How Poor Automobile Maintenance Can Lead To Accidents And Steps That Can Be Taken To Prevent These Accidents

September 4th, 2010

The motorways today are the safest they have ever been but incidents still occur. A lot of them are not serious but some are and cause the loss of life. A lot of these incidents are due to human error but a growing number are due to automobile faults, caused by bad everyday maintenance. You might consider that the essential features of the automobile that are being poorly maintained are the brakes, steering or the suspension, and that these are what is causing these accidents, but you would be misinformed. These features are inspected annually on cars that are three years old as part of the MOT, and because these features are designed to be tough they hardly ever fail between the annual checks. The majority of these incidents can be linked to three areas , the car front window, the lights and the tyres, all of which should be checked frequently to make sure they are in excellent working condition.

How should these three areas of the automobile be maintained to avoid incidents? Let us start by discussing the front window; having a clear field of vision is critical for operating any automobile safely. At first you should really observe the front window for any chips and cracks and if you find any they should be repaired as a matter of urgency as these can distract you and impair your vision on the highway. Also your wiper blades should be in working order; this means that they have no damage in the wiper blades and clear precipitation from the front window without leaving streaks and smudges. If your wiper blades have any of these faults then you must buy some replacement wiper blades and attach them immediately. When choosing your replacement wiper blades remember they are not all the same. If you live somewhere where the winters are bad it may be worth obtaining flat wiper blades manufactured from silicone as these flat wiper blades will operate in the worst conditions. Although the flat wiper blades made from silicone are financially straining they come with a one-year guarantee and they are excellent value for money.

It is now time to look at what maintenance the lights on the automobile need .The lights on a tuck should all be working and to ensure this they should be checked frequently. This can be done easily in a few minutes with two people; one person operates the lights and the other person observes if they are working. If any of the lights are not functioning then replacement bulbs should be fitted as a matter of urgency. If you don’t feel confident doing this yourself a lot of garages will fit them for a small fee. You should also think about upgrading your headlights to neon bulbs, as for most dark winter nights any extra light will always increase safety.

Finally, let us look at what checks should be frequently carried out on the tyres of a tuck to maintain its safe use. The first thing to do is to observe the depth of the tread which can be done using a depth measure. For a tyre to be legal it must have a minimum of 1.6 mm of tread over 2/3 of its surface but the manufacturers recommend a minimum of 3 mm of tread over 2/3 of the tyre. The next thing to do is check is the air pressure in the tyre, this should be the same as the produce’s specification which is generally on a sticker in the driver’s door arch. You observe the pressure by attaching the pressure gauge to the tyre valve, then read off the value on the pressure measure. If the pressure is lower than required level then you have to as a matter of urgency pump up the tyre. You should observe it again in a day or so and if the pressure has descreased then it is best to take the tyre to an expert and have it observed as it is likely to have a puncture. Tyres will slowly deflate all the time so small pressure changes are common over a period of a month or so.

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