You can easily think of what you might call car issues. They’re loud noises from an engine, a yellow or red warning light on your display or black smoke coming out from under a car’s bonnet.
But some seeming car problems are actually tiny – so small that it’s very easy to miss them. Occasionally, these tiny problems develop into a more serious safety issue for you and other road users, which can make your car hard to drive or even dangerous.
Any driver who encounters these problems should be aware and alert. Here we describe some common ways in which a car can fail while you’re driving.
Article Summary
Brake System Failures
The brakes are, if not the, most important forward safety system on a car. Without working brakes, there are few (if any) ways to actually bring a moving car safely to a halt, travelling at even moderate speeds. The brakes wear out over time, as they lock the wheels and slow the car down.
Wear down is gradual, leading to first a slight replacement of the brake pads monitor and, over further time, brake fade, where the brakes become less responsive and it’s harder to tell.
Warning signs can be small at first (for example, you might have to drive a longer distance before your car stops, or feel a squishiness when you tap the brake pedal). Ignoring these can be dangerous. You don’t want to find yourself in the middle of a Houston car accident lawsuit because your brakes gave out in a critical situation!
Certainly, brakes should be replaced before they wear down to the point where the system is no longer functional. Here, regular inspections and maintenance can help.
Tire Issues
You can have a small slow leak and not know it. If you run over a nail and have a puncture in your tyre, it can be a really fast and noticeable loss of air. But with a slow leak, the tyre can go flat in a day or two, or it can go flat after a week or ten days.
Regular tyre pressure and tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) checks can help pick up leaks and, if you check your tyres regularly, you can sometimes pick up on uneven tyre wear on one of your car’s tyres. That can leak. And a really slow leak can lead to a tyre blow-out.
You can be driving along and your tyres are leaking air out. And sometimes when that happens, your car can hit the curb. A number of our clients have had really bad accidents because of tyre leaks.
Steering System Problems
Ferrying your family safely from one place to another – that is what having a steering assist system is all about. Problems with the racks and/or pinions can creep up slowly as a matter of wear.
If you feel like you are fighting the car to turn the wheels at parking speeds, or vibration in the steering wheel, or unusual rattling sounds while underway, then you may have a developing problem.
These things might get worse right quick, and, if so, you )may lose all control over your car. periodic tuning by a mechanic can let you catch the problems when they are small and inexpensive.
Electrical System Failures
In most cases, a car’s electrical problems tend to evolve gradually. For instance, a flickering dashboard gauges, brief loss of power, dimming of headlights etc. May all of these problems start with what feels like a minor issue that you may decide to ignore, only to realise later that your negligence costs your safety.
Poor dim headlight output can keep you blinded while driving at night or in low visibility. Electrical problems suffered by engine control units can leave you stalling or losing power while driving.
Inspecting the battery, alternator, and electrical components regularly can prevent you from experiencing significant electrical system issues.
Fuel System Problems
Injectors cannot deliver the fuel that the engine needs when they are too clogged. As a result, the affected vehicle will experience hesitation under acceleration or it can even misfire, which are some of the possible symptoms of this kind of problem.
Avoiding Car Issues Through Proactive Maintenance
Despite the fact that your car can suffer from a great number of problems, they act up more if you have any of these five things wrong. If you address the warning signs of these five things and include regular maintenance to your car care routine, you can nip these hazards in the bud before anything occurs.
We hope that this helped you stay safe and that your car will run in tip-top shape for many years to come!
