Looking After your First Car

Looking after your first car can be daunting, you probably realise already that owning your first car is expensive, car insurance for new drivers can be very costly but owning your own car doesn’t stop there.

Looking after your car not only makes sense given that you most likely need it for work or family journeys, a well maintained car is generally a more reliable car. Basic checks can help spot something that needs attention before it becomes a major breakdown, these checks should be carried out at regular intervals, an ideal time might be at the same time you clean your car, assuming you do clean it!

The main things to check weekly on your car are listed below.

Engine Oil Level Checking

Engine oil, don’t forget this one, especially on older cars, it will take you all of 2 minutes to check your oil but the cost of not could be huge, if your car runs out of engine oil either through leaks or being burnt as often the case in older high mileage cars the engine will seize up solid, metal inside your engine needs a fine layer or film of oil between the moving metal parts, without it is disastrous and could easily cost £1000’s to repair or replace a seized engine. Refer to your owner’s manual for the correct grade of engine oil for your car and do not over fill.

Screen Wash Level

Water, and no we don’t mean carrying a bottle of spring water in the glove box. Keeping your screen wash topped up. You will easily tell if the screen wash reservoir runs dry, bear in mind though that screen wash additives serve two functions, cleaning and raising the freezing point of the water it is mixed with.

Cooling System Check

Get into the habit of checking your cars cooling system levels, modern cars are usually good and need only infrequent checks but older cars can and do use / loose water especially if they are allowed to run hot in traffic jams during the summer.

Tyre Pressures and Wear Checking

Check your tyres, they are expensive to replace, even cheap tyres cost £'s under inflated tyres will not only wear unevenly and need replacing sooner but  will impact again on your mpg, don’t over inflate them as this leads to poor handling and a harsh ride, always check in your handbook for the correct air pressure needed in your tyres.

Brakes

Okay so seems obvious but allowing brakes pads to wear down past their friction material and allow metal to run against the brake disc itself will either wear groove into the discs or warp them due to overheating, either way replacement of the discs is only a matter of time as worn discs will wear out new brake pads quickly. Brake fluid, again a two second visual check but spotting a low level early could save more than just money, low brake fluid is almost always attributed to a leak, which will affect your braking distance, locate the leak quickly and if you can’t fix then top up the brake reservoir and drive your car slowly to the garage to have it checked out. There are different types or grades of brake fluid (DOT 4, 5 etc.).

Power Steering Level

Again another quick check, usual signs though of a low power steering fluid level are noise or whining when the steering wheel is being turned. Check your owner’s manual for recommended type of power steering fluid or automatic transmission fluid that is often used (Dexron 4, 5 etc.).

Provisional Marmalade learner driver insurance provides cover for learner drivers whilst practicing in a car owned by someone else. Any claim arising from the policy does not affect the car owner’s policy or their no claims discount.

Radiator Water level Checking

Checking the water level in your cars radiator is possibly the second most important maintenance check, only engine oil is more critical to reliability and seizure prevention. With modern cars checking your radiator fluid level is quick and easy although never attempt this when the engine is hot as the cars radiator system is pressurized and the escaping water vapour can scald. To check the water level you will need to locate the header tank or expansion tank, these can be made from metal or plastic and will have a three small pipes running from it, one pipe will go to the radiator, another will be a return pipe from the engine and a final one is an overflow pipe which will be smaller in diameter to the other two. 

The expansion tank will be located slightly higher than the top of the radiator, sitting on top of this small tank will be a cap, press down slightly and unscrew this cap and release your downward pressure and lift off. Peer inside and you will notice, or should rather, a coloured liquid, now there will be usually two marks that relate to the upper and lower levels, these marks will either be on the outside or inside of the expansion tank. If the level is slightly down simply add clean water to bring the level up, if the level is very low or the tank is dry then you will need to add a mixture of antifreeze and water, antifreeze raises the waters freezing point for winter use but also acts as a summer coolant and all year round rust inhibitor to protect the engines internal waterways from rusting and clogging.

