Doing a makeover or making a monster?

Car modification is cool. However, you may find yourself exaggerating things, making your work of art a total disaster! Better yet, you can keep everything simple yet appealing.

There are lots of auto parts that you should consider when modifying your ride. You can start with the most obvious ones… Those which you can see even from a distance – like your wheels and tires.

With the wheels and tires, the desire to fit alternative ones is the most common modification. This is because of their significant visual contribution on aesthetics. Oftentimes, these auto parts stand as foundations in making or unmaking a car.

Changes to the wheels and tires can alter your ride’s behaviour on the road, so it is advisable to fit wheels and tires that are listed on the tire placard or in your owner’s handbook. Of course, you also need to ensure the good condition of your tires and wheels.

Some experts say that modifying wheels and tires can really improve a road holding, but an incorrect tire and wheel combination can affect the track of your vehicle.

Now let’s talk about one of the most popular location of car modification – the exhaust system. The rumble of a hotted-up V8 makes a pretty loud statement. Enthusiasts extravagantly shell out to fit a larger exhaust system with the idea of improving gas flow while deriving more power from the engine.

Ideally, it will be better to reduce the restriction in the exhaust to maximize the performance but in reality, it doesn’t deliver huge gains because it goes more about the noise than anything else.

Upgraded exhaust systems are popular in the 17–25 age group This is partly personality and show-off factor. The statutory limit for exhaust noise is 90 decibels for cars made after 1983. Nonetheless, fines range from $150 to $500 depending on how far the exhaust noise exceeds the limit. What do you want, fame or fine?

Getting in the interior… Car enthusiasts transform seats for support, safety, comfort, and aesthetics. If you don’t have any reason while doing such modification, better stop it, or make a monster out of your interior. However if you are sure about your plan, you can find optional extras for your vehicle, just don’t forget to get an engineering certificate.

Once a seat is incorrectly fitted, it will dislodge in the event of a crash. Moreover, if you fit a new seat and it ends up too high or low, it could compromise the driving position of your ride. If you have side airbags, have your seats modified or use seat covers since they could interfere with the deployment of airbags..

Getting under the hood.. Engine modifications tend to be more complex as these include either modifying the existing engine or fitting a new engine. Among the common activities are adding superchargers turbochargers, or after-market fuel injection systems.

Powerchips are great. These go into the vehicle’s engine management computer and changes the mapping of fuel and ignition timing, maximizing the power. Nonetheless, this is expensive if you base on the “not so great” net gain.

Never modify your ride if it is likely to affect engine management, oxygen sensor, catalytic converter, or the mufflers in the exhaust system. You can boost the power under the hood using other techniques. You don’t have to modify your ride into a monster.

More techniques are yet to be counted. If you want to learn more about having a makeover for your vehicle, keep on researching. A lot of enthusiasts are willing to share great tips for your benefits. Next time, I’ll be posting more entries related to this…

Improve your Shocks

Have you been suffering from extensive bouncing? Never ignore this as you will never get the off-road performance that you need. Check if the shocks are still in good shape otherwise, you will continuously get annoyed by the road disturbances.

Shocks generally stand as piston inside a liquid, having an extra gas chamber that absorbs the unfavorable effects of road disturbances. This happens when gas compresses while the liquid does not compress under pressure. Because of such difficult task, your shocks are apparently made to have fairly complicated structure. Additionally, since these auto parts are exposed to extensive movements, early damage are always imminent. If this happens, your car would bounce all along. To make sure that problems with your shocks will not annoy you, make sure that you will always consider the condition of each suspension parts. These are some of the main components that you have to regularly inspect.

Bound and Rebound settings
This refers to the dampening force of the shock absorber. Bound is the rate at which shock allows compression. Rebound, on the other hand, is the rate at which the shock releases the compression. Once your suspension has a dampening control, then you can determine the optimum setting.

Camber
This is the angle of your wheel against the road. Putting all your weight on the outside of your feet will cause negative camber. On the other hand, rolling your feet inwards, so all your weight gets inside, positive camber is resulted. As the car rolls into the corner, the camber will bring changes to handling and tire life. The best camber settings for handling will lead to premature tire wear. The front wheels are set up for positive camber while the wheels deflect up. Camber setting refers to the angle of the wheel to the road and the angle of the wheel to the chassis. Maintaining the best angle of contact between the tire and the road should therefore be done properly.

Caster
The angle of the wheel hub in relation to the suspension arm is referred to as the angle of castor. Positive castor keeps the wheel straight. Stability is maintained, whereas a neutral camber leads to wheel wobbling around the axis.

Toe
Toes in or toes out? Your car has “toes out” when they seem to look like your feet, having the heels together and the toes apart. On the other hand, it has “toes in” when the heels are apart and the toes are together. Any of these conditions can affect the stability of your car. Toe can provide stability on the straight and resistance whenever turning. With toes out, there is quicker steering response.

You can provide your car with the toe that you want, just make sure that this is equally distributed to all your wheels.


Roll
Removing roll in corners will help attain cornering stability. Once you push hard, your car will lift a rear wheel and when cornering, you will surely need as much rubber in contact with the black stuff.

Roll bars are also called sway bars. These help keep the level in a car corner by taking a lift from one side and trying to move it to the other. This is impossible so the lift effectively pulls down and everything is kept in contact with the road.

Spring stiffness
If the springs become so stiff, the car will bounce over humps and potholes on the road. When this become too soft, the car will wallow along. Perfect shocks are made adjustable on the car to let you get the set up that will match your driving style.

Bushes
These suspension parts provide connection to the suspension components and chassis. The rubber ones deteriorate over time. New poluurethane bushes last longer and maintain handling much tighter. However, since these are harder, your ride has the possibility to become a little bumpy.

