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 With the holiday season fast approaching I thought we should take a look at the basic items on a vehicle safety check. I strongly suggest having a qualified mechanic carry out a full service and tune-up before contemplating any long trips and that combined with these few basic tips should see you get to your destination without any mechanical dramas.

• The first item on the list is a check of the lights - headlight, both high and low beam, the indicators front and rear, parking lights front and rear, number plate lights and with the help of an assistant check your brake lights including the eye-level brake light if fitted.
• Number Two is your wiper blades. There is nothing worse than getting caught in a rain shower with crappy wiper blades and usually they get overlooked until this happens! Throw a bit of water on the windscreen, operate the wipers and look for a nice streak-free finish. A handy tip that I allways use is get yourself a bottle of Rain-X and periodically wipe your windscreen with a cloth wet with the Rain-X. This stuff is awesome at beading any water that hits the screen and the water is blown off by the wind. Car polish is also useful for this.
• Washer Fluid and Washer Jets. Another forgotten item until they are needed! Top up the fluid bottle with water and an approved detergent. Operate the washers and if any are blocked a poke with a sewing pin usually gets them working again. Also check the jets alignment, no use using your water to wash the guys windscreen behind you! You can re-align the jet by sticking the sewing pin into the jet and gently moving it in the direction you need it to go.
• Tyres, please check your tyres before heading off anywhere. Check for adequate tread depth across the entire tread surface of the tyre. If there is major wear on one side of the tyre only I suggest you have a wheel alignment carried out before going anywhere as there may be problems that need to be corrected sooner rather than later.
• Tyre Pressures. Most service stations have facilities for checking tyre pressures if you don’t have a guage or compressor at home. 32-34psi for passenger car tyres and 40psi for 4×4 and Light Truck tyres is a good operating pressure. If you are carrying a reasonable size load on your trip away increase the rear tyre pressure by around 4psi to cater for this extra load. Having correctly inflated tyres not only prolongs tyre life, it also helps reduce fuel consumption. Don’t forget to check the spare tyre! 
• Fan Belts, mostly referred to these days as drive belts. Check your fan belts for any signs or cracks or deterioration. If in any doubt have a mechanic check and/or replace them. Ask for the old ones to be returned and keep them as spares. You never know when they may come in handy. Tieing up annoying relatives, you know, that sort of thing.
• Radiator and Heater hoses. Check all the water carrying hoses for splits and deterioration, once again if in doubt have a mechanic take a look.
• All under-bonnet fluid levels. Engine oil level and condition, Transmission fluid level and condition, Coollant level and condition including the overflow bottle, Battery electrolyte level, Brake Fluid level and condition. As above, if anything looks suspect have a mechanic take a look before you head out.
• Differential Oil level and condition. This one may be too adventurous for some people so ask your mechanic to make sure that they check it when you have a service done. You would be surprised at how many mechanics don’t check these basic things when servicing cars.
• Another point to note - we had quite a few cars at our workshop that has stopped due to dirty fuel filters. With an efi engine it doesn’t take much of a fuel pressure drop to cause problems and the fuel filter is often over-looked when servicing a car. If you are unsure of when yours was last changed, change it yourself or have a mechanic do it for you, just to be sure. It is a small price to pay when you consider what a breakdown could cost you.

 As I said these are only basic items that anyone can check and there is certainly more to consider in a vehicle safety check so please have your mechanic carry out a service and tune-up before heading off on a long trip. It is money worth spending when you consider the possible costs involved in a breakdown.

 Remember to take plenty of breaks along the way and if you are travelling with small children I wish you the best of luck. Have plenty of games to keep them occupied or at least a bottle of Phenergan and a large rubber mallet for those trying times!

 Take care on the roads.

Craig

 Today we are taking a look at what is involved in replacing the serpentine belt on a 4.0 BA Falcon. 

These first two steps are not compulsory, I do these to get better access to the belt and tensioner however you can replace the belt without doing them. I start by removing the two phillips-head screws that attach the air intake to the radiator support panel and removing the air intake. Then remove the top two 10mm bolts that hold the electric fans in place, seperate the electrical connection to the fans which is located on the drivers side not far from the fan housing. A gentle pull on the top of the fan housing and a little bit of manouvering and the fan housing will come out. Note the fitment of the coolant resevior hose between the fan housing and the top of the radiator.

Using a 3/8 drive ratchet fiited into the slot in the tensioner, push down on the tensioner and remove the belt from the waterpump pulley. Release the tensioner and completely remove the old belt. Note that the belt is fitted behind the tensioner pulley.

Fit the new belt following the above diagram, remembering to fit the belt from the back of the tensioner pulley. I start with the crankshaft pulley and work my way around in a anti-clockwise direction with the belt and leave the belt off the waterpump pulley until the tensioner is moved down.

 Once you have the belt in position push down on the ratchet again, slide the belt over the waterpump pulley and release the tensioner and remove the ratchet. Be sure to double-check that the belt is running correctly on each pulley.

