Category: Car Parts

Brake pads are an item that will often need replacing on your vehicle. Depending on how often you drive your car, your driving styles and the type of driving you do will all effect how often you need to replace your pads. For example, a car that is driven a lot of motorway miles that does not involve much breaking may not need to change their tyres as much as someone who has done the same mileage but round town driving.

You may not realise that your brake pads are very low until you take the car for an MOT as often we get used to how our cars drive and may not realise that it is taking longer to stop. You may also discover a squealing sound or grinding sound when you apply the brakes. This is because your pads have a noise warning on them which will make these sounds when the pad wears down to that level. At this level you need to change your pads as soon as possible. If you have been driving with worn pads for a while you may find that you also need to change your brake discs too.

Although luckily not many of us have to experience gear box issues it is one of those repairs that we all dread. You may not realise that there is a problem with your gearbox until it is too late or you may of noticed that it struggles to get in to gear a little bit but put it down to the clutch instead. Gearbox problems can be hard to diagnose yourself so you may need to take it to a specialist garage for them to have a look for you. You should not really have to replace a gearbox on a vehicle unless it has done a large number of mile but like any component on a vehicle, things can go wrong well before their time. A gearbox needs oil to run and if there is a slow leak you may not even realise until its to late. If the gearbox runs out of oil it will often be damaged beyond repair and will either need to be refurbished or replaced for a new one.

If you are considering buying a second hand gear box you should try and get at least a 12 months warranty with it as you do not want to have to be forking out for the same thing again a few months down the line. Gearbox replacements or repairs often cost in excess of £1000 so you want to try and avoid it at all costs.

There are many ways to tell whether your clutch is on the way out, and you can actually spot the signs early on if you’re paying some care and attention.

A soft clutch pedal can be a big indicator that your clutch is on the way out, and this is often related to leak, so get this checked out early. There should always be some sort of stiffness to putting a clutch down, and it shouldn’t feel light.

If you’re finding it difficult to change gear, then this is also an indicator. You may find that your gears are starting to crunch and make loud sounds and this is because the clutch is not functioning as it should. You should always make sure you clutch is functioning as it should because it’s certainly a costly repair, and if you spot the signs early enough you may save yourself heaps of money.

It could soon be time to say goodbye to manual cars, because the majority of new cars are now being released with automatic gearboxes. From BMWs to Ferrari’s and Fords; automatics seem to be the way forward, but some will argue they are less fun to drive.

Soon people will not need to pass their driving test in a manual vehicle, and why should they if they’re never going to own a manual car, and even the bog standard 214 Ford Focus has an automatic gearbox.

Some people enjoy the ease that comes with driving an automatic, while other’s see it as a lazy way of driving, and a method that really only involves steering, but is it the way forward, and is it more reliable?

There’s an element of interacting with your engine that will not exist in newer cars, and people may well hold on to their manual vehicles, so they can feel the engine, and not have the car shift though the gears on its own.