Let Your Foot Be Your Guide In Helping Assess Brake System Integrity
Chances are your foot will know the condition of a vehicle’s brakes and the quality of the brake pads before your mind puts it all together. Consider this: Stopping a 4,000-lb. vehicle requires a driver to press on a pedal to generate friction at the wheels. What happens in between the pedal and pads can determine how much pressure the driver is required to apply to stop the vehicle in a safe distance.
15 Ride Control Service Tips To Help You Sell The Job And Do It Right
The customer will not be happy if he brought the car in for a knocking noise, was sold a couple hundred dollars worth of struts and/or ball joints, etc., and the noise is still there. If he then takes the car elsewhere and the knocking noise is fixed with a couple of $20 sway bar bushings, that guy is going to think he got beat. This underscores the importance of addressing the customer’s complaint before that vehicle leaves your shop.
Alignment Angles Provide First-Hand Clues
A vehicle comes in with abnormal wear on a front tire. It looks like camber wear. One shoulder is badly worn, but the other front tire appears to be OK. You put it on your alignment machine and check camber and toe. Sure enough, camber on the wheel with the worn tire is out of specifications.
Air Ride Repair Vs. Replacement: Weighing The Pros And Cons Of Air Ride Repair Options
When an air ride system fails, there can be up to four different options to return the vehicle to operating condition. Some involve repairing the existing air ride system, while others involve replacing the system with springs and passive shocks and struts. All options have their pros and cons.
How Do Fluid And Friction Change Brake Pedal Feel?
Chances are your foot will know the condition of a vehicle’s brakes and the quality of the brake pads before your mind puts it all together. Consider this: Stopping a 4,000-lb. vehicle requires a driver to press on a pedal to generate friction at the wheels. What happens in between the pedal and pads can determine how much pressure the driver is required to apply to stop the vehicle in a safe distance.
BMW Active Shocks And Struts
Why would an engineer or automaker include this feature on a vehicle? An active dampener allows for a ride without compromise. The three inputs can be used to detect a rough road or an emergency situation where body roll could change the stability of the vehicle.
How Noise, Vibration And Harshness Driveline Diagnostics Is Changing
This article will introduce you to some of the basic terminology and testing techniques used in modern NVH diagnostics.
Bearing Replacement Rules
On a typical passenger vehicle weighing around 3,400 pounds, each pair of front-wheel bearings, as well as the rear-wheel or axle bearings, support around 850 pounds depending on the weight distribution and driveline configuration. If it’s a 6,000 pound SUV, each bearing might carry about 1,500 pounds.
Electronically Adjustable Dampener Diagnosis
On racecars, mechanics in pit lane will tune the settings of the shocks and springs for the track. Some race shocks have six adjustments for compression and rebound, so they will tune the setting for the amount and rate of suspension movement. But the moment they leave pit lane, they can’t change the settings.
Brake Caliper Service
Brake calipers are a key component in a disc brake system. The calipers use hydraulic muscle to squeeze the brake pads against the rotors. The clamping force creates friction between the pads and rotor that slows the vehicle and brings it to a halt. If a caliper is leaking or sticking, however, it may not apply the brakes properly.
Wheel Bearing Diagnosis
A sealed hub assembly or bearing cartridge typically contains two sets of bearings: an inner set and an outer set. They may be ball bearings or tapered roller bearings. Tapered bearings have cylindrical rollers between the inner and outer race.
Diagnosing Common Flood-Damaged Vehicles
Although minor flooding at intersections often doesn’t cause many problems other than rusted brakes, major flooding can damage most of the mechanical and electrical components found in the engine and passenger compartments.
