Characteristics of Services Brakes and Different Types of Service Brakes Used in Vehicles

Brakes of an automobile play an important role in controlling and protecting the vehicle from unwanted shocks because of bad roads or things/people coming in front while in motion. In this article let us discus the service brakes and their characteristics and also different types of service brakes. First, we will discuss what do service brake mean.

The service brake in an automobile is the primary braking system. These brakes are typically operated by foot. A part from service brakes there are parking and emergency brakes are also used in modern automobile.

Characteristics of service brakes
Most common characteristics of a service brake systems that can be found in modern automobiles are as follows

Friction

• Friction is the most common configuration in a service brakes. one of two components are equipped to create friction
• Brake shoes or brake pads, these are used in the friction based braking system.
• Both Brake shoes and brake pads,include a rotating device with a stationary pad and rotating wear surface.

Pumping

• In this type of brakes a pump in equipped within the system and uses piston motor to cut off the fuel supply to the vehicle.
• This process leads to internal pumping losses to the engine, which results in causes braking.

Electromagnetic

• In this type of brake, an electric motor is used, which is built-in with the vehicle.
• This type of braking system used in many hybrid vehicles for regenerative brakes.
• Some vehicles will have a generator with an internal short circuit called a secondary retarder brake.

Different variety of braking systems are found in a vehicle, depending on its use, size and weight.

Types of service brakes used in vehicles
There are different types of brake systems found in a vehicle. For example, modern passenger cars use an anti-lock brake system, whereas semi-trucks and trailers use an air brake system.

Now lets us discuss about the different types of brakes used in a vehicle. Some of the Types of service brakes are as follows,

Disc brakes

• It's a friction type braking system.
• It consists of a brake disc/rotor a brake pad which is fixed to the a device called caliper to slow the rotation of the vehicle’s wheels.
• Brake pads are pushed against the brake’s rotor with a set of calipers.

Drum brakes

• It's also one of the types of friction braking system.
• It consists of brake shoes and brake drums to stop or slow the rotation of the wheel
• A set of shoes or pads are presses against a brake drum.

Single-circuit Hydraulic Brakes

• It's a hydraulic type braking system.
• It consists of a master cylinder fed by a hydraulic brake fluid and connected by a system of brake lines and rubber fittings attached to wheel cylinders.
• Each wheel has opposing pistons drum brake.
• Hydraulic pressure is produced to push the piston and these hydraulic pressure forces the brake pads into wheel cylinder.

Brake-by-wire

• It consists of a system of electronic wires.
• When a brake pedal is pushed, they measures the electrical resistance and sends signals to the vehicles computer also known as Electronic Control Unit, which calculates the applied force and applies it to the hydraulic pump system.

Anti lock Braking System (ABS)

• An electrical control unit, hydraulic actuator and individual wheel speed sensors that work together to prevent brakes from locking up when they are “slammed on” by rapidly pumping brakes when a potential “lockup” is detected.
• Each wheel is controlled individually to maintain traction.

Power brake booster

• In this system a vacuum power naturally produced in an engine to amplify the force applied by the driver’s foot to stop even heavy vehicles.

Air brakes

• In this system, air is used instead of hydraulic fluid to activate a standard disc or drum brake.
• We can see this type of brakes usually in buses, trucks and trailers.

Advanced emergency braking system (AEBS)

• It's an autonomous safety system that has sensors to monitor a vehicle’s nearness of other vehicles and automatically applies emergency brake to avoid collision

Brake systems, whether it's air, hydraulics or computer, are equipped for safety. These are some of the brakes used in a vehicle.

Symptoms of Failure of Fuel Injector

What is a fuel injector
Fuel injector is a devise used for supplying fuel into an engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in engines, having replaced carburetors. Fuel is supplied to the injectors through fuel pump. Each fuel injector is fitted on the cylinder head above each cylinder. The injectors are made of good quality material to with stand the high temperature and pressure during combustion process.

Where does fuel injector located
The fuel injector is located in the intake manifold because fuel is sprayed directly at the intake valves. A fuel supply rail connects all the fuel injectors to the fuel supply.