 Once satisfied that all is good slide the fan housing into place, refit the two 10mm bolts in the top and don’t forget to fit the coollant resevior hose back into place before doing the bolts up. Refit the air intake and screws. Start the engine and check that the belt is running correctly and you are all done.

Craig

 Yeah okay, this is a very basic procedure and can be done with your eyes closed after you have done it once, but for the novice there is a few tips and tricks that can make the job easier and prevent any potential disasters.

 When you go to buy your replacement spark plugs you will see that there are letters and numbers that categorize each different spark plug. We will run through what these mean quickly so you can understand what it all means. The example I am using is a spark plug manufactured by NGK. Each brand of spark plug has it’s own ‘code’ of numbers and letters however this example will give you a rough idea of what they mean. The code for our example spark plug is ; BPR5ES-11.

• The first letter stands for thread diameter, of which there are five variants running from 8mm up to 18mm.
• The second letter refers to three different types of plug configuration - Projecting insulator type, Small spark plug and surface gap, semi-surface gap or supplementary gap.
• The third letter dictates whether it is a resistor type plug (R), without resistor (no letter) and Z which indicates a Inductive resistor type plug.
• The number ‘5′ refers to the heat rating of the plug. The lower the number the ‘hotter’ the temperature the plug operates at. If you run LPG it is advisable to fit a plug that is one range colder than standard or if your engine is reasonably old and is using oil a one range hotter spark plug can help burn any oil that has found it’s way into the combustion chamber.
• The fifth letter refers to the thread length or reach of the spark plug.
• The sixth letter again refers to the type of spark plug. As an example ‘S’ stands for standard type and ‘P’ stands for platinum type spark plug.
• The last number refers to the plug gap or the gap between the two electrodes.

 So how does this information affect which spark plug you should buy for your vehicle? Well, to be honest it doesn’t but it is handy to know why they have all these numbers and letters stamped on the plugs!

 When replacing your spark plugs I recommend that you either buy them from an Auto Parts Store that has a listing for your vehicle and can supply you with correct plug or check in your owners manual and the correct spark plug’s to use should be listed in there. Don’t assume that the correct plug was fitted last time and just buy the type of plug that you took out, it pays to check that this is the correct plug for your vehicle as they can greatly affect the running of your vehicle.  

 Now that I have filled your head with useless information let’s look at what is involved in replacing the spark plugs.

      

 

 

• Number the spark plug leads, either with a Nikko pen or small piece of masking tape wrapped around the lead with the number written on the tape. If you are unsure of which cylinder is which, don’t stress just number the leads in an order that you can understand or write the number on the cylinder head as well to avoid confusion. If you do get stuck and find you can’t work out what order the leads go back on email me at autofix@aapt.net.au and I will do what I can to help you.
• Remove the plug leads using a twisting and pulling movement. Don’t just pull at the lead as they are easily damaged.
• Using a small length of hose or compressed air blow any foreign material away from the spark plug seat.
• The next step is to undo the spark plugs in a anti-clockwise direction. There are two plug sizes used in modern engines, 5/8 and 13/16 and obviously you will need a socket or spark plug spanner of the correct size. Be sure to keep the socket square to the spark plug as any movement sideways in the socket can crack the porcelain stem of the plug and render it useless. If you find that the plug becomes tighter as you undo it try using some sort of lubricating spray (WD-40, RP7 etc) on the spark plug thread and try going in the opposite direction for a turn or two. If you find that it is still tight and getting tighter, STOP and take the car to a workshop and have them remove it for you. Spark plugs can break and if you are left with the thread still in the cylinder head the head will have to be removed and that can be very expensive. If you find a plug that is tighter than the others or is a little difficult to remove I suggest you go down to your parts supplier and buy a ‘Spark Plug Thread Chaser’ which is basically a thread tap and once wound into the thread it will clean the thread back to it’s original condition and make it easier to re-fit the plug. On twin cam engines where the plugs are located deep in the middle of the cylinder head a small length of hose pushed over the end of the spark plug will make installation and removal of the plug’s a piece of cake!

• Lay the spark plugs out in the cylinder order that they came out in so we can check the condition of each cylinder - see Spark Plug Condition Guide.
• The next step is to fit the new plugs. Take each spark plug out of it’s box and visually check the gap. The gap is preset at the factory these days but if for some reason the gap has been closed up or is too big we want to know before fitting them to the vehicle.
• If the gaps look even across all the plugs apply a smear of anti-sieze compound or a couple of drops of engine oil on the thread of each plug. This is particularly important on vehicles fitted with alloy heads as the spark plug thread can ‘bind-up’ in the thread of the cylinder head over time and the spark plug can be difficult to remove without some form of lubrication on the thread.
• Fit the spark plugs to the engine. For the first few turns use minimal force to ensure that they are not cross-threaded. Tighten the spark plug until you feel it contact the seat and them take it another 1/4 of a turn. That will be tight enough.
• Re-fit the ignition leads in their correct order and start the engine. If the engine refuses to start or back-fires you have the leads in the wrong order. Go back and check your numbering and if you still have trouble shoot me an email. autofix@aapt.net.au.
• That’s it! You’ve done well!