Changing your engine oil is a relatively easy but important component of your car maintenance. Changing your engine oil regularly makes for better engine performance and a longer engine life.
To check your oil, make sure you’re parked in a good, safe and level spot. Find the engine oil dipstick and pull it out. If you can’t find it, consult your Honda’s manual. Once you have it, pull it out and wipe it with a clean piece of cloth, and then put it back again. After dipping it back in again, pull it out and inspect the oil. It should be near or at the full mark. If not, fill in the amount that’s lacking. Pay attention as well to the color of the oil. Clear is okay, but dark brown and black colored oil means that you have to change your all your engine oil as soon as possible.
Now more common than ever, HID lighting that used to exist only with high end brands and racing cars, they can now be bought as aftermarket upgrades that are not only brighter but easy to install. A stern warning though, one needs to be knowledgeable in the car’s basic electrical layout for proper installation, failure to properly install the lights and the supporting hardware (ballast) can cause a total meltdown of your car’s electrical system. HID lights are brighter yet they consume less electricity due to the ballast and the arcing effect that starts with a high charge to get the arc started then normalizes into standard mode which uses up less power from the electrical system.
First check if the lighting housing or lens as many call it can handle the heat of the new bulbs (most can but some older ones made of plastic can crack more due to the UV rays produced by the arc). Remove the old bulbs and place in a safe place (being careful not to touch the bulbs themselves for they are fragile and any contaminants such as oil and dirt will cause it to fail ) that can serve as back-up in case your new ones get busted. Install the HID bulbs last and start with the hardware installation that will get you installing some mounts to hold the ballasts(one for each bulb). Use the original wiring harness and please avoid cutting the wires, which is easy if you can obtain connectors that would interface without cutting anything. Once everything is in the right place and you have checked and re-checked all connections, you can now install the bulbs, making sure they are properly connected and seated in the housing. Test the lighting units and be ready to turn it off if you notice anything unusual. If you don’t want to go through all the trouble, you can always ask the auto shop to install it for you. If your new auto doesn;t come with HID, then try to ask if the dealer can do it for you. It may invalidate your Honda dealer/manufacturer warranty so do check first.
All car manufacturers have specific warning notes on floods due to the huge amount of electrical components that just go haywire and besides, water and electricity don’t mix very well. But as we all know, there are certain circumstances when we do have to get through a flooded area so do so but with utmost care. You must also take the car in for a thorough check as soon as possible to find any problems which may result for your adventures of the watery kind.
On a Honda Vehicle, the black box or computer box is almost always located on the right side kick-panel (besides the legs of the front passenger side) so the safest level of water you could tread would be below the undercarriage of your car. That box though small will set you back a couple of hundred bucks to replace if you do not heed this warning and add to that the other damage that may result can indeed become a hair-pulling experience. Learn to judge the depth of the waters before you by using the car in front of you as reference. The most an inexperienced driver should attempt would be as high as the bottom of your tires, more than that and the brakes get wet which is a safety hazard. If you seem uneasy with the whole process, try to look for another route or wait it out, a couple of minutes can mean the difference between an expensive car repair bill and a happy driver!
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内燃機関は、その構造上必ず摩擦熱を生じます。 最上級のオイルを使ったとしても、部品の表面を滑り易くして摩擦を減らせるのはある程度までで、エンジンの摩擦や抵抗を完全に無くすことはできません。 摩擦は熱を発生させ、この熱がエンジンにとって最大の敵となります。これは世界中どのような気候でも変わりません。 そこで、エンジンの冷却システムが開発されました。 エンジン内部で発生した熱を素早く、効率的に冷ましてくれるのが冷却システムなのです。 自動車の冷却システムの基本的な構造は、ラジエーター、補助ファン、ウォーターポンプ、サーモスタット、熱センサー、オーバーフロー・タンクが組み合わさってできています。 基本的な仕組みは、エンジンの最も熱くなる部分（シリンダーヘッドとバルブ）に水を通した後にその水をラジエーターに戻し、そこでエンジンの熱を奪って熱くなった水を外気にあてて再び冷やすというものです。 そして、システムが同じことを繰り返します。 ただし、あなたの車がドイツ車なら、空冷式なのでこれとは違います。 例えばポルシェやフォルクスワーゲンなどは空冷式を採用しています。
車の状態を良好に保つことには多額の費用がかかります。 些細な問題を修理を怠ったりする人や先延ばししたりする人もいますが、無視してはいけない問題もあります。 その上位5位は以下のとおりです。
１．ブレーキ：常識的に考えれば、車の安全において一番重要なものはブレーキ装置です。パッドが摩耗している場合や油圧装置に漏れがある場合には、 すぐに修理が必要です。
２．オイル：エンジンオイルとトランスミッションオイルを交換することで、エンジンの寿命を延ばすことに役立ち、トランスミッションのオーバーホールにかかる莫大な費用を節約することができます。
３．タイミングベルト：タイミングベルトの故障はエンジンの破損につながります。
４．ステアリング：使い古したステアリング装置は、タイヤの早期の摩耗につながり、運転の際に危険をもたらします。
５．ウォーターポンプ：ブーンという音がした場合、内部ベアリングの調子が悪いということを示し、交換が必要となります。
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Having a defective headlight bulb is an offense that can spell a ticket and another hassle for you. It is best to regularly check on the headlight bulbs. This way you can ensure your safety on the road especially when traveling at night or in rainy days, even on snowy days. It sso easy to check on them. There is absurdly no possible excuse to not take a quick at your hood and check on that teeny tiny bulb in your front. If your headlight bulb is already out, you can just buy a regular bulb with the same specs as you car’s and you can pretty much do it yourself. Its as simple as singing the Alphabet. Or if you want to spend four times the actual price of your headlight bulb, you can entrust it to a mechanic in your nearest gasoline station. Go ahead punk, make his day!
