Safety is key when working on and repairing your own car page 2

Safety is key when working on and repairing your own car

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Sometimes you need to get underneath your car to carry out maintenance, to do this you should make sure your car is supported properly. Jacks should only be used to jack the car up, you should then use some support stands to hold it up in case your jack ever fails. This is very important as Jacks do fail. Also another good point is to make sure it is a level surface. Even the slightest incline will greatly increase the odds of your jack slipping. Your car is very heavy, you don’t want it landing on your legs or worse on your chest, so support it! Purchase some support stands that are suitable for the weight of your car, truck or SUV. Support stands are very important, don’t be tempted to use wood or bricks as these may slip which would cause the vehicle to fall.

When you’re carrying out work on your cars electrictronics disconnect the battery, the voltage of a car battery isn’t that bad however when you are replacing electrical components there is the possibility you will accidentally short one of the connections which may melt the wires or even cause a fire. Whenever you’re working under the dashboard of a car that has an airbag you should also disconnect the battery, you don’t want to accidentally set off the airbag!

Your car has many moving parts, make sure you don’t wear anything that dangles which includes loose clothing, ties, chains and rings. If these get caught in the engine or one of the other moving parts then they could cause injury or death or break the dangling item in the least. Your engine also gets very hot, if the car has been running within half an hour then chances are it’s still hot so avoid touching anything that has the possibility of being hot (especially the exhaust manifold and pipes).

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The radiator contains water, never open the radiator when the engine is still hot as it can spill scalding hot water all over you. Let the engine cool for a couple of hours before attempting to remove the cap, still be cautious use a rag and open the cover very slowly to allow any pressure to escape. Most caps now have a safety release feature – if you turn it one position it will allow built up pressure to release, but the cap can’t come off. This deflects the pressurized water evenly out the sides and downward. The second position allows the cap to come off, never move it to the second position until all pressure is gone.

The car battery itself is only 12 volts which will not do you any damage, however the ignition system increases this voltage up to 40,000 volts which can hurt you! Never touch the spark plug wires, ignition coils, or the distributor capacitors while the engine is still running. Not only can you hurt yourself, but you could cause a short or similar electrical problems which can be a nightmare to fix and very expensive – electrical parts themselves can be very expensive like the turn signal switch on a Chrysler Town & Country van - $250 just for the part at the local dealer and it has no warranty once it is installed due to the fact that it is easily shorted and burned out.

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