Some Tips for Perfecting your Parking Skills

Whether you live in a busy, bustling city or a quiet country dwelling, being able to drive safely and confidently is important, and one of the most common things that drivers of all ages find tricky is parking. Though absolutely essential, the seemingly simple act of parking a car can become cumbersome and time consuming due to several factors, from surface terrain and reduced visibility to even an unfamiliar new car.

To avoid accidents and save time, there are plenty of small tips to bear in mind the next time you go to reverse park into a tight space, or parallel park on a congested street, but here's a few of them to get you started.

Small scrapes and bumps are very common in car parks, where space is usually of a premium. When you find the best spot to park in, first decide whether to reverse in or go nose first, and then remember to go slowly. Though you'll hopefully not cause any serious accidents while parking, it can still be expensive to fix that scratched paint work if you're not careful. Simply reducing your speed immediately gives you a far greater margin for error and allows you time to consider each movement and amend any mistakes as you go.

Next is observation. By being aware of what is around you on all sides, it can reduce the likelihood of accidents and will improve your spatial awareness, so when you come to get out of the car, you won't find that you're parked too close to even open your driver's door! A simple fix to prevent you from denting your bumper (or anyone else’s) is parking sensors. They can be used both front and rear and will help you park more accurately in no time.

In a busy street or packed multi-storey car park, it’s easy for drivers to get competitive over parking spaces. Don’t. Remember that keeping control of the car is essential at all times, so you should try to avoid any actions that could provoke other drivers. Maintain common courtesy while parking that you would use throughout your day to day life, as this will keep you relaxed and focused as you go to park.

Finally, don’t forget the little things that will make the job of parking easier. Before you begin the manoeuvre, make sure you’re aware of what’s around you and, just as importantly, make sure fellow drivers are aware of you. Signal clearly and early, allowing drivers plenty of time to give you room to park, and be considerate of how much space you take up too - always aim for the minimum.

Though there are plenty of car insurance companies out there, follow these simple tips and hopefully your parking will be bump-free in the future.
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How to Do Your Own Auto Glass Chip Repair

A repair that is often overlooked until too late is auto glass
chip repair. While a chip in the windshield may not seem like much environmental waste pollution and the stress of temperature changes can cause it to grow over time, resulting in cracks and repairs more expensive. However, it has to come to this. With this article, and a do-it-yourself glass repair kit cars, you can fix a chip in the windshield before it gets worse.

Inspecting the damage

The first step in any repair process to inspect the damage. You can do it yourself or even take your car to a professional if necessary. A general rule is that if windshield damage is limited to a minor chip or Knick, you must repair. Often, small spider cracks can be repaired as well, but the cracks with long veins present a major problem and usually are not repairable. If in doubt, consult a professional for their opinion.

Select the repair kit

If you determine that your chip is actually glass repair, a trip to your local auto parts store will offer different options for repair. Although offered by different companies, most do-it-yourself kits windshield work the same way and have similar elements. The kits typically include a stabilizer or a base that resembles a suction cup, a nozzle or applicator, a tube of resin and a curing adhesive film.

Perform the repair

Before diving into the repair, be sure to read carefully the detailed instructions with the kit. Once done, the first step is to clean the chip and the area around it as best as possible with glass cleaner. Wipe dry with a clean towel afterwards. If there is any debris on the chip, a safety pin or similar item can be used to remove it.

When the area is clean, the stabilizer or base shall be affixed to the windshield, usually with an adhesive. Make sure it is carefully positioned and that the seal between it and the glass is tight. The next step usually involves placing the applicator nozzle or the stabilizer. Generally, the air is extracted from between the stabilizer and the windscreen, while injecting the resin. The vacuum thus created helps to draw the resin into the crack and to protect it from pollutants in the air.

Once the resin has cured for the time specified in the instructions, applicator and the stabilizer are removed. The next step usually involves placing a drop of resin on the repair and then placing the cured film thereof. When making the film, make sure to remove any air bubbles that may be present. Again, the curing of the resin in the amount of time specified in the instructions.

Once the film is removed, if any part of the repair is not uniform, usually can be solved with a razor blade. Any excess resin or adhesive residue can be cleaned with glass cleaner. If completed correctly, the repair should be kept fairly quiet at this point.

