Archive for category Repairs
Three Benefits Of Buying Salvage Car Parts
By Dave McMillan
There are many benefits of using salvage car parts when repairing or restoring your vehicle. In this short article, I will lay out the three top reasons why you should always try and get parts from a breakers yard.
1. It’s cheaper. This, should really go without saying. Buying new parts for a restoration project can be very expensive. Many older cars require spare parts that are no longer made by the manufacturer and so they have to be sourced from specialist suppliers. This can mean that they are much more expensive than the original parts and they can often be very hard to get a hold of. If the parts are too expensive it may mean that the car itself has become uneconomic to repair or restore.
2. It’s environmentally friendly. Recycling has become very popular recently and we are always being encouraged not to throw things away, but rather to reuse them instead. Using salvage car parts is a prime example of this. It takes a great deal of natural resources to produce large car parts such as body panels, windscreens or engines so using salvage parts is a great way to help save our planets precious resources. It’s worth noting that good quality spares, especially those branded ones made by the manufacturers themselves, are often made to a much higher specification than cheap mass produced alternatives and can last for many more years than the unbranded ones. This means that buying a complete salvage vehicle to break down for spare parts can also be a good money spinning venture providing you have the means to transports and dismantle it. It’s usually the case that the spare parts that can be recovered from salvage cars are worth more than you will pay for the vehicle.
3. It’s sometimes the only option. With classic cars and out of production models, using salvage car parts is sometimes the only way to get your hands on parts. Many classic car marques actually have a substantial salvage parts business that has grown up around them, and networks of enthusiasts are a great way to source parts at a price that won’t break the bank.
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How Catalytic Converters Work
By Ryan Eshelby
Catalytic Converters (colloquially, “cat” or”catcon”) were introduced in 1975 to restrict the amount of pollution that cars can produce. The job of a Catalytic Converter is to convert harmful pollutants into less harmful emissions before they leave the car’s exhaust system.
How Does a Catalytic Converter Work?
A Catalytic Converter works by using a catalyst to stimulate a chemical reaction in which the by-products of combustion are converted to produce less harmful and/or inert substances, such as the three below. Inside the Cat around 90% of the harmful gasses are converted into less harmful gasses. Catalytic converters only work at high temperatures, so when the engine is cold, the Cat does almost nothing to reduce the pollution in your exhaust.
The three harmful compounds are:
- Carbon Monoxide (CO) which is a poisonous gas that is colourless and odourless which is formed by the combustion of fuel.
- Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) which are created when the heat in the engine forces nitrogen in the air to combine with oxygen, They are contributor to smog and acid rain, which also causes irritation to human mucus membranes.
- Hydrocarbons / Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) these are a major component of smog produced mostly from evaporated unburned fuel
Most modern cars are equipped with three-way catalytic converters. “Three-way” refers to the three regulated emissions it helps to reduce (shown above), the catalytic converter uses two different types of catalyst: Read the rest of this entry »