Getting Lower... but trendier

Do you want to give your vehicle a new appeal? Why not try making it look closer to the ground? Lowering has been one of the popular trends today so it will surely be a success if you will pursue such style in your own ride.

But how are you gonna start the lowering of your vehicle then? Lots of enthusiasts have their vehicles lowered through their own skills and money. Apparently, you need to invest the same factors to make sure that your ride will stand out down the road.

Usually, lowering is started by removing the huge tractor like gap between the top of the wheel and the arches. Such lower feature is better for handling since the track becomes fairly flat and smooth.

Manufacturers need to take speed bumps, passenger comfort, uneven road surface, and road noise into consideration when setting up a car suspension. Lots of cars contain soft comfortable suspension that does a little to maximize handling and driving experience. Track cars are designed for driver preference and style for perfect setting is not just different for each model, as it is also a subjective thing.

If your car has a lowered front with a body kit, you will may not go quite as low on the suspension or you will quickly grind the front skirt of pavements, ramps, and speed bumps.

Vehicle models like Ferrari raises the nose cone electronically to avoid such issue. You could add gringing plate of rubber or metal to the bottom edge to preserve the plastic- you get to replace the grinding plate instead of the whole front apron.

Talking about the common mistakes – you should not go through the chavsandtarts car part catalogue and buy a suspension kit, which can lower your ride 50 mm, and expect the perfect set up.

Several kits are so general, as these can be fitted to all models. Different engine weights, wheel sizes, and car weights need different suspension characteristics. If you go too low, you risk grinding the tires in the wheel arch requiring a rolling of the arches, making them bigger by folding the metal underneath. You will also risk the condition of the drive shaft and gearbox if the angle from the final drive to wheel hub is wrong.

Your car can look good when slammed to the ground. You can reduce the ground clearance, causing troubles with tires rubbing in the wheelarches. Take note that roads have speed bumps and instead of slowing a lowered car down they will grab the sump and rip off the bottom of the engine, where most is of the front skirt. Several road cars can be better off going lower than 35mm for hot hatches which tend to have uprated suspension (which can even be better with just 30mm).

In case you have changed the wheel size, then these tolerances can be much lower a car fitted with standard suspension and 17” rims can be fine. Nonetheless, if you lower it as well, you may get more problems. Lowering must improve handling and appearance. Also, this must result to less air going under the car, which can enhance stability. You can notice that lower springs should be fitted top match shocks, so cutting the springs will not be that advisable.

Lowering is indeed a great idea for customizing your car. Nevertheless, this always requires complicated procedures. Of course you can do it yourself but the result will be better if a skilled auto mechanic will assist you. Also, make sure that you will get the best lowering kit in the market. Always guarantee yourself with the right choice of kit, according to the requirements of your car manufacturer.

When was the last time you have upgraded your car?

Revolution in the automotive industry has gone so far. And fortunately, the development gets on, as modern cars seem to get more and more complicated, yet convenient. Though microprocessors make it more difficult for you to work on your vehicle, some of these will make the maintenance easier to handle.

The use of microprocessors are basically brought by the need for sophisticated engine controls to meet emissions and fuel-economy standards, simplification of car designs, new safety and convenience features, and development of wireless connections.

Some of the signs for the advancement of automotive technology are the innovations from engineers like the ABS module, Airbag module, Body Controller, Climate control module, Cruise Control Module, ECU, Instrument Panel, Power distribution box module, and transmission controller.

ABS module – controls anti-lock brakes, handle traction-control and stability-control systems.

Airbag Module – controls airbag deployment

Body controller – controls power windows, interior lights, seats etc..

Climate control module – monitors interior temperature while controlling heating and cooling systems.

Cruise Control module – regulates speed while in cruise mode

ECU – controls engine functions such as spark timing, fuel/air ratio etc..

Instrument Panel- controls gauges and indicator lights

Power distribution box module – controls relays in the power distribution box

Transmission controller – controls the automatic transmission


Among these advanced automotive designs, the sophisticated engine controls make a lot of breakthroughs. Though these were unimportant then (because it was possible to build an engine without microprocessors), the increasingly stricter emissions laws have necessitated their uses. Today, sophisticated control schemes are designed to regulate air/fuel mixture so that the catalytic converter could effectively minimize the pollution.

ECU is among the most powerful computer in vehicles, as it controls the inputs to a system, managing the emissions and fuel economy. It gathers data from different sensors, keeping it “knowledgable” with everything from the coolant temperature to the amount of oxygen in the exhaust. Just imagine how it performs millions of calculations per second. This controller is indeed one of the busiest computers. By the way, have you upgraded your ECU? Better do it soon, otherwise, troubles with miscalculations may lead to major problems.

ECU gathers data through a lot of sensors. Clusters are currentlyused on smaller scales for these sensors. There are manufacturers that produce smart sensor that is integrated with all electronics, along with a microprocessor that enables it to read the voltage, calibrating it through temperature-compensation curves and digitally outputs the pressure onto the communications bus. Such design can save the carmaker from having to know the dirty details of sensor, while saving processing power in the module.

Smart sensors are favorable as the digital signal traveling over the communications bus is less susceptible to electrical noise. An analog voltage traveling through a wire can pick up extra voltage when it passes certain electrical components, or even from overhead power lines.

In addition to sensors and computers, other systems such as traction control, stability-control, ABS and air bags have become common to cars. These safety features add new module, which contains multiple microprocessors.

Each safety system requires more processing power and is usually packaged in particular electronics module. In the near future, it is expected that all kinds of new convenience features in modern cars will require more electronic modules containing multiple microprocessors.

With all these advancement in modern cars, how many have been used to upgrade you car? Better check out if your vehicle is still on the trend. Upgrading the systems may require ample money and time, but surely, it pays. Anyhow, it’s your choice to be left behind or not.