As a leader in quality, Kayaba is paying much attention to range - high quality, high output and flexibility allow it to support the current proposal from the 2800 models of cars.

Among the drivers and experts have long known that the legislator of quality standards in the world of automotive industry is the Toyota company. The requirements for quality components for the Toyota far exceed the requirements of ISO 9000. That is why 52% of all Toyota models come with shock absorbers KYB. Such models as the Lexus 400, Lexus 200, Lexus Coupe, Camry, Corolla, Carina / Corona, Supra and many others.

 
Mazda company, another leader in the automotive market is also equipped with shock absorbers KYB. Famous Mazda models like 323, 626, Xedos (and this range is not limited with this), are also fitted with KYB shock absorbers. Beside Toyota and Mazda there is still Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, Honda, Daihatsu, where the proportion of KYB shock absorbers consistently ranged from 30% for the Subaru up to 48% for Suzuki. And of course the reliability of Mitsubishi Pajero is also provided with Kayaba shock absorbers. 90% of all models produced by Mitsubishi are equipped with Kayaba.

In Europe, Kayaba activity has grown since 1978, when the Kayaba Europe GmbH (d. Meerbush, Germany) was established. Of course, the Kayaba factory in Spain is not so great in comparison with the Japanese factory in Gifu. If a factory in Gifu produces 3.5 million shock absorbers in the month, the European branch (Spanish factory) produces “only” 1 million of shock absorbers every month. All Kayaba shock absorbers are produced only at these two plants.

Stable quality and reliability of Kayaba shock absorbers attracted European automotive compan

ies. Right now almost 80% of the original shock absorbers of Renault is Kayaba (Renault Laguna, Megane, Megane Scenic, R5, R19 and others). Ford Europe company sets KYB shock absorbers on Fiesta, Escort, Transit, etc. Volkswagen Group -  on Polo, SEAT, Panda, Ibiza, Cordoba, Toledo, Marbella. Fiat concern - on Croma, Lancia Thema, Lancia Kappa. A high quality assessment can be judged by the fact, that KYB shock absorbers are used in Peugeot 406 and Peugeot 607.

The company’s products are Kayaba is characterized, above all, by quality. It is important to note that all the products are placed on the same conveyor and therefore absolutely there is no difference between the shock absorbers, coming to the car assembly, and those that are offered to the market of spare parts. Strict quality control system and a high level of production for maximum reliability of shock absorbers is not dependent on operating conditions - whether the European roads, or American or Russian.

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The main advantage of McPherson -type suspension in the compactness and low manufacturing cost.

McPherson suspension consists of a cross-arm and amortizatorn rack, resting against splashes wing and working on the principle of “swinging candle”. In McPherson suspension spring is actually on the axis of a rotary device, and the details of carrying out damping and the guide features are combined into a single assembly unit. Thanks to those features McPherson suspension is approximately 20% lighter than two-armed construction, accordingly, has reduced its cost and made it especially attractive for usage in large-scale low-cost cars, primarily in compact class, where the space under the bonnet is extremely limited. McPherson Pendants show themselves well in operation, primarily because of the simplicity and low cost of maintenance and repair.

But the kinematic characteristics of the suspension McPherson are far from perfect, and high friction between the damper rod and its guide deteriorates damping. Serious bad points of McPherson are also lower resistance to prolonged roll during braking, as well as the effort and volatility transfer on the elements of the car body. For those reasons, many car companies increasingly move attention to two-armed suspension design, and Mercedes-Benz at the new E-class moreover, turned to four-armed front suspension.

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Accutire tire gauge is very useful because such factors as safety increase, tread wear reduce, better handling and ride performance, better fuel economy.

Accutire tire gauge is connected with tire pressure. Very often drivers meet the fact of tire under-inflammation. This factor leads to crashes, such as skidding, loss of control of the vehicle, flat tires and blow-outs, hydroplaning and others.

So buying a Accutire tire gauge you will continue your tires life. Remember that under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.4 percent for every 1 PSI (pounds per square inch) drop in pressure of all four tires.

If taking the accurate tire pressure gauge with you while driving somewhere you will knw your tire indicators always even if it’s cold. Various gauges don’t give exact information at car stations moreover they often make mistakes. That’s why it’s better to use a special gadget. Accutire tire gauge MS-4751W is the thing you need. It gives quick accurate readings and saves you and your car from various catastrophes.

