The Warning Signs Of Car Problems

Car problems can be disruptive and expensive, as they often take your car out of service for days on end, which requires you to find alternate means of transportation. If you live in the kind of place that does not have adequate public transportation and you don’t have any friends or relatives who can drive you around, you might have to rent a car. Hiring a car can be expensive, which adds to the cost of your repairs. So, when you add up the cost of hiring a car with the cost of having your car repaired in a shop, it can be incredibly expensive. However, most car problems are not as sudden as they might seem. Usually, you can think back and find early indicators that trouble was on the horizon. If you had addressed the problem as quickly as possible, the car trouble would not have risen to the level of requiring a rental car and an extended stay in a mechanic’s shop. So, here are some of the indicators that trouble is ahead.

Knocking

If your engine is knocking, something has gone wrong. The sound of knocking in your engine indicates that the fuel is not being fully combusted, for which there are more than a few reasons. If you have a gasket that is leaky or damaged, it might be ruining the compression in one of your cylinders which can lead to fuel that does not fully combust. There are also some other reasons, especially with an older car. If you hear knocking in your engine, and you have not heard it before, you should take your car to be serviced. Car servicing in Canberra can save you from expensive problems in the future. Also, you should test a higher octane fuel. The higher octane fuels have lower combustion points, which means that they might combust fully when a regular octane does not.

Lagging Shifts

If you have an automatic transmission vehicle, you need to be on the lookout for lagging shifts. If you press the accelerator and your vehicle shifts very slowly, then you might have a problem. This could be an early indicator that you have some kind of transmission trouble, or it could be something as simple as a need to clean and flush your transmission fluid, or a need to add more transmission fluid. Alternately, it could be a sign that your transmission needs servicing. You should take it to a mechanic immediately.

Grinding

Grinding sounds are never a good thing. If you hear a grinding sound when you press the brakes, that’s likely an indication that your brake pads are running low. Most vehicles usually have built-in warnings that your pads are getting low. These are parts that you should get replaced immediately so that they do not warp your brake rotors. If you hear grinding when you shift gears, you might have a transmission problem that needs to be addressed.

There are many different problems that might seem like they come out of nowhere, but they actually have warning signs that you need to keep an eye out for.