Author Archives: Justin Smith

About Justin Smith

As the man at the helm of BreakerLink, it is no surprise that its Director, Justin Smith, has always had a keen interest in cars, bikes and most things wheeled. Having spent over two decades in the car parts industry, Justin combines his passion that since 2002, has successfully united those looking for new and used car parts with the breaker that supplies them. Follow Justin on LinkedIn.

Fitting a Tow Bar to Your Car

Towbar

It’s a great idea to fit a towbar to your car. You know whether you need one or not with a simple question. Are you looking to tow a trailer or a caravan? The tow bar gives the back of your vehicle the strength and support to handle towing an object behind it, and the electrics to support essential systems including the brake lights and indicators.

So how do you go about fitting a tow bar to your car? Is this an easy job? Well in our experience you will need to set aside roughly 4 hours of your time to complete this task and it’s a little too difficult for the amateur mechanic. So we would only recommend going ahead with this job if you have a considerable level of mechanical skill and you know your way around your toolbox.

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Replacing Your ABS Pump

ABS pump

The ABS pump is responsible for pressurising the ABS system, ensuring that your vehicle is able to decrease and increase speed as needed. It is a vital part of the whole ABS system, which works to remove the possibility of your brakes locking and taking your car into a skid, particularly under emergency braking conditions.

What are the signs that your ABS pump could be faulty? The first and most obvious is when the dashboard light shows a failure in your car’s ABS system. Following this it may be necessary to examine the engine’s error codes, which should indicate which part of the ABS system is causing you problems and needs changing.

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Replacing Your Car’s Heater Matrix

heater control

The heater matrix is a component within the heater unit and a smaller version of your car’s radiator, which has the engine’s coolant running through it. It uses the coolant to transfer heat into air, blown through it from the heater motor, which then comes out of the vents in the car.

Fluctuations in the temperature in your car is often one of the first signs your heater matrix may be experiencing problems. This could be coupled with another indicator of trouble such as your car fogging up suddenly for no reason.More definite signs of failure are the sickly sweet smell of coolant cooking emanating throughout your car and liquid in your car’s foot well, both of which could mean that this part has stopped functioning correctly.

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Replacing Your Car’s Grille

Car grille

The grille can be found at the front of your car covering the radiator and air intake. Sometimes amateur car lovers can even confuse it with the radiator, but actually it only protects this part from taking in foreign bodies. However, its position does make it fairly prone to damage, especially if you drive on many country roads where you could hit small animals or debris could fly up into the part.A simple visual inspection will inform you as to the current state of your grille, and problems or damage will be obvious. Holes or breakages in the grille should be attended to immediately as they could lead to other parts incurring damage due to debris and particles blowing into your engine bay.

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How Thieves Are Bypassing Modern Vehicle Security – And How to Stop Them…

Car Thief

Technology is rapidly changing to prevent vehicle break-ins – but what techniques are thieves evolving in response? And what can car owners do to guard against these high-tech crimes?

Life is not like Grand Theft Auto. Criminals cannot simply walk up to a car and drive it off. Equally the days of smashing a window and hot wiring cars are well and truly over. According to crime figures the amount of cars stolen reached a 50 year all time low in 2015, with 69,547 vehicles being taken in an unauthorised manner.

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Things People Leave on a Parcel Shelf

Parcelshelf

We’ve all seen them. You’ve been trapped behind a car in a traffic jam and you’ve starred aimlessly at someone’s parcel shelf and wondered where on earth they have gathered all the stuff perched upon it. There is no doubt in many cases it’s just a simple attempt to characterise a car beyond the mundane styles of the showroom.

Over the years there have been many fashions for extra parcel shelf passengers. We thought we’d take a look at some of the most popular, including a few that are still going strong.

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What Your Wheel Rims Say About You…

Alloy wheelsOnce upon a time customising your car used to be solely the province of boy racers. Not these days as standing out from the crowd is becoming something for everyone. And one easy way to upgrade part of your vehicle is the rims. You don’t have to be in tune with engine mechanics or mess around with bodywork to change these simple wheel rims.

With so many people now changing their rims, we thought we’d form some broad generalisations about what kind of people opt for the various rims on offer in today’s market. This article takes a wry look at some of the possibilities… Continue reading →

How Social Media Networks Could End Crash for Cash Fraud

Driver suffering after traffic collisionWe’ve all heard the stories about so-called Crash for Cash scams. One of the most common is when cars brake suddenly in heavy traffic in order to deliberately get rear-ended. The occupants of the damaged vehicle then claim for hard-to-prove muscle injuries like whiplash.

Not only is this practice a little distasteful ethically, it’s downright dangerous. And apparently it’s having a real impact on the auto insurance industry. On average your premium is £50 per year higher due to highly organised criminal gangs who’re working these cons to acquire huge amounts of cash in false claims. Continue reading →

Replacing a Car Fuel Tank

Fuel tank filler

A fuel tank is used for one of the most obvious purposes in your vehicle – for holding the fuel. With some forms of modern fuel, such as diesel, a hole or fracture in your tank is dangerous. However if your car runs on petrol the problem could be explosive.

The first sign that you have issues with your fuel tank will be puddles of fuel around your car after it has been parked. Alternatively you may notice that the fuel consumption on your car is higher than normal. An actual inspection of the tank should visually confirm that there is a leak or drip occurring somewhere from the part. Fortunately replacing your vehicle’s fuel tank should be a relatively easy process with very little need to perform any complex mechanical work. However as fuel is involved in this replacement you should take extra care to be as methodical as possible, working in a well ventilated area with the appropriate fire extinguisher, which would need to be a Class B extinguisher.

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Fixing a Glove Box Latch

opening a glove box latch

The glove box is one of those essential items in a car. It’s where you keep your best of Queen CD case, even though the CD has been lost a long time ago, together with random knick-knacks, tools and perhaps even your owner’s manual or log book.

Alternatively you might be the tidy type who keeps almost nothing in the compartment other than a tin of travel sweets in case one of your passengers is feeling a little peaky. However you use your glove compartment, there’s one thing that you’ll want to avoid, which is having the latch break on you leaving the compartment door flapping around as you negotiate corners. This is a fairly easy task that does not require any previous mechanical knowledge and as you won’t be working under the bonnet, you won’t need to know any of the major working parts in the engine.

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