Help… I’ve Been Hit by an Uninsured Driver

car hit by uninsured driver

You’ve been hit, and you know it wasn’t your fault. Once you’ve shaken yourself down and regained your composure, you speak to the driver of the other vehicle. Then you discover they don’t have any insurance or you get the details, only to find it’s a made up policy, or an older one that’s already expired.

Or worse still, the offending vehicle simply pulls off and drives away. The dreaded hit and run incident. Not only bad from a legal standpoint, but a truly callous act if someone has been hurt and injured. Fortunately there have been laws and organisations in place to protect you from uninsured drivers – but what are the practical steps you need to take should such a situation arise?

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It’s Never a Good Time when You Lose Your Car Keys

lost car keys

You never realise you’ve lost your car keys, until you need to use your car. And this is often the most inconvenient moment to realise this small, but essential bit of kit has either gone walkies or been stolen. Your partner may have a spare set, but this won’t resolve your peace of mind, if you think they’ve been taken by a nefarious third party – or you might have to get on the phone to a locksmith.

Worse still, if you’re out in the middle of nowhere, or about to embark on the return journey home, you may have less options available to resolve the issue. What should you do if you lose your car keys, and is there any way you could potentially make the moment less awful if it happens?

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Don’t Leave Home without it – Breakdown Survival Kit Checklist

car breakdown survival kit

Your breakdown survival kit. We’ve touched on this in previous blogs, however it’s such an important thing to have in the back of your vehicle, we decided to go into more detail. Many people like to check their car regularly for underlying faults and issues, and take their vehicle for periodic services. However, unfortunately no matter of forethought  can stop a breakdown from happening regardless of the season.

No one wants to be in a breakdown, but sometimes it inevitably happens to the best of us. In such an event an in-car survival kit will be a godsend. So what should you put in your kit?

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Look after the motor – storing your car over the winter months

storing your car in winter

The winter is hard on all of us. Reduced energy. Less happiness. And of course you may find you’re using your car less frequently than in the warm months. If you’re considering putting it into storage, then you’ll need to do it properly to avoid issues with fuel, batteries and even paintwork, and this is especially true in winter when snow can damage the car.

So whether your ride is a convenient car or a collectable classic, use the following tips to keep it fresh over the colder months, when it’s not being used…

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Break the Ice – Dealing with A Car Door That’s Frozen Shut

frozen car doors

Apart from stating the obvious, there are a number of factors that increase a car door’s propensity to get frozen. Corroded locks and deteriorating window seals can let water into the door and around the frame, as snow melts in the evening, which then turns into hard ice at night, that unfortunately fits exactly into the gaps in the vehicle.

Inevitably, your car’s exposure to the winter weather can also be a predominant factor. Leave it out in the worst position, and you’re more likely to experience frozen doors than if you cover it, or leave it under a tree, where the wind chill factor isn’t going to be such a problem.

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True or False: The Reality Behind Winter Driving Myths

driving in winter

The winter is a great time for myths. From Jack Frost through to Father Christmas, there’s plenty there to stoke the flames of imagination. And of course, motoring as you know, is not immune from wild speculation and story. There’s all kinds of advice, information and directions out there about how you should handle the colder months from behind the wheel of your car – and many of them are simply not true.

Fortunately we’re on hand to go through some of the most popular winter driving legends helping your sort the fact from the fiction. Make sure you’re armed with the right information and don’t get caught out because you made some wintertime assumptions.

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Keep Your Car Looking Good – Inside and Out with these Fast and Simple Cleaning Hacks

cleaning a car interior

You can spend a lot of time in your car. Long road trips, mornings in heavy traffic and taking the kids to school. Don’t you deserve to sit in a decent motor that feels good? Remember how nice it is to get into a freshly made bed? Well, doesn’t it feel every bit as relaxing to lean back in a similarly nicely cleaned car cabin?

And we’re not talking about picking up the crisp packets and chocolate wrappers hiding in the footwells. We’re talking the kind of beauty that’s more than skin deep. If you want the kind of car that doesn’t just look, but feels and smells good as you travel round, then you need to think about the outside too. All that you need next then, are the tips to make that cleaning job fast and simple:

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Why Won’t My Car Start?

turning a key to start a car

There is nothing worse than getting in the driver’s seat, sticking the key in the ignition, only to find your car won’t start. There are lots of reasons why this can happen, and unfortunately it’s a very common occurrence, happening to hundreds, if not thousands of motorists on a daily basis. From simple issues like forgetting to put fuel in the car, to more complex electrical faults – our quick guide should help you contend with some of the causes…

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Don’t Ignore these Six Signs of Radiator Cap Issues

removing a radiator cap

You car’s radiator cap. A small piece of the overall mechanical setup, which can cause a lot of problems if it goes wrong. At worst, you could even be left sitting by the side of the road, waiting for a recovery vehicle. Fortunately however, as with most problems, there are some early warning signs that will give you an inkling that all is not well with this part. Use a little observation and vigilance and you could swerve any issues (and the costs associated with them) before they occur.

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Are You Suffering from Spark Plug Failure?

Man Holding old and new car spark plugs

Spark plugs are an integral part of the engine. Each one sends a little high voltage spark between the terminals, which is used to ignite fuel in the engine. When spark plugs fail, this means that your engine will stop running efficiently.

Over time spark plugs can become dirty, picking up a residue from the burned fuel, coating the electrodes with carbon. Additionally, repeated sparking of the metal components can simply wear them down, increasing the distance the spark has to jump between electrodes, requiring additional charge from the battery which is not always available.  In short, spark plugs will wear out.

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