Car Battery Maintenance A New Years Resolution!
For many people, the end of the holiday season is the time to make resolutions for the coming year. The New Year may present a financial challenge for many vehicle owners. If your budget is tight, you may need to keep your current car running strong another year with a simple car battery replacement. It’s easy to overlook seemingly minor car care issues, such as car battery maintenance.
5 Car Battery Maintenance Tips:
Avoid the hassle of a dead car battery, especially if you’re headed to the mountains for a little skiing or other fun recreation in the snow. Here are five simple tips to help keep the charge in your car battery.
1.Park in a Garage. A thoroughly insulated garage will keep your battery warm in the winter. If your garage is not insulated, insulate the battery.
2.Keep your battery clean. Remove the clamps and clean away grease, dirt and oxidation. A dirty battery connection will weaken the charge.
3.Recharge it with Solar. You can purchase an inexpensive solar charger to refill your battery’s charge with solar energy. Just be sure not to overcharge it.
4.Add Distilled Water. If you’re stretching the life of a conventional car battery, you may have to add some water to it.
5.Secure the Battery. If your battery is jiggling around, it could tip over. Battery acid spilling all over your motor is not a good thing! Keep the battery tray clean and make sure it sits correctly.
Remember: To keep your vehicle going strong through 2015, don’t procrastinate. Repair what’s wrong, have the appropriate services, including a car battery replacement if necessary, and your car can provide reliable transportation for many more miles to come.
Get ready for your trip to the mountains with a car battery checkup. Contact our ASE certified technicians today at Rebel Automotive or go online to http://www.rebel-auto.com for more information about a needed car battery replacement. We will be pleased to take care of your vehicle and provide you with honest and professional automotive service. Our auto repair shop serves vehicle owners in Henderson, NV, Las Vegas, NV, and North Las Vegas, NV.
A Car Salesman Career Can Be A Great Choice
Have you given some thought to a car salesman career. The current state of the auto industry shows us that this is an ideal time to enter into a car sales career. Today the car makers are taking more responsibility for the satisfaction of the car buyer and their car buying experience. In order to improve and clean up the image of the car salesman the dealer, sales people and the manufacturers are making change and improvements. The less than desirable car salesman image from the past is hard to change, but things are getting better as the car salesman is learning to be a true car sales professional.
As the business of selling cars grows as predicted the opportunities for those thinking about a car sales career will also increase. The myth that a car salesman should be a smooth talker and outgoing is false, they old need to communicate. There are many very good car sales people that are shy and introverted. Selling cars for a living is not about you, it is about dealing with people. Man or woman a career in car sales is only right for a few just like any career.
Even if you never consider being a car salesman before this might be a good time to reconsider. Not everyone has a day at work that consists of fun, making money and enjoy a number of other benefits. If you meet an ex-automobile salesman that speaks poorly of selling cars they almost always have a reason for their failure. Selling cars is much more than going for a ride with customers and that is why the turnover rate can be higher than other careers. Sorry, but that is not the case when it comes to selling cars. It takes a little more than driving people in cars to be a successful car salesman.
A career in car sales might be a great alternative for the person that can’t afford or desire to go to college. Going to college and having a degree is not a requirement to be a car salesman. Selling cars for a living doesn’t require college and it still has the potential to create an annual income of 100K or more. No experience needed at most dealers because they will teach you how to sell cars with their method. One great feature of selling cars is that your dealership will train and mentor you so that you can start making a very good sales income.
The perks that go along with a car salesman career can include a new car demo, first crack at all fresh trade-ins, an unstructured workday and a chance to have some fun with your fellow car sales people. One of the greatest things about selling cars for a living is being able to control your own income, you can make as much or little as you want. Now you decide, if you like making money, having great benefits and no chance of being bored think about a car sales career.
[Top]The Best Idea Of Purchase A Car Alarm
A car alarm is necessary to overcome the growing number of car thefts. If you are looking for sensible ways of choosing an alarm for your car, you can choose a variety of kinds of it that are available in the market today. There are reasonably priced car alarms that are sold in the market already. You should make sure on the superiority of the alarm that you will buy. Since the cheapest one of it still has a high- quality.
Car alarms are electronic devices that are installed in cars or vehicles to put off thieves from theft a car or vehicle and its inside. It emits a high volume of sound when someone triggers. It has some horns that typically have verbal warnings. It also has a horn from a vehicle or mixture of everything mentioned. On the following article below, you can read some simple tips in choosing and purchasing the best alarm for your car. You can learn some instructions on how to buy a contemptible with good quality. Tips that will help you spot good ones from bad ones. This also will assist you find the best way to find the installer for it, so to keep away from the difficulty occur?