It is a smartly designed great little gauge that has a big easy to read backlit screen. It is solidly built and works without failures. The device has to be held onto the valve stem for 2-3 seconds before it is able to show you the pressure reading. It is kept on the screen for some 10 seconds. The unit is neither big nor small and fits the hand size perfectly. It has a rubber cushion that fix the gadget in the hand.
The device shortcoming includes its bad size to motorcycle use. Many complain that it is not universal.

Features:

• White LED flashlight tip and blue backlit display

• 5-99 PSI

• Accuracy is +/- 1% + 0.1 PSI

• Easy-to-read LCD display, beep verification

• Comes with storage pouch

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The production of bio fuel can lead to significant acceleration of the climate change. As the result of cultivating corns, rape or pal, oil the amount of produced greenhouse gas is more than it is economized by using the bio fuel. These were the results of the research published in specialized magazines Science and Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

In order to produce bio fuel the humanity cuts down rain forests and transform the released lands into agricultural areas. And as the result of burning off rainforest in Indonesia, the amount of extracted CO2 is 400 more than the amount it could be reduced by in case those areas were used for growing palm oil, writes Mr. Fargione a member of the environmental organization The Nature Conservancy. Brazilian rainforests transformed into soya plantations extract 300 times more CO2 then it is possible to reduce by using bio fuel for a whole year.

Moreover, according to the data received by the Nobel laureate in chemistry Pole Krutzen, manure extracts much more dangerous greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide than it was considered to extract before. The scholar believes that environment-friendly are only those kinds of bio fuel that are made on base of waste material from agricultural and forest industries or herbs with insignificant addition of manure.

Professor Krutzen says:

“I’m not an absolute opponent of bio fuel, I’m only against the ways it is used today.”

The professor demands in-detail and critical description of all the greenhouse gases extracted in the production of each type of bio fuel.

The politicians and scientists lay huge expectations on the bio fuel of the second generation which is totally Nature-friendly. All parts of plants (and thus all the waste materials) can be used for the production of this bio fuel of the new generation. Firstly, timber is processed into a gas using Btl-technology (Biomass to Liquid) and then it is processed into ethanol.

Passive Safety Equipment Issues: New EuroNCAP Tests

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Journalists have defined the best engines of the year.

Recently the results of the contest “Best engine of 2008” have been summarized. The first prize went to the Bavarian company: just like in the previous year the honorable title went to BMW. The second place went to Subaru, the third – Audi.

Best engines of 2008:

Under 1 liter: Toyota 1,0 (Toyota Aygo,Yaris/Echo/Vitz, Citroën C1, Peugeot 107, Subaru Justy)

From 1.0 to 1.4 liters:

VW 1.4 TSI Twincharger (VW Golf, Touran, Tiguan, Jetta (140/170 bhp)

From 1.4 to 1.8 liters:

BMW-PSA 1.6 Turbo (MINI Cooper S, Clubman, Peugeot 207, 308)

From 1.8 to 2.0 liters:

Volkswagen/Audi, 2,0 Turbo FSI (A3, A4 Cabrio, A6, TT, Eos, Jetta, Golf GTi, Škoda Octavia, Seat Altea, Leon

From 2.0 to 2.5 liters:

Subaru 2.5 (Forester, Impreza)

From 2.5 to 3.0 liters:

BMW 3,0 Twin Turbo (135, 335, X6)

From 3.0 to 4.0 liters:

BMW 4,0 V8 (M3)

Over 4.0 liters:

BMW 5,0 V10 (M5, M6)

Eco-friendliest engine:

Toyota Hybrid 1.5 (Prius)

The engine with optimal working figures:

Porsche 3.6 Turbo (911 Turbo, GT2)

Best engine of the year:

BMW Diesel 2,0 Twin Turbo (123d)

Choosing Car Rims: Custom, Standard and Light Alloy Rims

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Choosing rims

A number of automobilists believe that rims differ only in one thing – their design. Nevertheless, it is completely wrong: wheels make the most part of unsprung mass which affects the smoothness and controllability. It means that it really matters which type of rims you choose for your car.

Pressed Steel Rims

Pressed steel rims which replaced spoke wheels (used at the beginning of the century) has a number of advantages: cheap, durable, producible

If such a rim is deformed the fault can be easily corrected using a machine (but it is also possible to do it manually: with the help of a hammer). However, such rims have distinct disadvantages: aesthetes have to install caps in order to hide the unattractive outlook and the emerging rust.

