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.
Most of this problem can be solved or fixed by first checking blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers. Here are some guides to help us through a simple electrical problem
- Replace blown fuses with the correct ampere rating or reset breakers
- If no extra fuse is available, bypass the fuse by using a small strand of electrical wire, but this is just a temporary solution, it needs to be replaced by the correct fuse.
- Charging poorly or Alternator overloaded, check the alternator for faulty wirings or ground connection
- Continuous blowing of Horn, repair or replace the horn switch or relay and check for faulty wiring or ground connection
- Heads or Signal lights do not work, check for blown fuse or tripped circuit breaker, and have it replaced
- Frequent Replacement of Battery or excessive wear, tighten or replace broken fan belt and check for grounding connections
(image source : hondatuningmagazine.com)
If you experience an engine/radiator overheat do not panic here are some tips to keep you going and about. It really pays to know even the basic in automotive first aid.
- If engine boils over: Turn off engine.
- Wait 15 - 20 mins. for engine to cool before opening the hood.
- Don’t open radiator cap if steam is coming out.
- Check for leaks, burst hoses, broken drive belt or other faults.
- Start engine to see if fan is working. If blades are not moving, turn off engine and replace fuse or bypass a faulty fan switch.
- If there are no obvious faults, carefully remove radiator cap and top-up with water while the engine is running to prevent engine manifold from cracking due to sudden change of temperature.
We sometimes experience a car problem where our engine will not immediately or not totally start. No need to panic, sometimes it just a minor problem that we can immediately fix by our selves.
Here are some tips to help us check the problem
- Check the battery for any loose terminals, dirty connections and negative ground connections
- Check the battery itself, if it is discharge
- Check spark plugs, if clean or needs to be replaced
- Check fuel filter and pump
- Check and test the coil resistance wire or coil resistor, replace if needed
- Carburetor flooded, don’t pump the gas pedal when starting, just wait 5 min then hold gas pedal to floor and start.
(image source : my-car-picture.com)
Having a flat tire when on the road is one of the most common problems encountered by motorist. If this happens, here are some tips that will help you when your tire blowout:
• Slowly pull-over to road shoulder.
• Put gear in reverse.
• Set hand / foot brake.
• Loosen nuts on wheel. Don’t remove yet.
• Chock tire diagonally opposite the flat.
• Jack car until tire is clear of ground.
• Remove lug nuts and flat tire.
• Align holes in the spare with the studs and put on the spare tire.
• Tighten nuts in opposite sequence to ensure even stress distribution.
• Lower car. Remove jack and block.
• Tighten all nuts again in proper sequence.
• Have flat tire fixed.
(image source : cartoonstock.com)
As far as maintaining the proper temperatures for your Honda car is concerned, it would be best to keep it straight and water-based. Radiator coolants are believed to be of good use to aid radiators in terms of controlling the heat but apparently and avoiding the rusting of radiators but they do the exact opposite; they are catalysts for rust and you may eventually have more problems in the end.
We cannot deny the fact that radiators are heat conductors and that we want to safeguard them from depreciating. But rather than radiator coolants, why not upgrade your auxiliary fan if you really want to avoid overheating?
One of the hardest things to maintain for modern cars like Honda today is to make sure your computer box does not go haywire. They are one of the most expensive Honda car parts to replace and hence a good reason for you to think about it as the first thing whenever something goes wrong with your car.
Floods or accidentally soaking them with water is dangerous. The computer box is quite sensitive to water and once they malfunction, you cannot fabricate them. Safeguard the electrical aspects of good motoring. They are key parts of your Honda vehicle.
We cannot avoid problems such as oil leaks originating from the engine may occur. This may be a problem from bolts all the way towards checking the bushings or even eventual engine wear down. Apparently, most people don’t care much about it and for all intents and purposes, abnormal oil leaks are a given.
It would be best to address them as soon as you can. Losing oil may be troublesome for your engine and we all know what will happen to engines once they run out of oil. Unless you want to destroy your engine, checking your oil levels can save you costs such as engine overhauls.
If you are trying to avoid the cost of having your engine overhauled, while the problem is at its lightest, it would be best to save by buying oil additives to help resolve minimal issues. It may be temporary, about 3 to 5 years, but the thing is that it gives you an allowance to save for it if the engine condition worsens.
Not all people can afford an overhaul costing. They will indeed be a problem. Other than not being able to use your car, you have to worry about which part/s you have to change and how much it will cost overall.
These are some of the symptoms which may lead to brake problem although this is not the complete list you have sufficient info on what symptoms to watch out for.
Below are just a few most common symptoms that indicate a brake system problem:
- brake warning lights comes on while driving
- brake fluid level is low
- ABS warning light comes on while driving
- the vehicle pulls to one side during braking
- the brake pedal pulsates and (or) the vehicle vibrates during braking (mostly you can feel it from the steering wheel)
- the brake pedal is too hard or too spongy
- the brake pedal goes down too far
- any kind of noise while braking (e.g screeching, squeaking, grinding)
- the brakes drag (the car does not roll freely)
- smell of burnt brakes
Parking brake operation
Many people who drive automatic transmission vehicles rarely use parking brake. This may cause parking brake mechanism and cables to seize up. To check, try to set the parking brake - it should prevent vehicle from rolling. Once released, the vehicle should roll freely.
Regular mechanical inspection
For your safety, I recommend to have your car inspected regularly, at least once a year, by a qualified mechanic in a garage. I mean not just visual inspection by one of the fast lube places, but by a professional mechanic that can lift your car and check major components such as brakes, suspension, etc., while having your tires rotated, for example. This is because many components (e.g ball joints), can not be inspected visually.
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