Symptoms of failure of fuel injector

• Clogging of fuel in fuel injector
• Clogging of the fuel injector is caused due to, deposits of fuel build-up inside the fuel injector.
• These deposits block fuel flow to the fuel injector from the fuel pump.

• Recurring problems of fuel injector
• Bad condition of fuel injectors are appear to come and go as deposits are redistributed. Fuel injector cleaner are used in fuel tank.
• These cleaner can remove minor deposits in the fuel injector.

• Lower fuel mileage
• Low fuel mileage is one of common symptoms of failure of a bad fuel injector.
• This is due to improper functioning of fuel injector.

• RPM seldom alternates
• Another sign of bad fuel injector is seldom alternating RPM.
• When the engine begins anyway oscillates between high and low revolutions per minute (RPM), this may be due to poor fuel injector.

• Leaking of fuel from injector
• Leaking fuel from the fuel injector is another sign of a faulty fuel injector.
• Bad condition of the fuel injectors can weaken the fuel injector, which leads to cracks and leakage of fuel.

• Engine idling problem
• When you notice that your engine makes strange noises while idling, this is often an indication of a faulty fuel injector.

How to replace a fuel injector

• First, switch off the engine of your car and locate the fuel injector
• Then remove the air intake system and other hoses, wires or other parts that are near by the fuel injector.
• Locate the bolts that hold the injector and remove them.
• Remove the rail to access the fuel injectors.
• Remove the fuel injector, the pressure in the system will make a small amount of fuel splash out.
• Remove the old seal and make sure pieces of it are not stuck in the seat.
• Use a pick or small screwdriver to remove any residues.
• Take the new fuel injector and remove the caps and lubricate the seal with motor oil.
• Install a new fuel injector and place it next to the fuel line.
• Reconnect all the hoses, wires and other parts.

PPC and Display Advertising for Auto Dealerships

Digital marketing spending is increasing over the year in many industries from small local to global organizations. In the automotive industry bigger companies like General Motors to the small auto dealerships using at their level and it is giving good results.

Pay per click: Pay per click (PPC) accounts are free to set up. When any click happens on your ad placed online, you need to pay for that click only. This means it is free only up to your ads do not deliver any results.

Pay per click campaigns should be optimized for the targeted key words, and these should be constantly monitored for efficiency. For instance, in a pay per click campaign for an auto dealership, various geographically targeted keywords are used. These will reflect the dealership's models and brands.

Text advertisements generally appear at the top right or on the side of search result pages, and can target the keywords from both specific and general searches. If users are accessing the results on their mobile, the PPC click to call option can provide.

Display advertising: The display advertising is different from PPC. In display advertising, the paid ads are shown on websites depending on a specific theme or keywords or terms that  match content of the hosting website. The display can be video ads, image ads, and text ads.

Contextual advertising: The contextual advertising is a form of display advertising. In this specific websites are targeted based on the website's visitors demographic. Based on the auto dealership's franchises and brands, you or your digital marketing campaigning company (if you outsourced) have to buy ad paces on various websites which are segmented to fit specific automobile buyers.

Contextual advertising is similar to display advertising  is done via videos, animations and banners. As opposed to PPC links and text on the search engine pages, contextual advertising allows to captive the viewers of website with imagery and video, that is specific to those brands and models for the dealerships. With these video, animations, texts, and graphics on the websites geographical targeting is possible.

Behavioral marketing: Behavioral marketing allows the auto dealership or the company to continue to target with videos, text and image ads to the people those who have visited the dealership's website as they surf to other sites on the Internet. It also allows to change the ads and videos in real time to target each individual visitor's level of interest. Thus, when a user visits your website, you can target them with graphic, video and text ads with specific service, credit opportunity or application, or vehicle that they have already shown interest in, or began fill out. For example, an auto shopper visits your website and looks at a new Ford model. When they leave the website, the same ad can display up to 92% of the websites they visit later.

Analytics in digital marketing is easy. Every part of marketing campaign can monitor and analyze. It will help dealerships where they are getting more potential and how to get better results from the campaign.