First, some people regularly buy an alarm from the agents or they buy in the store or shop it online over the Internet. There are many types of alarm for the car and comes from various brand manufacturers that have their own final features and advantages. In order to distinguish the good quality ones, you can check the cable protective covering. Broad cable protective covering with a wire is the top ones. This is due to the fact that it can withstand an electric current. The low quality car alarms usually utilize a very thin wire.
A large amount of people search a contemptible car alarms in the internet. And it is the great step that they do because internet is filled with sites that sell these products and the accessories. The internet also is the best place to find cheap of it. Internet provides the latest model of car alarms that is ready with a remote that can work even at the utmost distance for about 3000 feet intrusion. There is also a model that is called “GSM based car alarm”. This alarm is built based GSM technology that will call the owner of the phone if there is a possibility of intrusion into the car. This yet allows the owner to listen to movement in the car. With this new novelty, the owner of car can turn off the engine and talk to the thief simply by pressing a button from the phone owners. The technology development of car alarms includes GPS features in which the owner can track the car or vehicle by the cellular telephone.
Also you can choose and buy one car alarm that comes with or without an included immobilizer. In the US, you can choose Non Tatcham or Tatcham that is one of the favorite and approved alarms for your car. The most expensive car alarm is easy to install, or can be a do it by yourself type. Tatcham alarm must be installed by knowledgeable technicians and installers. In choosing the best car alarm you be supposed to look at the diagram of the wiring. Most car alarms are good quality with same color coding. It has different low quality ones. It is available as the universal idea of the color system that makes a knowledgeable installer will be able to install it in time. If color coding is different, the installer can have a long time and it will be hard to install car alarm. This way can misuse your precious time and money if the installer demands the cost of his services by the hour.
In addition, a cheap car alarm and Tatcham superiority is immobilizer alarm. They are accessible through the installation of their possess. The only thing that you will need to do is to connect the owner of civility light, sensors, central locking and electric. If the owner turns on the alarm, the “central locking technique” will allow the car to lock and close the windows because the windows automatic closure technique.
[Top]Car Audio Speakers
Speakers Overview:
The car speakers you use will have the absolute say in how your system will sound. There are many different types of speakers available. A single speaker can be used to reproduce the full range of sounds but it is not ideal. If the speaker is too great it will have problems reproducing high frequencies which require rapid movement of the speaker. If it is too diminutive it will have problems reproducing low frequencies which require large amounts of air to be moved. Because a single speaker cannot reproduce all sounds accurately multiple speakers are used each of which imitates sound in the frequency range it was designed for. A speaker called a tweeter reproduces high frequencies generally above 2 kHz.
Tweeters are small and lightweight so they can respond fast. Very little power is required for powering tweeters because they are very efficient. Woofers are the exact opposite because they usually require considerable amounts of power to really move air. Woofers are meant to produce sound at frequencies below 250 Hz and often just below 100 Hz (in the case of subwoofers). Because a woofer must move considerable amounts of air they are usually large with typical sizes of 10″, 12″, 15″ and even 18″! On the other hand tweeters are usually very small ranging in size from 1/2″ to 2″ in size. Typically, tweeters larger than 1″ in size cannot respond fast enough to sound good and are too directional. In between are midrange speakers which handle the frequencies between the woofers and tweeters. Further separation can be done but is usually unrequired and just complicates the crossover which must separate the full audio signal into multiple parts for each speaker.
Things to look for:
Power Handling: Just as with amplifiers, RMS or continuous power is pivotal here. Some manufacturers will assert very high power handling figures but they are usually for very short peaks only. Granted music is not continuous but the continuous power handling gives you a much better impression of how much power a speaker can really handle. For tweeters and midranges, power handling is not as critical since it does not take much power for them to play loudly. For woofers though a rough match should be made between the woofer and the amp driving it.
Sensitivity: This is a very important specification for a speaker. It gives you an idea of how loud a speaker will play given a certain input power. If a speaker is insensitive then it will require greater power to play at the same volume level than a speaker that is more sensitive. Figures between 85 dB and 95 dB at 1 watt RMS at 1 meter are regular. If you use anything outside of this range you may have trouble matching the output levels of the speakers relative to each other. .
