Beginners Guide for Troubleshooting Basic Car Problems

There is no compelling reason to freeze if your new vehicle all of a sudden starts acting abnormally. Like any normal human being, vehicles now and then experience breakdown and need somewhat maintenance.

Its an important day for you at the office, but you realize that you are late for work. However, you wrap up things in a surge and get into your vehicle but guess what your vehicle is not starting rather it's behaving abnormally. Now the first thought that will cross your mind will be “I wish I knew how to fix this promptly”, so read this article today and save yourself from an embarrassment tomorrow.

Regardless of whether your vehicle is new, playing it safe and knowing how to troubleshoot basic car problems will guarantee you help in averting these basic vehicle issues later on in the future.

In the situation of vehicle exhibiting a malfunction, drivers will, in general, get confused and don't respond in the best possible way. It is very important for a driver to respond effectively to ensure safe driving.

The vehicle makes life increasingly advantageous and easy; however, it is a costly necessity if you know nothing of troubleshooting basic car problems. Every now and then your vehicle may exhibit problems of small and large scale. However, you must try to fix the problems on a small scale yourself to save yourself a few bucks and time. Finally yet importantly, if you have a good level of knowledge about your vehicle there are no chances that you will be robed off or deceived while getting your vehicle repaired at a local workshop.

Troubleshooting basic problems

Here are some basic car problems and its troubleshooting

Battery

The battery is one of the principal components of a vehicle that its needs in order to work appropriately. The life expectancy of a battery is around 5 years. The battery comprises of lead and highly corrosive acid. A normal problem that occurs with battery is bad terminals. 

By applying lubricants on the terminals of battery you can keep the battery fit as a fiddle. In case you are not a big fan of maintaining a battery, what you can do is buy maintenance free battery, which will work for a very long period without any issues.

However, you can do the following to ensure the proper functioning of your battery:

1.      Inspect battery terminal

2.      Inspecting the connecting wires of the battery

3.      Check the water level, if needed add distilled water. Be careful!

4.      Using the voltmeter check the battery voltage for the output of 12 volts

Flat tire

When you have the correct tires, driving is sheltered and increasingly optimized. However, all the things considered, the landscapes that we drive on could influence and harm the tires in our vehicles. A flat tire is any drivers worst dream, but luckily many tire brands offer non-pneumatic tires. These non-pneumatic tires are not supported by the air, so they do not get flat.

In terms of battling a flat tire, you must have a spare tire and every one of the apparatuses for replacing a tire such as:

•      Jack

•      Wrench

However, if a specialist is available to you it’s an great idea to consult him.

Brakes

The most prominent issue among the most perilous issues is a bad brake, brakes normally wear out after some time. It is very imperative to stay aware of the upkeep of the brakes in terms of safety. Try to get the issue fixed before you face an evident disappointment.

Brake pads and rotors wearing out substantially more rapidly than anticipated – it commonly occurs due to the manufacturing fault. If you suspect such, make sure to consult a professional as soon as possible. Faulty brakes can be very dangerous. .

Tire wear

It may not be realized when driving that your vehicle's tires are unevenly worn, however, worn tires can be risky because of their diminished grasp out and about. Make sure you do a proper inspection of your tires once a week and if possible every day. Walk around your vehicle to perform a speedy tire check, this will let you know whether your tires are worn out or not.

You can reduce or avoid the tire wear by rotating your tires after every 6000 miles. This will increase the life of your tire and reduce the rate of tire wear.

Out of gas

This might happen that you run out of gas in the middle of the road because you were not paying enough attention to that fuel gauge, a warning light is not working or the fuel gauge itself is not working.

Make sure that you have a working fuel gauge and warning light, if not, you need to promptly visit a workshop to get it fixed. In addition, you need to periodically keep checking your fuel gauge for gas level.

Some people recommend reserving gas in a separate tank and having it all time in your vehicle, however, in some states this is illegal due to the chance of explosion or worst.

Excessive fuel consumption

In case you are realizing that you are requiring frequent fuel top-ups more often than it should, than there is an serious issue. This not only increase the chance of you getting up stranded on the road but also will result to be a really expensive.

Following are the major reasons for excessive fuel consumption:

•             A faulty fuel injector

•             Bad driving habits –accelerating quickly and unnecessarily

•             Bad oxygen sensors

•             Bad air filter

•             Incorrect tire pressure

•             Using an uncertified motor oil

•             Your spark plug is misfiring

The vehicle is not starting

If your vehicle either takes a long effort to start, or the vehicle just won't start by any means then the most predictable issue can be a dead battery.

You need to be very observant in order to correctly identify and troubleshoot such an issue with your vehicle. If In response of turning your ignition key the vehicle is totally silent than the issue is with the battery or connecting terminals for sure.

If there is a cranking sound while ignition than the issue might be with the fuel intake or the spark plug.

In any case, you can arrange a tow truck or if possible can jump start your vehicle using a jump starter kit to safely reach a nearby workshop for further investigation of the issue.

Engine Over-heating

Continuous over-heating of an engine can root for it to burn out. Engine temperature is shown with the help of a gauge on the dashboard –you do not want it to keep spiking toward the H on the meter.

Following are the major causes of engine overheating:

•      Your vehicle might be over-burden, exceeding the load index rating

•      Vigorously driving in the rough terrain

•      Over-speeding 

•      Absence of oil or coolant

Stop as soon as you realize that the engine is heating up and trust that the motor will chill off. If possible, top up your vehicle with more coolant.

Headlight

Driving with bad headlight is dangerous; you basically become impaired to driving at night. Following are the scenarios of a bad headlight.

•      Dim headlights

•      Fuse bulb

To fix this you should always have an extra bulb in your car, as well as you must know to supplant it in the time of need.

Conclusion

To sum it up you must be able to tackle any problem that might occur along the road. At least you must have the level of knowledge that could help you in reaching a safe shore even with a large-scale issue.

Many of the issues that we encounter are easily solvable but our ignorance, for the most part, fails us. We must keep learning in order to better understand our vehicle and avoid any unfortunate event.