Alternators can be scary things. They play a crucial role in keeping your car going, and if they fail, can leave you stranded. More, as complex and intricate electrical units, they are not the sort of thing many would rush to disassemble should something need to be repaired. So why did I have mine open on the kitchen table the other night?
Continue reading “How to get your alternator running smoothly and silently”
The belt that drives the accessories on the front of your engine is routed around a number of pulleys. Some of these are attached to things like the alternator and power steering pump, and there is also a pulley on the belt tensioner. You may find that your car has a separate pulley, called the idler pulley, that solely functions to route the belt a particular way.
Not counting the fuel in your tank, your car will have at least twenty litres of different fluids in it. Those fluids all perform crucial functions, and you need to keep a close watch on them if you are going to enjoy motoring adventures that do not end in some kind of catastrophic fashion.
Over at Not £2 Grand (which you ought to follow on Twitter and Facebook, by the way), I have a new post telling you a little bit about all these different fluids and helping you think about how to keep them healthy. Head on over and have a read, because ‘ultimately, your vehicle’s fluids are vital to its life, and there are few more important things you can do for your car than to keep them all clean and topped up’. You can find the full post here.
If you follow me on Twitter or have seen previous posts on this blog, you will know that for about as long as I’ve owned my SEAT Leon, I have had issues with moisture getting inside the car. For the most part, I have now solved that, by addressing the main problem areas. The one thing I haven’t yet done is to clean the rubber door seals. Dirt and moss will often accumulate on, around, and inside of these seals, reducing their effectiveness.
Parking your car outside in Britain means it is frequently going to get wet, and when it routinely sits it in a place with little sun, as mine does when it is parked on the drive of a more north-facing house, that moisture does not dry up, feeding the growth of moss. If I’m honest, the problem is compounded by the fact that I don’t wash the Leon enough.
Continue reading “How to clean dirt and moss from your door seals”
Here is a photo of my hand holding a code reader.
And over at Not2Grand today you will find a bunch of words by me about why you should buy a code reader too. Continue reading “Go buy a code reader already”
Recreational Motoring 