Advantages:

• Low cost
• Good durability features

Disadvantages:

• Weight
• Corrosion
• Unattractive appearance

Light-alloy Rims

First light-alloy rims appeared in the 30s on sport cars. After a few decades such rims became available for average auto owners. This type of rims differs from steel ones in the variety of design, lower weight and higher price. But, unfortunately, it also has disadvantages: light-alloy rims of huge sizes cost a fortune, weigh like a steel one and are almost irresistible to elastic deformation. The latter significantly decreases the life of low-profile tires and can lead to destruction due to microcracks.

Advantages:

• Attractive outlook
• Lower weight

Disadvantages:

• Surplus stiffness
• For big-size rims: the complexity of manufacturing, high weight, low durability

Composite Rims

The attempts to correct the faults of light-alloy rims lead to the development of composite rims in which a forged rim is linked to spokes with the help of titan bolts. Such rims are light, but cost much more than light-alloy ones.

That’s why such rims are generally used in sports cars and luxury vehicles.

Advantages:

• The possibility to manufacture rims of big diameter
• Exclusive design
• Low weight

Disadvantages:

• High cost
• The complexity of production

Light-alloy Forged Rims

One of the ways to make a rim lighter is to replace casting by forging. But for making rims of big diameter using such a technology powerful presses are required – developing loads higher than 10 000 tons.

Advantages:

• The lowest weight
• Excellent durability

Disadvantages:

• High price
• The complexity of manufacturing
• Simplified design

So we can arrive at the conclusion that the choice of rims is not a difficult one. If you need cheap and durable – buy stamped rims. When you want smart and light – buy light-alloy ones. If you want you car to stand out in the crowd – buy composite or forged rims.

American Standard or What Percentage of American Cars is REALLY American

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Today I want to discuss another oil issue. Imagine the situation like this. It is time to change to oil and you take your car to the auto service. The next day you get the car back and drive it for a year.

A year later you wake up with some strange feeling and go to read the user’s manual of your car. You find out it was filled with synthetic oil when sold, but at the service station they’ve poured a regular one. It looks like you’ve been diving with the wrong oil for a year! You call the dealership of the car manufacturer and ask whether the change of the oil type might affect the car’s performance, and they say it can. Then you call the auto service and they claim that it doesn’t matter. Who’s right in this case?

In fact, the change of the oil is not likely to cause much damage in a year, but in the long run it might affect the wear rate of the engine components. 1 year is such small a period to ruin the engine completely, so I would say that there is nothing to worry about with the engine.

Yet, there is one thing to worry about – the auto service. To tell you the truth, the idea of the professionals doing their job actually clashes with the common sense when such things happen.

If they are the change oil in an Audi, they have to consult the Audi’s recommendations, if it is GM, then – GM’s. Unless they do their job properly they shouldn’t be trusted. Oil change must be done according to car manufacturer’s recommendations, but not to what they feel like doing.

Moreover, such a dramatic mistake can affect the car warranty. If the car was designed to run on synthetic oil it should be synthetic and not any other type of oil.

At the same time the question about the service station remains open. If the type of the oil is not specified the general practice is to replace it with regular mineral oil. And it might be your own error that you hadn’t specified the oil type before giving the car to the experts.

So, what is the major conclusion we can arrive at from the situation? When you need to change oil, go only to a reliable service center and always specify the type of oil your car is designed to run on.

Preventing Tire Rack: Does Underinflation Affect the Performance?

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It is a common knowledge that the carrying capacity of tires directly depend on the size and the air pressure. Bigger tires and higher air pressures allow more load capacity than the smaller and less inflated ones.

A properly inflated tire it more resistible to wear as the weight of the load is distributed evenly through the surface of the tire. At the same time people seldom realize that an underinflated tire has a different reaction on driver’s actions that the correctly inflated one.

Once an experiment was conducted to test the performance of an underinflated and normally inflated tires. The tires used in the experiment were Goodyear Eagle GT-HR High Performance All-Season radials.

One of the tested cars was wearing the properly inflated tires (the manufacture recommends 29psi front and 33 psi rear). The second car was wearing 30% lower inflated tires (20 psi front and 23 psi rear). This 30% was chosen deliberately as it is the lowest pressure which is not warned about by passive pressure monitoring systems.

The first part of the test was a visual identification of the underinflated tires. With the modern low-profile tires it turned out to be quite a complicated task and it revealed one important conclusion: eyes cannot be used as reliable tire pressure gauges.

The second part of the test was the performance test. A number of drivers tested the properly inflated and underinflated tires. And everyone participating in the test agreed that while the behavior of correctly inflated tires was predictable and the car responded well, the car with underinflated tires responded slower (with the front tires being slightly faster than the rear ones).