Adding Antifreeze

A word of caution before adding antifreeze to your cars radiator, not all antifreeze or cars are the same. Basically there are two types of antifreeze available Organic (OAT) and inorganic (IAT) IAT should be drained completely and changed every two years. OAT which is often referred to as long life or advanced antifreeze should be replaced every five years. NEVER MIX different types of antifreeze, the results can have serious effects on your engine as the mixture turns to gel within your engines waterways. As a general rule most cars manufactured after 2001 should be using long life antifreeze (OAT) but if you are unsure then drain the system completely and replace the lot. Many manufacturers add their own dye to antifreeze which often adds to the confusion further.

If your replacing the entire contents of your cars cooling system then refill with a mix of 50/50 water/antifreeze this will give maximum protection down to -36c don’t be tempted to mix any stronger than this as the freezing point starts to rise again if more than 50% antifreeze is added.

Remember if in any doubt as the exact type of antifreeze currently in your cars cooling system then drain and replace with all an all new mixture, after all unless you have anything recorded within the cars service history you will have little chance of knowing how old the current antifreeze is anyway.

Provisional Marmalade Learner Driver Insurance  provides cover for learner drivers whilst practicing in a car owned by someone else. Any claim arising from the policy does not affect the car owner’s policy or their no claims discount.

First Home Energy Saving Tips

Moving in to your first home is a fantastic feeling, it’s all yours (well let’s forget for a moment about the mortgage) your very own first home.

No doubt you will have loads of ideas and plans to make it unique and reflect your personality and tastes, that’s great can’t wait to get started on the diy?
Before you start slapping red paint on the walls to match your yellow carpet spare a thought for a few energy saving tips, were not trying to sound like your dad here but sometimes they make sense ( though not always!)

Those of you who have bought a brand new first home will always have the upper hand when it comes to lower energy costs, quality built new homes are so well insulated that once they are heated up they retain their heat all day and enable you to either turn the heating off or significantly reduce the thermostat temperature.

Light fittings in your first house will probably be one of the first things you will want to change, not many people like the plastic dangly things that the builders fit, although they are better than taking down something your granny would have had fitted if your first home isn’t a new one.

So before you go out and buy those chrome effect or black down lighters check what bulbs they accept, having six 60 watt bulbs on in your living room at night will cost much more than six x 7.5 watt low energy bulbs over the course of a year and the new LED spot light bulbs can use as little as 1.5 watts each, although the brightness is sometimes less than that of the full power bulbs. After all the savings will pay for plenty of pizza deliveries for all the parties you are planning.

Loft insulation, again new home buyers can forget about this as your loft space will have been well insulated by your builder, if your first home isn’t a new one then the loft is best insulated to a 200mm depth if possible and get this done well before the colder weather sets in and it’s advisable to avoid very warm days. Either call a reputable company in or have a go yourself, insulating your loft isn’t difficult but it’s not a pleasant DIY job as the fibres do irritate the skin, so have a quick measure up and head down the DIY store.

If you are still yet to decide on buying your new home or would like to take advantage of a selection of schemes to help you buy your first home or you are looking to move up the property ladder then Larkfleet Homes who have several developments in and around Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Rutland have a wide range of award winning new homes