Physical Size: You must pay attention to the size of the speakers you choose. Tweeters are very small but need to mounted where they fire nearly directly at you or they may not be heard correctly. Some tweeters have better off axis response than others. If you will not be on axis with the tweeter when you audition tweeters in a store listen to how their sound variates as you move around them to see if they will work in your car. Midranges should fit in the door or dash spaces provided or you will have to do some cutting or fabrication. In general the greater the woofer the larger the enclosure required to hold it. Some woofers are better optimized for modest enclosures than others (Kicker Solobaric, JL Audio W6 for example). Make sure you have enough room in your trunk or hatchback for the woofer. Kickpanels for midranges and tweeters or coaxials typically offer better imaging than locations in the door however the soundstage is sometimes lower than when you have the tweeters mounted high in the doors or on the A pillars.
How Do Speakers Work?
Moving Speaker Speakers are air pistons that move back (on the negative cycle of the signal) and forth (on the positive cycle), creating varied degrees of air pressure at different frequencies. The amplifier (either separate or built-in your radio), produces electrical impulses that change from positive and negative voltages (AC). This current reaches the voice coil inside the speaker, forming an electro-magnet that will either be repelled, or attracted by the fixed magnet at the bottom of the speaker. The voice coil is attached to the cone, moving it back and forth, creating sound. The surround (rubbery circle that joins top of the cone and metal basket) and the spider (usually yellow corrugated circle joining bottom of cone to magnet) make the cone return to its original position.
Speaker Sensitivity, measured in dB, is how loud a speaker plays (usually 1 Watt, 1 meter). A higher Sensitivity rating means that the speaker will play louder using the same power as a speaker with a lower rating.
The back and front parts of the speaker should be separated from each other. When the front of the cone is pushing air, the bottom is pulling air, creating a cancelling effect. Ideally each speaker should be in an enclosure. If you are mounting a speaker in a big hole, make certain you build a panel to isolate the front and back of the speaker (baffle).
Imaging, Staging and Directivity
Imaging – is being able to pick certain sounds from different places. The singer would usually be located towards the middle of the car, guitars, trumpets, and other instruments towards the sides of the car. If you scatter speakers all around the car your imaging would be very bad, since you would be producing the same sound at different places. If you have a system with flawless imaging, the sound should seem to come from different instruments and voices, not speakers.
Staging – is the ability of a system to “fool you” into feeling that everything (including bass) is in front of you. The sound should be identical to a stage in a concert, where the singer would be in the front center, and the rest of the instruments and background vocalists would be located to the left and right (but always on the front).
Good staging and imaging are not so easy to implement. It takes a lot experimenting with speaker location and direction.
Directivity – of sound is related to frequency. At higher frequencies it is simpler to pinpoint where the sound is coming from than lower frequencies. This can be used to our advantage in car stereo. Tweeters are the most important part of getting good staging. They should be aimed towards the middle of the car. A way to “bring” the bass to the front of the car is to fool our ears by overlapping frequencies played by midbases and subs, so that your midbases actually “pull” the bass to the front, since lower bass in not too directional. You should crossover your midbases as low as you can (without getting distortion). Then cut your subs at a bit higher frequency (preferably 60 HZ or less). This will mix the bass coming from the front and rear, making the bass seem to come from the front. Adding a center channel also improves staging, if it is set up correctly.
Types of Speakers
Coaxials – Coaxial speakers (or three-ways) are two (or more) speakers built-in the same frame. They are cheaper than separate woofer and tweeters and also easier to install. There is no need to worry about crossovers, since they are already built-in (you might still need to add a crossover to block bass if you are using high-power amplifiers). A disadvantage of coaxials is the lack of flexibility. For example, if the coaxial is all the way in the kick panel, or door panel aiming at your feet, you will not have good staging or imaging. You should usually consider coaxial speakers for the back and the front of the car, unless you only have one speaker hole and don’t plan to cut any more holes in the car.
Separates – Separates consist of a tweeter and woofer, and [most of the time] come with an external crossover. The woofer is usually mounted in the factory hole in the door or kick panel. The tweeters can be mounted in different places. Typically they are installed towards the top front corner of the door panel, in the dash or the in the blank plastic piece on the top front side of the doors (where the mirror is on the outside). You would have to experiment with angle and location to achieve the best possible imaging and staging.