Maintenance Tips for Cars with Automatic Transmission

Automatic transmission is one of the best features for beginners and for the people who get into trouble  with changing gears and controlling the clutch. It allows the driver to run without using any clutch and gears. Changing of gears in an automatic transmission system will be an automatic activity as per the speed of the vehicle. This is one of the most expensive parts of a car. Therefore, maintenance of automatic transmission is important. In some automatic transmission system longevity influencing factors are controllable and some are not. In this article, we will discuss what we can do for the longevity of automatic transmission system.

• Maintenance of filters: Filters are one of the important components to stop unrelated material. So maintenance of filters for transmission system is very essential. The transmission filter stops harmful materials from entering the hydraulic system. These can increase cause scoring, wear and sticking of hydraulic control valves. The car's automatic transmission filter have to be changed periodically. The period to change the fluid can be mention in the owner's manual.

• Flywheel or flexplate: The flexplate or flywheel stays attached to the engine's crankshaft. It serves as a torque converter. These can transmit engine torque to torque converter housing. Generally the flexplate or flywheel does not need regular maintenance. If the ring gear has facing any issue with improper starting or improper alignment the flywheel or ring gear needs to be replaced.

• Torque converter: The torque converter supplies torque to the transmission's input shaft. It sends in two separate ways as mechanical input and hydraulic input. The transmission fluid in the torque converter may become dry because of its heat. So when it become dry,  need to change the fluid. The problems with the torque converter can be within the torque converter or in the converter clutch. It is a very complex system, so if you find any problems in the torque converter check with the qualified transmission specialist.

• Transmission pan gaskets and sealing: The leakages in the clutch packs, accumulators and servos will prevent by the internal seals. The leakage of fluid outside will prevent by the external seals. The transmission or transaxle case seals by the oil pan gasket. Rough shifts, slipping, no vehicle movement in reverse or forward, loss of some gear seal are the symptoms of internal seal leakage. Frequent topping-off of the transmission fluid level, burning oil smell from underneath the car, reddish brown spots in your parking or driveway place are the symptoms of  transmission or transaxle oil pan gasket or leaking external seal. If you see any of these problems do not neglect and go to a technician to repair otherwise they will become big.

If the transmission fluid change period is not mention in your owner's manual, change it for 10,000 KM or before it becomes dirty or dark. If any specified fuel in the owner's manual use it, or check with your technician when not mention in the owner's manual.

Conversion of Diesel Vehicle into Vegetable Oil Vehicle

Conversion of diesel vehicle engine into a bio-diesel vehicle is fairly a straightforward process. You can do it yourself if you have the know-how. There many firms to do in the market.

• Diesel, bio-diesel and vegetable oil differences: People know well about diesel. But when it comes to bio-diesel and vegetable oil as fuel, most people are using this alternatively. It is because, most of the diesel engines can run on some form of vegetable oils, bio-diesel and diesel.

• Diesel: This is the actual diesel for what the diesel engines designed and available in the gas stations.
• Bio-diesel: Rather than crude petroleum, it is developed from vegetable oil. It is developed through transesterification process. In this process, the oil chemically reacts with alcohol.
• Vegetable oil: This is the oil that we use in kitchen. It is commonly derived from hemp, palm, corn, soy and other vegetables.

• Components: You need individual components or conversion kit to do the job. The basic components are a cable loom, control electronics, a heat exchanger, an electric fuel oil heater, an electric switching unit, a controller and an optional fuel tank. The second fuel tank is required to store an amount of diesel for ignition and the vegetable oil. To switch between tanks, the switching unit is useful. The heat exchanger and heater are useful to increase the temperature of vegetable oil up to a required point for efficient fuel burning.

• Second tank and fuel conversion kit: If you have the confidence to install the conversion kit do it, do it yourself. Otherwise, let the mechanic do it. The conversion kit contains a second tank, fuel preheater, a heat exchanger, a controller for switching fuels as mentioned above. The second tank contains vegetable oil. Vehicle will start with the diesel. You can switch to vegetable oil once the engine is warm enough. Before the vegetable oil enters into the fuel injector, through the heat exchanger hoses will run into the second tan to heat oil.

• Vegetable oil: You can get the vegetable oil either purchasing new or acquire from a used form. Some restaurants will give it for free to avoid the charge of disposing and hassle. You have to remove all the food particulars from it using oil filter.

