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Driving

What Is a Timing Belt and When Should You Replace It?

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Replacing a car’s timing belt is one of the car maintenance issues most car owners dread. The process can be labor-intensive, depending on the model of the vehicle. However, timing belt failure can leave you or a family member stranded at the side of the road. Here’s what you need to know about timing belts and when to replace them.

What Is a Timing Belt?

The timing belt is a crucial part of every car’s engine. It helps synchronize the crankshaft and camshaft, which turn combustion into motion. Since the intake valve and pistons can’t exist in the same space at the same time, the timing belt ensures that they each take turns without colliding.

If your timing belt breaks, you could end up with serious engine damage that will make routine timing belt maintenance look like a piece of cake.

When To Replace Your Timing Belt

Many manufacturers recommend having your car’s timing belt changed at a certain mileage, but this number is only an estimate. You should replace your timing belt when it gets old or worn, and offering a mileage estimate is the best guess that manufacturers can make.

Here are all the reasons it could be time to replace your timing belt:

  • The car has been sitting unused for a long time.
  • You haven’t replaced the timing belt in seven or more years.
  • You’ve reached the manufacturer’s mileage recommendation.
  • You notice oil seals from the timing belt cover leaking onto the belt.
  • The exterior drive belts have started to crack.

Since rubber dries out when it’s not in use, it’s critical not to leave your car sitting for long periods. When you see that your other drive belts start to crack, you can often assume that your timing belt might be cracking too.

Managing Family Vehicles

If you have multiple vehicles in your family, it’s a good idea to make everyone aware of the dangers of timing belt failure. Have everyone record the maintenance for their vehicles so that you can make sure that people aren’t losing track of the more long-term maintenance repairs.

Hopefully, this guide to timing belts and when to replace them will help you and your family members stay safe. Routine maintenance may be a hassle, but emergency repairs are much worse.

Mistakes New Drivers Make That Damage Their Car

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Driving takes time and practice to truly master. While the act itself is not overly complicated, bad habits or a lack of practice puts new drivers at higher risk for accidents. It is impossible to fully ensure that your child is driving in a way that won’t sprout gray hairs out of your head. But it’s good to inform them about the mistakes new drivers make that damage their cars to help keep them safe.

Accelerating Too Quickly

While accelerating and hearing the engine’s roar is as thrilling as it is enjoyable to hear, it strains the engine a lot. When delving into the vehicle’s inner workings, fast accelerations force the car’s engine to repeatedly pump the pistons very quickly. For standard vehicles, this is often strenuous to the engine and causes it to wear down faster. Before long, an expensive bill is the only thing that awaits this bad habit.

Experiencing Distractions

Teens are highly susceptible to distractions on the road. Distractions are easy to come by, whether they are checking a text message or jamming out a little too hard to their favorite summer hit. It’s wise to remind them to shut off any devices they do not want to be too distracting in the car. The last thing you want is for them to crash into the neighbor’s mailbox while simultaneously reversing the vehicle and fiddling with the GPS.

Not Respecting Weather Conditions

When it comes to harsh weather conditions, young drivers do not typically think about how it affects their car. Harsh winters kill non-active batteries fast, while hot summers expand the tires and overheat the engine. Both of these issues are common issues that stop a car from starting. Explain these conflicts between climate and machine as your teen learns to drive, and alert them to changing weather conditions. These small lessons stick with repetition and aid them in the future.

While they are still young and impressionable, young drivers also tend to think they are on top of the world. It’s great to see that vigor in your children but also a little worrisome at the same time. The mistakes new drivers make that can damage their cars are great lessons that many have learned on their own time. Sharing them with your teen makes them less likely to damage their vehicle or form dangerous driving habits.

Papa’s Guide To Avoid Blind Spot Accidents

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When you’re a papa and driving the family around, there’s a lot of pressure to keep the family safe. Driving is full of dangers, after all. Driving can be a big responsibility, regardless of how long you’ve been driving or how careful you are. Knowing you have lives depending on your driving skill to avoid accidents can be terrifying. Still, despite the dangers of driving, there are measures you can take to ensure your family’s safety. One of these measures is to avoid blind spots.

While there’s a certain art to driving, there is a science to avoiding blind spots. Everyone can agree they can be the cause of a lot of accidents. As the father of the family and the driver of the family, this papa’s guide to avoid blind spot accidents can be your handy list of tips to always remind you to be aware of your blind spots.

Find The Blind Spot

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Computer Sciences noted that while blind spot accidents happen, they can be avoided. Part of the ways to do this is to make sure you identify your vehicle’s blind spot first. This can be done by doing the following:

  • If you find yourself driving in the right lane of a four-lane road, check for a vehicle in the left lane that is about to pass you from behind. This vehicle will be our point of perspective.
  • Try to check for the vehicle in your rear-view mirror and see if you can follow the vehicle as it approaches your own to the left. You should be able to do this without moving your head.
  • When the vehicle is about to disappear from the rear-view, look at your side mirror as it should be there. By the time it disappears from your side mirror, you should be able to see the vehicle appear with your peripheral vision.
  • Do the same procedure to a new vehicle in the right lane. You should be able to see it appear in the rear-view and side-view mirror, and your peripheral vision without ever disappearing.
  • If you’re able to do this without missing any of the vehicles, your vehicle doesn’t have a blind spot. If any of the vehicles disappear at any point in this exercise, then you may have a blind spot.
  • Of the instructions above, doing it without moving your head is extremely important. This is because all your mirrors are there precisely so you don’t have to move your head. Moving your head too far while driving just to see your blind spot might be painful and distracting… Thankfully, accounting for a blind spot isn’t exactly difficult. It does, however, need a bit of adjustment on your end.

The Rear-View Mirror Should Show The Rear

The rear-view mirror must allow you to view the rear of your vehicle. In fact, it should directly view the rear of your vehicle. The mirror is there so you don’t have to look behind you to see if you’re about to bump into something, or if you have to check for minor details behind the vehicle.

  • When you adjust your rear-view mirror, it should be positioned in such a way that it allows you to see what’s behind you straight from the rear window. Try to avoid moving it to any angle just to see another view of your car, as that’s what the side mirrors should be able to do.
  • When you do this adjustment, try having the members of the household who most often ride with you to help you test for blind spots. This allows you to set up a standard driving position in which your family won’t put their heads in the way of the mirror. This also allows you to plan in advance just how you can adjust should some members of the household do disrupt your vision.

The Side Mirror Should Show The Side

Your side mirrors should be used in such a way that they allow you to view the side of your car without your having to tilt your head. They are there precisely for that purpose. If you have to move your head just to see the side of your car, then adjust them.

  • Try to lean until your head almost makes contact with the side window on the driver’s seat. While in this position, adjust the placement of the side-view mirror on your left so your car is barely visible, and no more.
  • Then, lean your head until it barely reaches the middle of your vehicle. While maintaining this position, try to fix the placement of the side-mirror to your right so the right side of your vehicle is just barely visible. When you sit upright, your head should not be able to see the sides of your car.
  • These adjustments are important, as you’re not supposed to do anything with your vehicle’s side anyway, since you wouldn’t be able to hit your own car. When you recall the tip above on how to find blind spots, these adjustments, when done properly, will allow you to seamlessly travel from your rear-view to your side-view mirror, and your peripheral vision whenever vehicles pass by.

Conclusion

Careful manipulation of your mirrors can prove to be very critical in making sure you have a good view of your surroundings. These mirrors – the rear-view and the side-view – are essential to ensuring the safety of the car and your family. If you want to get one step ahead in the security scene and want to find out the legal implications of these tips, you may click here for more information.