Archive for Howtos

Here’s something I didn’t realise. The UK’s Institute of Advanced Motorists Limited is advocating reverse parking. The following are the benefits of reverse parking rather than entering your parking bay head-first:

• Data shows it takes about 90 seconds for an average 5-year old car’s engine to warm up and reach its thermal efficiency. According to IAM, reversing out of a parking bay while the engine is cold takes up between 20-25 times more fuel than when it is warm. Apparently driving away forwards will help you save fuel. Could be related to the usually lower gear ratio of the reverse gear compared to the first gear.
• The UK’s Highway Code actually encourages reverse parking. This is because reversing into a parking bay which remains static (just an empty piece of road/cement, nothing will suddenly fill it up) is safer than reversing out into a road/lane which may have constant traffic where you cannot see easily. Driving out forwards into the road makes it easier for you to look out for incoming traffic.
• Reversing close to a wall may make it more difficult for thieves to break into your boot as there will not be enough space for them to work.
• With the amount of crime these days, it is easier to get out of the parking bay as fast as possible driving forward as it is easier for you to see where you are going in case you have to leave as fast as you can for security reasons.

Because a new set of tyres can often exceed RM1,000 especially if they’re huge 18 inch ones fitted on the Lancer GT, sometimes we tend to only change only a pair at a time and wait for the other pair to really wear out.

I did a short survey with the people on my instant messaging list and almost everyone said they’d either change the pair that is more worn out, or change the ones at the front because the car is front wheel drive – unless the rears are for some reason more worn out. It’s actually rather natural for the front tyres to wear out faster on a front wheel drive car – some of you throttle happy people may be wheel-spinning a little if you’re at the front of the queue at the traffic lights. The front tyres have to handle more work than the rear tyres in a front wheel drive car – both steering and acceleration.

But in reality, even if the front is more worn out than the rear, the correct thing to do is the put your less worn out rear tyres at the front axle and put new tyres at the rear axle – if you only want to change a pair of tyres and not all four. Of course, it’s always better to change all four.

This is because when the front has more grip than the rear, the rear will lose traction before the front of the vehicle during a corner on a wet or slippery road. You will oversteer and fishtail because of hydroplaning. As you know, once the rear starts sliding its quite hard to recover unless you’re a very experienced driver. It’s also better for the driver who has been used to more grip at the rear than the front all this while before the tyre change to get used to the new grip levels if you put the new tyres at the rear.

If the front tyres hydroplane, it is easier to correct than if the rear tyres hydroplane because what will happen is understeer, and understeer can be corrected relatively easier by easing off the throttle.

So be safe – always ensure the rear tyres have better or equal grip. For even tyre wearing, it’s recommended you rotate your tyres, but that’s a story for another time.

Questions from beginner car enthusiasts on where to get blow off valves for normally aspirated cars are not uncommon as they don’t know what blow off valves are for, and how they work. It is not possible for you to install a blow off valve onto a normally aspirated car, they are for forced inducted engines. No matter how much you like the sound. Hehe.

Click here to read the rest of What are blow off valves and can I put them on my normally aspirated car?

When it comes to souping up cars, even laymen usually have two words in their heads – turbo and NOS. NOS, or its proper name nitrous oxide. Sounds cool doesnt it?

Contrary to popular believe, NOS isnt the chemical acronym for nitrous oxide. It is actually the acronym for Nitrous Oxide Systems, the largest manufacturer of automotive nitrous oxide injection systems out there. Its become so synonymous with the gas, like how Maggi is associated with instant noodles, Colgate is associated with toothpaste, or Nescafe with instant coffee, or how making a photocopy of something is called Xerox-ing. Nitrous oxides chemical designator is actually N2O, because it has 2 nitrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom.

Lets find out more about nitrous oxide injection systems.

Click here to read the rest of How does Nitrous Oxide work?

I found this little gem on the Cari Chinese forums. Forumer Blackgenius007 has a solution for Proton Gen2 owners who have trouble closing their Gen2 doors. It’s pretty common. The Gen2’s door cannot be closed properly with some cars.

The reason for this is poor quality control by Proton assemblers. The alignment of the door hinge is not aligned properly. Here is the solution.

Click here to read the rest of How to solve Proton Gen2 door problem

Carbon fibre is a black fabric weave held together by a transparent resin and weighs one-third to one-fifth the weight of similiar-strength steel. Carbon fibre has had it’s place for a long time in applications such as aerospace and automotive but it is becoming increasingly popular in other fields as well.

Click here to read the rest of Carbon Fiber

Plenty of people have been talking about how the Savvy only has an SOHC engine so it is inferior, and old technology. So I decided to post this entry so that people will be better informed on what SOHC or DOHC really is.

Click here to read the rest of SOHC vs DOHC Valvetrains: A Comparison

This is the first in the series of automotive articles and howtos I am going to post.

Our local car manufacturers have begun equipping their higher end models with ABS. What is ABS? I know some of you think ABS stands for Air Bag System. No, it doesn’t okay. Heheh ABS stands for Anti-lock Braking System. What is ABS? Let me explain how it works and what is the proper way to use them.

Click here to read the rest of HOWTO: Learn to brake properly using ABS Brakes