• Installation process: Most kits available in the market at present are designed for do it yourself. You can understand these easily by seeing. Fix the second fuel tank that contains vegetable oil. Seals and rubber hoses from older vehicles are disreputable after a long time exposure to heated vegetable oil, they will break down. If you find a new set of additional filters hoses and seals, include them in installation. You need to set up a system which pumps waste heat from radiator to vegetable oil or second tank. If the kit do not have it, you need alternative to keep it heat and to run the fuel system smoothly.

Vegetable oil or bio-diesel are more environmental friendly than traditional combustion oils. These are cheaper too. Before conversion of your diesel oil engine into vegetable oil engine, make sure that your vehicle engine supports bio fuel compatible.

Fog Driving Safety Tips

Fog is a common natural event in many places in the world. It is like a cloud at ground level. When the temperature is decreased and the air is saturated, the fog will form. Suspended water droplets will form because of invisible water vapor in the condensed air. Sometimes more than one fourth mile is invisible because of fog formation. In this article, we will discuss about some fog driving safety tips

• Know about local weather: Generally the fog is formed in the morning and evening when the temperature is less. So knowing about the local weather conditions will help a lot. If possible avoid driving during such time when the fog is making very less visibility.

• Distance between cars: Maintain proper distance between other cars. It is better to maintain minimum one car distance between your car and the car in front of you. It will help to avoid risks from sudden brakes and chain reaction accidents.

• Lights: Lights play a crucial role in fog. Different lights will help for different purposes and indications. But almost all the lights are useful in the fog.
• Fog lights:Headlights are designed to see in the dark. Fog lights are designed for fog. Most of the manufacturers are fixing the fog lights at the factory. Generally these are below the headlights. These are aimed towards the ground and focused towards front as far as possible.
• Low beam lights: Use the low beam lights when the fog lights are not available.
• High beam lights: Use the high beam lights when the fog is too heavy.

• Don't change the speed suddenly: Going slowly is the best option when there is fog. If you want to slow you car speed or increase the car speed, do not do it suddenly. To increase the car speed you should check the front cars speed and then increase the speed. If you want to decrease the speed do it slowly.

• Reduce distractions in your vehicle: Reduce distractions like mobile phone, eating, etc. While concentrating on them, driving will be neglected. The driver needs to focus more while driving in night fog.

• Park in a safe place when there is no visibility: When the road is not visible because of fog, take roadside and park with a little distance to the highway. If you park on the road or very near to the road, other vehicle may cause accident to your vehicle. Check with your high beam lights periodically if it is visible. When there is fog turn on your back and front parking lights along with your fog lights. 

Manual Transmission Cars Vs Automatic Transmission Cars

Manual transmission cars allow the driver to change the gears manually. The driver can change the gears as per the driving speed. While changing the gears the driver has to use clutch pedal. In automatic transmission cars the gears are changed automatically based on vehicle speed. There is no clutch pedal in automatic transmission cars. Clutch plate mechanism is replaced with hydraulic torque converter.

Costs: Manual transmission is cheaper than automatic transmission cars. Manual transmissions requires less service, the maintenance cost is also lower than the automatic transmission.

Maintenance: Maintenance costs for automatic transmission is high, whereas the maintenance cost for manual transmission cars is comparatively less. In manual transmission the lubricants needs to be change periodically. But in automatic transmission cars there is no need to replace fluids.

Fuel efficiency: Fuel efficiency for manual based transmission system is lower. The clutch system consumes low energy. Automatic transmission system is based on hydraulic torque converter, it consumes more energy than the clutch system.

Driving skills: In manual transmission system the driver should coordinate with the vehicle speed, clutch and gears. It will take some time to get habituate. In automatic transmission, the driver needs less skill when compared to manual transmission. There is no need of coordination among clutch, vehicle speed and gears. Just needs to operate with accelerator, brake and steering.

Breakdown costs: Automatic transmission system is more complex than the manual transmission system. The breakdown costs for automatic transmission system is higher than the manual transmission system.

Comfort: Manual transmission system needs driver's more concentration to operate the clutch and gears manually. In case of automatic transmission, there is no need to operate clutch and gears. Automatic transmission system is more comfortable as there is no need to change the gears and speed.

