My car air conditioning doesn’t seem cold enough. What should I do?
As the weather warms up, problems with car air conditioning tend to become apparent. When you switch the air con on and turn it right down, there should be an…
Category: Mechanical
Technical trouble made simple
Is there anything I can do to help my car pass the UK MOT test?
Every year around four in 10 cars fail the UK MOT test yet the government claims that around half of all failures could be easily prevented. Although garages frequently don’t…
Is premium fuel worth using or do I stick with regular fuel?
Compared to regular petrol or diesel, premium fuels usually have racy sounding names such as V-Power Nitro+, Ultimate, Momentum or Synergy Supreme+. And there will be various claims that these…
What is a car’s ECU?
Modern cars are often said to have more computing power than the early Apollo moon rockets. When people say this, one of the areas they’re talking about is the car’s…
Car tuning: does chipping work?
Do you want your engine to have more performance, or perhaps get more economy? If so car tuning by a process called chipping could be the way to go. Tuners…
If I put petrol in a diesel car, do I need to have a new engine?
In the UK it’s estimated about 15 people every hour pump the wrong fuel into their car. If they’re lucky, their journey will be delayed by a few hours and…
How do I drive an automatic car in snow?
Driving in snow can be tricky for even the most experienced driver. For starters, unlike the Nordic countries, we’re not used to it. Plus hardly any of our cars have…
My DPF light is on, what does it mean?
All new diesel cars sold in the EU since 2009 – even posh ones like the Bentley Bentayga (above) – have a DPF or Diesel Particulate Filter. This is a…
Is it worth warming up a car engine before driving?
Drivers of a certain age will doubtless remember their fathers heading out before trips to ‘warm the car up’. Cars have come a long way in the last 20 years,…
Can I jet wash my engine to clean it?
Cars are mechanical marvels. They’re sufficiently strong to withstand daily abuse, yet they’re clever enough to tell us the best way to get to places and in some cases how…