How are Plastics Recycled

Ever wondered what happens after your waste plastic bottles and packaging gets collected or you drop it off at your local plastic recycling collection point.
Prior to plastic recycling the plastic products have to be sorted in to there various types, this is due to part of the recycling plastics process involving melting the plastic and not all plastics melt at the same temperature, differences mixing here can lead to a brittle recycled plastic product, think of how oil and water don’t mix well.
Once the waste plastic has been identified and separated the recycling process can begin, recycling plastic is much more involved than say for glass or metals, usually starting with shredding and washing to remove paper labels, adhesives and other impurities, this is followed by melting the clean plastic and extruding in to the form of pellets which then go on to manufacture the next lot of plastic products.
Recycled scrap plastic is more often than not recycled in to something completely different to what it started out as, plastic bottles could easily become your garden furniture, a point worth noting is that it is not always possible to recycle it over and over again and here in the UK we still don’t have recycling facilities for all types of plastics, typically the likes of yoghurt pots and butter containers either go to landfill sites or are shipped to overseas plants for recycling.
Due to the continual growth in dependencies of plastic manufactured products, something like 20 times more than 50 years ago our need to recycle rather than continuing to create from new plastic grows ever more important, often it is all too easy for us to forget the knock on effects such as conserving non-renewable fossil fuels and minimising the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill sites.
All plastic products have a Plastic Identification Codes – or PIC for short imprinted on to them somewhere, this is a plastic recycling symbols, made up of a circulating arrow in a triangle shape with a number between 1 & 7 in the centre. The PIC was implemented by the Society of the Plastic industry in 1988.

Type 1 is polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) - Fizzy Drink Bottles / Oven Ready Meals
Type 2 is high-density polyethylene (HDPE) – Milk and Washing up Bottles
Type 3 is polyvinyl chloride (PVC) = Shampoo, Squash Bottles, Cling Film
Type 4 is low-density polyethylene (LDPE) – Carrier Bags & Bin Liners
Type 5 is polypropylene (PP) – Micro Meals & Margarine Tubs
Type 6 is polystyrene (PS) – Yoghurt Pots, Toys, Electronic Goods
Type 7 is other (usually PC or ABS) – Headlight Lenses, Safety Glasses, Melamine

So next time you put your waste plastic in the bin, see if you can spot the plastic identification code, currently there is no legal requirement for plastic manufacturers to label their products but the majority do so, possibly ahead of future legislation that may come in to force.

Choosing Good Removal Company

Whilst not directly related to cars and bikes I have had to move house myself recently and all I moved was my Harley.

Moving house as we all know is one of the most stressful events most of us undertake, the thought of packing up all our worldly goods into boxes then putting these boxes onto the back of a van sends a chill down your back. Why not let someone else take the strain, besides you will have enough other things happening on removal day to keep you busy.
Be careful of using one of the many “man and a van” type removal services that have sprung up of recent years, the old saying of you get what you pay for applies to removal services. Ask yourself what happens if something gets damaged, who is liable? The odd job man with a van is unlikely to be insured for breakages.
Always get several free quotes for removals, whilst some may offer a quick online estimate for removals the more professional removal companies will have an experienced estimator visit your house or business premises to assess the location and confirm any special requests that could cause difficulties on the day, examples could be very large heavy items of furniture, garden statues or tropical fish. You may have to consider removing a window to get something out or you on the top floor of a flat and there are parking restrictions in place, all good removal companies can overcome these problems, and deal with any permits that need obtaining. Another point to note is providing your removal company with as much detail regarding access at the new address, better to say whilst at the quotation stage that your new home is on the 20th floor or down a muddy farm track.
So it makes sense then to choose a good removal company , one that will look after your possessions and handle them with the same care as you would. You would be right to think this was a given, well not all removal companies are the same. Luckily there are some industry bodies that regulate the removal industry, here in the UK we have the British Association of Removers or BAR for short. BAR is recognised by the department of trade and has a code of conduct the all members have to adhere to. So a quick check should ensure they are members of the British Association of Removers.
Recommendations are always the best way, to judge how good a removal company are, ask friends and neighbours who they used. Failing that you will have to decide based on the interactions with the removal companies staff that you have, where they professional, courteous and on time when they gave you the estimate.
A final thought to bear in mind is accepting the quotation, always try to plan early and book your removal company in plenty of time, this is especially true at certain times of the year such as a move just before Christmas as all the reputable removal companies will get booked up well in advance.