Sporty: Manual transmission system needs the coordination between clutch and gears as per vehicle speed. So it will give more sporty thrill than the automatic transmission.

Control: The freedom of changing the gears and controlling the car is in drivers hand in manual transmission. But in case of automatic transmission driving, the decision and the control is made by the hydraulic torque converter.

If you are looking for thrill while driving, fuel efficiency and maintenance cost then better to go for a manual transmission car. If you don't want the pain to change the gears every now and then and looking for comfort and luxury then go for a automatic transmission car.

How to Select Winter Tires?

New winter tires were designed by scientists with the help of the new technologies, such tires provide safe traction and safe handling in the worst possible atmosphere, that can be snow, ice, wet weather conditions.

They are necessary in winter season because they are flexible in such weather. They are more safe and they have more stopping power, when compared to normal tires.

You should be ready to install the winter tires for snow fall in winter season. You can use four winter tires for your car and do not mix their types. You should remember that similarity of the tread depth, tire design and type of rubber compound determine car's ability to brake and accelerate directly.

How to select right winter tires:

• You should see the size of the winter tires, they should fit properly for your vehicle. If they are too big or too small then, it causes damage to the vehicle. You should not mix the tires which have different trade patterns.
• If you select a winter tire, it should have symbol of a snowflake inside a mountain peak. That symbol is outside of the tire. The tires which have such symbols they meet the standards and requirements for excellent traction performance in wet conditions.
• You can check the “m+s' (mud+snow) label on the tires. Such tires are flexible in winter season.
• Whenever you purchase the winter tires, you should check whether they are flexible in severe snow conditions.

These are the instructions to purchase the winter tires for your vehicle. You can follow these things while purchasing the winter tires. The important thing is, such tires should be flexible in winter season.

Know about Green Car

For meeting the demands of the consumers, the manufacturers are developing new models by fine tuning. Green car is also one of the innovations of the car manufacturers for meeting the expectations of the consumers.

20% of the green house emissions in US comes from automobiles such as cars and light trucks like SUVs. These emissions are leading to the adverse situations such as climate changes, pollutions in air and many cases of ill health. For meeting both the needs of traveling and building the environment by reducing the pollutants Green car will be used.

Generally, the vehicles which are powered by the alternative fuels are termed as the green cars. Here apart from alternative fuels, the advanced technologies are also used in the manufacturing of green cars. The different vehicles which come under this category are hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, flexible fuel vehicles, natural gas vehicles, clean diesel vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, neat ethanol vehicles, compressed-air vehicles etc. Some of the vehicles also use bio-diesel and ethanol fuels for powering the engines and for running the cars.

The cost of the maintenance for the brakes will be less because of using regenerative braking. Because of less environmental pollution, chances of health diseases are less. Day-by-day the number of deaths are increasing because of pollution is increasing. For reducing these situations, green car will be helpful.

One can define the green car as the car which has the features ranging from fuel efficient high mpg car to the eco-friendly alternative fuel vehicles.

So, use of green cars will be an advantage for both the people as well as manufacturers. With the increase in the usage the cost of the car will also get decreased.

Green Car Of The Year 2009

The Honda FCX Clarity is announced as green car of the year 2009 at New York International Auto Show. The Honda FCX clarity won the award because of its Tailpipe emissions, fuel consumption, and use of a major advanced power plant technology (beyond engine componentry).

The Honda FCX clarity is hydrogen fuelled luxury car with 430 km range, fuel consumption of about 3.3 liters/100km and zero emissions. The safety features of Honda FCX are reinforced unit-body structure, Vehicle Stability Assist, and Collision Mitigation Braking System. The Honda FCX contains the efficient lithium-ion battery pack with a single hydrogen storage tank. The batteries will get recharged with regenerative braking technology system. It is comfortable for four passengers with luggage.

The Door lining of the FCX clarity is made from bio-fabric. Bio-fabric is a plant based material and it is resistant to stretching and damage from sunlight. Honda FCX clarity is designed with advanced safety, comfort, and convenience features including navigation system, blue tooth, back up camera, and climate controlled seats.