Horns – Horns are very good at directing sound and have high efficiencies. Horns are typically mounted under the dash. By doing this, difference in distance from left and right speakers are greatly reduced over conventional mounting locations. Since horns play mids and highs, tweeters are not needed. Horns cost more than conventional speakers and require customization. Horns are not for everyone though. It is not easy to properly setup a set of horns.
Midbases – Midbases are usually 5, 6 or 8 inch speakers that are designed to go lower in frequency and are part of a three way system with a mid and tweeter. Midbases are usually mounted in the doors.
Subwoofers – Subwoofers add lower frequencies to the system. They have to be enclosed in a box, with the exception of free air subwoofers, which use the trunk as an enclosure. There are many different types of boxes and implementations discussed in the “subwoofers” section.
Car Speaker Mounting Locations
Front Speakers – The best place to mount speakers in the front, in custom kick panels. If this is impossible, try to point the speakers towards the center of the car, and try to minimize the distance between the right and left speakers to your ears. Custom kick panels are usually built from fiberglass or molded plastic, and are available from some manufacturers .
Rear Speakers – Rear speakers should give a sense of space to the music, but not overpower the front speakers. You should be able to barely hear the rear speakers. Most high end systems don’t have rear speakers. Tweeters are not essential for the rear, a set of coaxials will work well for rear fill.
Center Channels – Center channels consist of a midrange speaker (3 or 4 inch) mounted in the middle of the dash (usually) on the top. Center channels play a mono (Left + Right) signal between 350 – 500 and 3500 Hertz (voice range). The need of the center channel is to raise the sound stage, by causing the sensation of the singers “being” in the front of the car, and not in the door panels. Center channels are hard to implement.
Sizes and Shapes
There are many speaker sizes ranging from 1-inch tweeters to 18-inch (or bigger) subwoofers. A smaller speaker will reproduce higher frequencies better than a bigger one.
Do round speakers sound superior than oval-shaped speakers (i.e. 6×9’s)? The answer is yes for most practical purposes. A round cone is more rigid than an oval-shaped one, so at higher levels, an oval-shaped speaker will distort more. The reason why there are oval-shaped speakers is because of rear deck space considerations by manufacturers. An advantage of a 6×9 speaker over a 6-inch speaker is that it has a bigger area, so it will move higher air volume, producing more bass.
Power Considerations
Most people think that if they use a 50 watt per channel amplifier on their factory speakers, the speakers will be damaged. This may be true if the speakers do not have crossovers blocking off frequencies speakers were not designed to play. What destroys speakers is distortion. A high power amplifier allows the volume in the system to be higher, while the volume control on the radio is down in the range where no distortion is present. It is better to have more power than what you need to get cleaner sound.
The Advantages Of Car Servicing
Running a motor can be very expensive, particularly these days. We spend money on tax, insurance, petrol, MOTs and car servicing and sometimes the costs seem infinite.
Whether you have a BMW, VW, Audi, Mini Cooper, Mercedes or a commercial vehicle, you can minimise costs by ensuring you don’t pay through the nose: making sure that you have a regular car service.
Car manufacturers recommend very clearly at what time in a car’s life you will need to have a service, and provide a comprehensive service book that needs to be kept up-to-date, especially if you are planning to sell on your car. When it come to trading in or selling your vehicle, it will have had a decent programme of maintenance and will possibly sell for a higher price, so investment in car servicing is a good investment.
Also, if you have a warranty on your car, then you will need regular servicing in order to maintain that warranty as part of its terms and conditions.
Car servicing also ensures that your car is maintained to the highest standard, and performs at its optimum level, and that your car will run as smoothly, safely, efficiently and reliably as possible for a very long time. And when you car is performing to its best ability you will enjoy the driving experience more and get a lot of satisfaction.
With cars’ CO2 emissions becoming increasingly a factor in motoring life, especially for new higher car tax bands, having a regular car service can help fuel consumption be at its cleanest and CO2 emissions at its lowest.
There is nothing worse than an unreliable car, we have all had the odd occasion when the car has broken down at the roadside, not started in the morning, or perhaps has been in and out of a garage more times than it has been running on the road. This can apply to Audis, as well as BMWs and Volkswagens. Having regular car servicing ensures that potential or underlying problems with a car are dealt with before they happen, especially if there is a small mechanical problem that, if left unfixed, can develop into a larger problem, and expense, later on. Sometimes a service can seem like an awful lot of money, especially with all of the other running costs associated with owning a car. But, in the longer term, having your car serviced regularly at a trusted garage could save much trouble and expense and keep the vehicle on the road, performing at its best.
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