While a chip in the windshield may seem insignificant, it is important to take care as soon as possible before it becomes worse. With the information provided in this article, you will find it a simple job that can save you big money in the long term.
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Choosing a Car Stereo

With the huge choice of car audio equipment available today it is often difficult to decide what car stereo would best suit your needs. This article will hopefully help you negotiate the technical minefield and make the best choice for your requirements.

There are two main contributing factors to the quality of the audio that is produced by any audio equipment which are the frequency response and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The frequency response of the ear is around 20Hz to 20KHz although this often diminishes with age. A 'loud' facility is sometimes provide to boost the frequencies that become degraded with age. The SNR is important as it is what constitutes the background hiss that is often associated with cheaper audio equipment.

The car stereo or head unit today can play audio from a wide variety of sources which we will now discuss below.

Cassette Deck

If the reason for replacing your car stereo is to allow you to play your CD's or music from your iPod then please be aware that it is possible to purchase equipment that allows you to play music from an external source. These specialised adapters look like a cassette with a flying lead that plugs into your alternate music source ie iPod, CD player etc. This is often a very cheap and easy alternative if funds are tight!

Audio Cassettes in general do not give as good an audio experience as CD players as their frequency response and SNR is often inferior to that of modern digital equipment.

Although cassette tape sales have declined extensively it is still possible to purchase due to the amount of tapes that are still out there however as a long term investment a CD or MP3 player would probably be a better choice.

CD player

The CD has been around for many years now and is well established in the market-place. A CD can store its information in a multitude of formats but the most popular at the moment is usually just referred to as an Audio CD in the specifications. These are the CD's that you can buy of the shelf from any major music retail shop.

As with all technology the the common audio format is under threat by a relatively new format referred to as MP3. MP3 is a digital audio compression technique that allows much more audio to be squeezed onto a single CD. A typical compressed song will be roughly 4-6MB depending upon the quality of the audio and a typical CD can store around 700MB of data. So you can see that you can store many more songs using MP3 technology than with the conventional music CD's.

It is also possible to purchase a head unit that has a remote CD player or CD changer. A CD changer is like a mini duke box that can be located in your boot, glove compartment etc. They typically have between 6 and 12 CD's within them and often support the ability to play songs randomly between all the CD's.

USB/Memory Card
With the rapid adoption of MP3 format and the availability of cheap USB memory sticks car audio manufacturers have started to adopt USB ports on their equipment as standard. A USB stick or memory card can be thought of as a very small CD usually about a couple of inches long and about half an inch wide but capable of storing vastly more information than a conventional CD. Something to check when buying a head unit supporting this feature is the upper memory limit of the USB stick or memory card. Typical memory cards today are around 2-4GB which would store many albums however these sizes may not be supported by the head unit.

If you purchase a head unit supporting this type of media then you'll need to make sure that you have a method of getting the music from you CD collection onto the memory stick. This will involve 'ripping' the audio and copying it onto the memory. There are many programs available for doing this such as Windows Media Player.

Radio

Most people are familiar with car radio's and understand what to look for when purchasing one. However something to keep in mind when looking is the uptake of DAB radio which is the new digital transmission method.

DAB radio uses modern digital compression techniques to offer a greater variety of music and programmes as well as short messages etc that often appear of the display. Since this is a new format and isn't widely adopted as the mainstream format most DAB radios also still support FM transmissions.

The DIN form factor

Finally something which should be overlooked is the form factor and connections for the head-unit. With early cars there wasn't really a standard which led to all sorts of problems when replacing the factor standard unit. However there is now a standard size referred to as the DIN which is 2 1/8" (50mm) tall and 7 1/8" (180mm) wide and double-DIN which is twice as tall as the standard DIN size.

The connectors used to plug the stereo in are fairly common but there is no one standard connector. Luckily due to the size of the problem there are many different types of adaptor readily available in most car audio shops.

One problem often experience with fitting new audio equipment is with the memory 'forgetting' its settings. This is often due to the power supply wires to the head unit being switched over. To over come this problem the manufacturers of the cabling adapters easily enable the yellow and red wire to be interchanged which will fix the problem.

It is always worth checking out many retailers before making a selection on a head unit and I would recommend searching a car audio directory for the best choice.