Basic jack safety.

This weekend I swapped the winter wheel and tyre combo on my vehicle for the summer one. To make life easier, I used a 3-ton floor jack to get the job done and it occurred to me that it would make a good blog entry. Too many people, it seems, assume that trolley-style floor jacks (and bottle jacks for that matter) are a safe way to lift a car. For the most part that's true - obviously, or you wouldn't be able to buy one - but they're not the best way to hold a car off the ground once it's up there. Why? Trolley jacks rely on seals and valves to hold the pressure in the cylinder that is used to jack up the arm holding your car off the ground. Those seals and valves normally rely on rubber o-rings, and rubber, as we all know, perishes. At some point, that seal isn't going to be as good as it was when new and it will slowly let all the pressure out. When that happens, the jack will slowly lower the car back down on it's own. If the failure is sudden, it won't so much lower the car as drop it. Either of these scenarios is bad news if you've got a wheel off the car - it results in the car being dropped on it's brake rotors and that will essentially mean new brakes. But brakes can be replaced easily. Squishy bags of mostly water - you and me - don't fix quite so readily when two tons of car fall on us. If you're working on wheels, likely your legs will get pinned under the car and you'll have two broken shins. If you're working under the car, then it will crush your chest. As the drug commercials would say - a potentially fatal side effect.
So how to prevent this from happening? Simple - jack stands. Once the car is up at the height you need it, pop a jack stand underneath against a load-bearing part of the chassis or subframe and lower the car on to it. For 10 seconds of extra hassle, you now have a purely mechanical support under the vehicle as well as the trolley jack. The chances of both failing at once are slim to none.

Product review and competition time !

I've posted the product review of the CarMD automotive diagnostic tool, as well as a competition to win one. Enjoy, and good luck.

Site update.

I've concluded the long term test of the Pulstar spark plugs. You can read the review here : Pulstar plugs review.

The right engine makes all the difference.

Gas mileage in a vehicle has a lot to do with how you drive it, but more importantly is how well matched the engine is to the weight of the vehicle.
I recently test-drove a Mazda CX7. The mpg figures are in the same ballpark as my current vehicle - the Honda Element - averaging about 19mpg. But the performance difference is staggering. The CX7 has a smaller engine but it's turbocharged and that makes all the difference in the world. It's not sluggish. It doesn't bog down going up long inclines, and it just feels altogether more peppy. Well - with a turbo, it would, but the 6-speed automatic gearbox helps too.

So I figured it was the turbo and the lighter vehicle that made it more zippy to drive (I can't bring myself to use Mazda's "Z" word). Well - not so much. The quoted kerb weight for an Element is 3640lbs for the 4WD AT. For the CX7 it's 3930lbs - about 300lbs heavier.

So a smaller (albeit turbocharged engine) in a 300lb heavier car, with 6 gears instead of 4 and returning about the same gas mileage, makes it an infinitely more driveable SUV than the Element.

And this is the problem with the Element overall. It's a wonderful vehicle - totally practical and fun to drive, but it's just out of breath all the time. The engine just isn't up to the job because it's a normally aspirated 2.4 engine from the Civic and Accord. What Mazda did was realise they were hauling a heavier vehicle around and adjust the engine accordingly. Honda didn't. The difference is like night and day.

Variable Vent Tubes?

I went to test drive a Mazda CX7 yesterday. The car is nice - peppy - a lot different to the Honda Element. It's because of the turbocharged engine of course. What was entertaining was when the salesman started to tell me about the VVT engine. According to "Chuck", that meant variable vent tubes, which as he described it, was the difference between the size of your airway when you are breathing normally, and the size of your airway when you are panting for breath whilst running. Say what? The Mazda engine is able to alter the size of it's intake manifold depending on how hard I'm breathing?

Well I suppose it was a nice try. He got the 'variable' part of it right at least. What he was trying to describe of course was variable valve timing. More zippy engine performance requires more fuel-air mix, which requires altered and lengthened valve opening timing.

The closest thing to what he was describing (I think) is the variable length intake tubes on the Yamaha R1 motorbike. Or he could have just been pulling it out of his arse. Either way, he was trying to sell me a product he clearly didn't know anything about.

Treating the symptoms instead of the cause.

So the Nanny State (England in case you were wondering) is now claiming that airbag jackets should be mandatory for motorcycle riders, because whilst riders account for only 1% of road users, they account for 20% of fatalities.
You know what, they're right. But rather than force everyone to wear a ridiculously cumbersome jacket that hinders your movement and would cause more accidents through loss of control, might it not be better to treat the cause of the problem : car drivers?

TRL323 (a report commissioned by the UK government themselves) indicates that 90% of motorcycle accidents are caused by cars driving into them. In other words, 18% of all road fatalities are caused by car drivers hitting motorcyclists.

Here's an idea - ban cellphones and enforce the ban. Remove air bags, traction control and all the other so-called "safety" devices that are put into cars to eliminate responsibility from the driver. Until motorists realise that they are accountable, and there are consequences of their actions, this statistic isn't going to change. And that won't happen until the car manufacturers stop building ridiculously cocooning living rooms on wheels.

More details on the actual facts (rather than random government conjecture) about accident rates are available on the facts about speeding and accident rates page.