Image Source:bobcerullo.com
Internal combustion engines naturally create friction. Even the best motor oils, which help reduce the friction by making everything slippery thus generating a minimal amount of friction, the engine still produces a tremendous amount of resistance or friction. Friction creates heat, the ultimate enemy of engines from every corners of the world. Thus, the advent of cooling systems. It basically is the job of your cooling system to get rid of the tremendous heat generated as quickly and efficiently as possible. The basic parts of your car’s cooling system are the radiator, auxilliary fan, water pump, thermostat, a heat sensor, and overflow tank. The system works by channeling the water around the hottest parts of the engine mainly, the cylinder heads and valves, then the system redirects that fluid out to the radiator, where the heat collected from the cylinder heads gets distributed into the cooler atmosphere. Then the whole cycle begins again. Unless you own old German cars which are air-cooled. Like Porsche and Volkswagen.
It can be expensive to maintain a car. While some of us may choose to ignore or at least postpone repairing minor troubles, there are some problems that should never be disregarded. Here are the top 5:
1. Brakes - common sense tells us that the no. 1 safety item on your car is the braking system. If your pads are worn down, or your hydraulic system is leaking, fix it immediately.
2. Oil - change your motor oil and transmission oil to help prolong the life of your engine and save you from a costly transmission overhaul.
3. Timing belts - a failure on timing belts can ruin your engine.
4. steering - a worn-out steering system can cause your tires to wear out fast, and is a driving hazard.
5. water pumps - once you hear a humming sound, that is an indicator that the internal bearing is going bad, and should be replaced.
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Most of us try and evade dents in the car, hoping it will go off away with time. Car dent removal seldom crosses our minds as we would rather ignore the concept of repair until we really need it. This could be dangerous as putting it off will only make the situation worse. Dents can be formed almost anywhere and at anytime. But cheer up! You don’t have to burn your pockets in fixing your car dents by following these 8 easy steps in amending it.
1. Pierce a hole in the center of the dent.
2. Insert a dent pulling tool in the hole.
3. Pull on the tool until the dent pops out or appears flat.
4. Remove the dent pulling tool.
5. Crawl under the car with a metalworking hammer and a dolly.
6. Bang out the back of the dent carefully until smooth.
7. Fill the hole with body filler.
8. Cover the area with touch-up paint.
Changing a flat tire, step by step
- Park your car on level ground along the shoulder, or somewhere safe, and apply the hand brake. If it’s a manual transmission car, put it in gear (first gear is good). If automatic, put it in Park. Turn off the engine and activate the hazard lights. You can open your hood to help people see you’re fixing your car. If you have an early-warning device (EWD), place it at the rear and front of your car. This lessens the likelihood of people mistaking your car for a moving vehicle, and possibly hitting you.
- Place a wheel chock or a large rock behind (if facing uphill) or in front (if facing downhill) of the wheel with a flat tire to prevent the car from rolling. You can now get out the spare wheel, a lug nut wrench (tire iron) and the car jack.
- Remove the hubcap or wheel cap, if necessary. Some brand cars have a special tool for doing this. Before jacking up the car, loosen (but don’t remove) the lug nuts, by placing one end of the lug nut wrench over a lug nut. Use a hollow pipe as a lever by slipping it over the end of the lug nut wrench. Lug nuts are loosened with a counter-clockwise turning. Loosen the lug nuts in a star pattern–first loosen one a few turns, then loosen the one opposite. Do this until all the nuts are slightly loosened.
- Carefully jack up the car. Check your owner’s manual for the correct and safe place to put the jack. You can usually put the jack somewhere below the car’s underchassis (and not under the body, as you might dent it. Check your manual for correct jack usage. Pneumatic and screw-type jacks may have different instructions. Jack the car up until you have about four to six inches ground clearance, so you have room to put the new, full tire on.
- Remove the lug nuts all the way and set them aside at a safe place where they can’t roll away. The flat tire should be hanging from the studs now.
- Remove and set aside the flat tire. Set it underneath the car, just in case your jack fails.
- Lift the new tire onto the wheel studs. If you’re confused about which is the right way, check for the valve where you add air–it always faces out.
- Replace the lug nuts the same way you loosened them. Tighten them first, and then give each nut a few turns–first one, then the one opposite, working around the wheel in a star pattern. Try not to tighten adjacent nuts consecutively, as this might result in an unbalanced tightening.
- Slowly lower the jack and remove it.
- Tighten the lug nuts again as much as you can, again in a star pattern.
- Put the hubcap or wheel cap back on, if necessary.
After this, you can already stow your flat tire in the trunk. Be sure to have it checked at the nearest service station.