The underinflated tires delivered acceptable performance when the car was on straight sections, but when it came to passing turns, the car was a little slower than the proper version. The test showed 7% of speed loss for underinflated tires.

To cut the long story short, if a manufacturer wanted to add some additional spice to its new tires, if underinflated, all the effects are lost completely.

So, we arrive at the only possible conclusion: if you want the performance of your tires to be the most effective and adequate, you need to follow the instructions given in the owner’s manual. Moreover, you need to check the tire inflation at least once a month.

Preventing Tire Rack: How to Measure Tire wear with US Coins

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Car parts are not eternal all of them need replacing sooner or later. Today I want to talk to you about tires. How can one learn that his/her tires need replacement? Well, there are various ways to get to know that fact, but I would like to give you the most practical one. Here is the way which is used by thousands of auto owners across the US.

Measuring a tire tread depth gauge with American coins.

1. Insert a penny into a number of grooves across the tire. If you see that a part of Lincoln’s head is lower than the higher part of the thread it means that you still have 2/32” of the thread depth in possession.

2. Insert a quarter into several grooves across the tire. If you see that part of Washington’s hear is lower than the higher part of the thread, you still have 4/32” of the thread depth in possession

3. Insert a penny in thread grooves across the tire. If you see that the top of the Lincoln Memorial is lower than the top of the thread you still have 6/32” of the thread in possession.

Once you are done with the first location of the tire you need to measure the depth of the threads across the entire tire. In order to do it measure the depths in the middle of the tire as well as on its sides. This helps to determine the unevenness of the wear and some other aspects as mechanical damages etc.

In the overwhelming majority of states the law prohibits driving on a tire as the wear reaches 2/32” of the thread depth. Practically all the modern tires are equipped with wear indicators (so-called “wear bars”). These are the marks that are build into the tire with the goal of showing the driver when the tire is no longer legally usable.

Nevertheless, the law regulations aren’t always the best. The mark the crucial point when the tire cannot be used any longer on a dry surface. As for the wet surfaces, at 2/32” of the remaining thread depth the tire cannot resist hydroplaning and its traction on snow is close to zero.

In fact, even when the wear reaches 4/32” of the thread depth you should consider changing tires. You need to realize that all the negative effects of a wet road are eliminated by removing water via the threads from the surface of the tire. When the threads are not deep enough to perform their direct functions, the tire becomes uncontrollable.

As for snow-covered surfaces, the proper time to replace the tires is when the wear reaches 6/32” of the threads depth. When you are driving on the snow the tires need to have sufficient thread depth to remove snow as they roll. That’s why some winter tires have “wear bars” at 6/32” of threads depth.

Advanced Auto Parts Replacement: What to Do with the Clutch?

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The other day a friend of mine popped in for a chart. I had delicious biscuits and we had tea and the conversation went well, but let’s get down to the point I wanted to tell you about. He told me about clutch problem in his car. He said something like that:

“You know, Nick, my car’s not grabbing any more when I try to accelerate. I have to start up very slow and accelerate extremely slowly. My clutch is slipping for sure as the rpm goes up.”

He wanted to know if he could do anything to the clutch (he suggested changing some fluids or whatever) besides replacing it with a new one as at the moment he didn’t have much money to spend on the purpose. He also wondered if there are any online magazines where ho could buy good and cheap parts.

First of all, I asked him about the type of transmission in his car. It really matters whether he’s having a manual or automatic. If it is a standard manual transmission, he might be able to get it repaired (though very unlikely). The only thing that came to my mind was readjusting where the clutch plate catches (engages/disengages). In fact, the conclusion I arrived at from the very beginning of his story is that he will have to spend money on a new transmission.

After all, my worst expectations fulfilled. Hearing all the details and symptoms of his car disease I arrived at the conclusion that there is no other way but replacing the clutch.

He also wanted to know if I knew some online shops that could help him get great deals and bargains.

Of course I DID know them. The stores I recommended were:

• www.autopartswarehouse.com
• www.rockauto.com
• overstock.com

I personally used the services of these stores so I can guarantee that those stores are reliable. The first store though seems the perfect choice. They have quality products and service. Moreover, they also have discounts offers and you are likely to find there the car parts you need. Two or three times I bought the stuff for my car there and, so I recommended the site to my friend.

The last thing I would like to stop on (as I did in the conversation with my friend) is that preventing failures of car systems is easier and cheaper than their repairs. He decided that he needed something done to his clutch too late to help it. If he noticed it earlier he could have gone without having to replace the part.

Tribal Flame Designs Right from your Tailpipe

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