Posts Tagged vehicle
Maintain and Upgrade Your Ford Vehicle
Posted by in Uncategorized on November 18, 2009
Ford vehicles are known for their toughness and reliability; however just like other vehicles you see on the road, they are subject to regular car maintenance and occasional repair. Its original Ford parts may wear down over time and so you would need to replace them. However, you too can replace stock parts and equipments in your Ford vehicle to upgrade its performance especially when your car or truck is already old.
One of your most trusted online auto parts dealers is Ford Parts Online. This store is dedicated to giving you top quality replacement performance Ford parts. These parts greatly affect how your vehicle performs and usually, they carry out the most critical tasks. Keeping them in excellent form and working condition is a must in order to bring out your vehicle’s maximum abilities all the time.
Some of these performance parts are also designed to give your Ford auto an outstanding exterior look. They can set your vehicle apart from ordinary cars you see on the streets and highways. Take for example the Ford wheels and tires. The quality of these parts, the size or dimension and how they are positioned greatly affect ride quality and handling; however, they too can give your car a sporty, luxurious or rugged look, depending on what kind of wheels you get for your vehicle.
Ford Parts Online, as your number one Ford Parts Discount store offers these performance parts in very affordable deals, giving you the best satisfaction. Let’s take a look at the store’s available performance parts for your Ford’s engine and electrical systems as well as some insights on the said systems’ function and components.
Ford Engine Parts
Available at Ford Parts Online are heavy duty Ford Explorer timing belt cover, Ford F150 Pickup harmonic balancer, Ford Mustang timing belt cover with oil pump. These parts along with other performance Ford Explorer parts, Ford F150 pickup parts and Ford Mustang parts are designed to endure extremely hot temperatures under the hood so you can expect them to last longer and perform better.
The timing belt cover gives protection to the timing belt. Its task is very important since the timing belts are among the engine parts that easily wear out. The timing belts or timing chains, though simple in design (it looks like a bicycle chain), performs very essential task too, which is to synchronize the movement of the camshaft with the crankshaft. Without proper timing, there could be too little or too much air-fuel mixture entering the engine for combustion.
On the other hand, the crankshaft is the one that converts the straight line motion of the pistons into rotary motion. The turning motion is then transmitted to the transmission and ultimately to the Ford wheels.
Ford Electrical Parts
The major components of your Ford’s electrical system are the Ford battery and the Ford alternator. Many think that the battery is the main source of power but it is not. It only stores the power produced by the alternator.
When the engine is running, it is the Ford alternator that supplies electricity to all the parts of the vehicle that needs it such as the Ford lights, the horn and other electrical equipments. On the other hand, when the engine is not running, the battery takes charge of supplying electricity to all auto parts that need it, such as the Ford starter, which is used to spin the engine over so that the pistons can draw in fuel and air mixture into the cylinder.
There are three sections in an alternator that generate three separate voltages in one revolution or cycle (each phase is shifted by 120 degrees from the next phase). Each phase has its own windings, each of which also has its own pair of diodes. Each of the windings and diodes can fail at a time. Although the alternator may still be able to charge the battery when one of the winding/diodes fails, power stored by the battery would not be enough to supply for the car’s electrical needs. This means you have to limit the use of the AC system and some electrical parts.
However, you don’t have to wait till the alternator finally surrenders. Replace your old or worn out Ford alternator with Ford Parts Online’s top quality replacement alternator. Offered in the store are premium quality alternators for almost all Ford models.
Tags: auto parts, car maintenance, dealer, dealers, vehicle, vehicles, wheel, wheelsRelated posts
Why Do You Need to Be So Careful With the Fuel You Put in Your Car?
Posted by in Uncategorized on November 17, 2009
As the country has moved deeper and deeper into the recession, car owners have continued to feel the pinch with rising car tax, maintenance costs that cannot be ignored e.g. new tyres, and fuel costs have rocketed up to 110 pence per litre of unleaded in some areas.
Desperate to hold onto their cars, drivers have tried to keep their costs down in a variety of ways, some legal, some illegal. In desperate times when people are fighting to keep their jobs and tightening their belts meaning that some ‘forget’ to renew their insurance policy, others try to drive less or more efficiently. Some drivers take more drastic action and try to make their own fuel, however this is dangerous.
Why is it dangerous to make your own fuel?
