-fuel mix within your engine’s combustion chamber.

Your spark plugs may be fouled by an accumulation of oil and/or carbon. Replacing the spark plugs may be enough to get rid of the misfire problem.

There might also be a problem with your fuel injectors. The injectors can gradually become clogged as the result of using cheap gasoline with low-quality detergents. A clog can also develop if most of your driving is done over short distances. Clogged fuel injectors will lean out the air-fuel mixture in your engine’s combustion chambers.

Unless you have a significant amount of time and patience, you should allow your mechanic to diagnose random misfires (OBD P0300). Checking for vacuum leaks with a bottle of propane gas is simple. But, identifying a bad ignition coil, EGR valve, and clogged fuel injectors takes far more effort.