The carburettor mixes air and fuel and then injects it into the engine. If, for example, you put petrol into a diesel car, do not start the engine. Petrol burns at a higher temperature to diesel so when the fuel is prayed into the engine, the petrol could melt some of the engine components. You will know this has happened because once you have turned the engine over, there will be a huge amount of smoke coming from the car. The principle with home-made fuels also applies. By using such fuels, you are contaminating your engine – you might as well put sugar in the tank.
If your car is not modified to run on alternative substances, then putting home-made fuel into your car is a huge mistake and could be fatal for your car. Fuels can vary from brand to brand as different companies add different additives that make the fuel burn more efficiently. This is why you may notice a difference in fuel consumption when you use different brands of fuel. As an unofficial rule, brands refine their fuels for quality whereas supermarkets refine their fuel for price. Home-made fuels have fundamental differences to refined oil that is made into petrol which is what was originally intended for your car to use.
Can you modify your car to run on these cheaper fuels
Yes, but your car must be modified by a garage as it is a complicated job. If you have an old car then you may find that the initial expense cannot be justified. After all, you will have to cover a huge distance before the car starts paying for itself. Don’t forget, cars that use LPG fuel are not currently allowed to use the Channel Tunnel so if you drive from the UK to mainland Europe and you have converted your car to use LPG fuel, currently, you have to book a ferry instead.
So what about my carburettor?
Newer cars don’t always have a carburettor as they use a fuel injection system instead. However, there are still a number of cars that use a carburettor in an evolved form. Even with a fuel injection system, you should never add a substance to your fuel tank that wasn’t intended to be put into your vehicle by the manufacturer.
A new carburettor could cost anything from £100 to £600 which might or might not include the fitting by a garage. It is an expensive car part to replace and a frustrating one if you were romanced by the promises of cheaper fuel.
How can I fix my car if I have put the wrong fuel in?
If you haven’t already turned your engine on, DON’T! Get your car to a garage and have the fuel tank and pipes drained by a professional. If you have started the car, be aware that you car may have to be written off as it could work out too expensive to repair.
If you have seen videos posted online and various articles telling you how you can get cheaper fuel, consult with a professional before trying it out on your car, is it really worth the risk?
Tags: diesel car, fuel consumption, fuel injection, fuel injection system, fuel tank, new car, vehicleRelated posts
Fixing Your Car
Posted by in Uncategorized on November 17, 2009
There are many people who think that fixing your car is something best left to professionals. What is more is that there are even more people who feel that fixing your car is something that should be done not only by professionals, but it should be done in a professional environment such as at a mechanic’s shoppe or some other similar establishment.
When I was in college in graduate school, I lived in a brand new townhome community. The community was extremely nice, and it also had a lot of rules. For starters, the community made a huge deal about doing any sort of car repairs within the community. And for once, I had to agree. There is something that looks classless about someone trying to fix their vehicle in their driveway of their home. Even though it is your house, and it may be your property, if your neighbors or other people have to see you fixing your vehicle, there is simply something inherently trashy about the behavior.
For some people fixing your car is considered faulty behavior because it disrupts the integrity as well as the aesthetic appeal of the neighborhood that you live in. There are some people who might be able to get away with it if they do the repairs in the privacy of their backyards, but even then, they are taking a risk because even though the neighbors may not be able to see you fixing your car, they may still be able to hear you working on your car.
In my parents’ neighborhood growing up, there was a relatively nice house on the corner of one of the streets nearby. Our neighborhood was really nice, and everyone took pride in this fact. However, there was this one neighbor who lived in that house on the corner who happened to be a mechanic. Well, unknown to the rest of the neighbors, he actually wound up converting a part of his house into a fully integrated mechanic’s garage, complete with all of the tools and lifts, etc. No one even knew that anything was different- that is, until we started noticing all of the cars piling up in his front yard. Before we knew it, there were a bunch of broken down-looking cars parked haphazardly in the front yard of his house on what used to be really nice grass. While it was his property, it didn’t take away the fact that it looked bad. Then there was the noise. In the middle of the night, neighbors were being woken up by loud noises coming from this guy’s house. It turns out, he was working on his various cars in his garage inside of his home.
Eventually, several of the neighbors went to the county commissioner or some other ‘higher-up’, and complained about what was going on. The result? The neighbor had to dismantle the entire section of his house that he had converted into a working mechanic’s garage. He had to turn the home back to what it was originally, and he had to remove all of the abandoned vehicles from his property. Eventually, (actually very soon afterwards), he sold his house and moved elsewhere.
Tags: car repair, car repairs, vehicle, vehicles