Carsut – Understand cars and drive better

Category: Driving

Learn how to drive a car and how to park a car in the correct way. Manual or automatic transmission, it makes no different!

  • How Long Do Brake Pads Last

    How long do brake pads last? This is a question without a definite answer. This is because the lifespan of brake pads is depending on your car transmission types (automatic transmission or manual transmission), area you are living, and most important, your driving style as well as other factors. Ask yourself the top 5 questions here and you will realize how to make brake pads last longer.

    brake pads

    How do you drive

    Your driving behavior is the most important factor that determines how long can your brake pads last. Your car brake pads erode faster if you are a high speed driver. This is because it takes more kinetic energy to stop a car from 100 mph to 0 mph compared to 40 mph to 0 mph. Besides, people who often brake very hard will see their brake pad rub away faster. So, learn how to drive a car properly can save your brake pads life.

    Where do you use the car

    If you are living in a hectic city with a lot of cars on the street, it requires a lot of stop-and-go driving. In this case, brakes are applied regularly and that means it won’t last longer compared to someone who drives the same car in a less traffic area.

    What type of brake pads you use

    You should find out what type of brake pads you are using if you want to know how long do brake pads last. Generally, there are four types of brake pads available in the market and they are organic, semimetallic, metallic and synthetic. Each of them has a different lifespan and price. Organic brake pad is made of non-metallic fibers. It has the best stopping power but that also means it has the shortest lifespan. Semimetallic brake pad is made of organic material and metals therefore it is harder and better for heat resistant. As for metallic brake pads, it is mainly used for motorsport. Synthetic brake pad is also known as ceramic pads. This type of brake pads is lighter, stronger and more expensive than others but they last longer. Ceramic brake pads are commonly seen on high performance cars such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani and others.

    What is your transmission types

    Your car brake pads can last longer if you drive a manual car and know how to shift gears to control your car speed. Things can’t be changed for people who drive an automatic car. Also, your brake pads will wear out very fast if you often make an automatic car tires spin because of the friction in between the brake pads and brake disc is high.

    How often do you use your car

    Your brake pad will last for 10 years or more if you only drive it once a month and travel 10 miles from where you live. Obviously, your brake pads are not going to last long if you drive more than 100 miles to your work everyday. Also, your brake pads wear out faster if you often have a lot of passengers in your car because it uses more force to stop a heavier car. Empty your trunk and that can save your brake pads life as well as giving you a better gas mileage.

    How to make brake pads last longer

    In general, a set of brand new brake pads that works with disc brakes can last in between 25,000 miles and 60,000 miles (40,000 km and 96500 km). The variables are so wide and it is an indefinite science. In conclusion, how long do brake pads last has nothing to do with the pads directly. It is very much related to your driving behavior. It is time to change your driving habits if you feel you are changing your brake pads very often. It is vital to understand cars and drive better.

  • How to Make an Automatic Car Tires Spin

    Now this is going to be an interesting driving skill to learn – how to make an automatic car tires spin. Once you have mastered the skill to spin car tires, you can do a burnout in any cars with automatic transmission. Generally, spinning car tires is all about sending some serious horsepower to the wheels of your car. If you have extra pocket money to burn tires, check out the step by step guide to spin an automatic car tires and perform a burnout.

    How to Spin an Automatic Car

    How to Make an Automatic Car Tires Spin
    First of all, find a wide opening safe place before you begin the practice. Make sure you have plenty of room on either side just in case you are spinning out of the course. Make sure there are no lampposts, drains or big trees around.

    Step 1: Switch off the traction control and shift the gear to D and drive the car in straight about 20-30 mph (30-50 km/h).

    Step 2: Remove your foot from the gas pedal sharply and turn the steering wheel to your desired direction.

    Step 3: Pull the e-brake (handbrake) for a second at the corner entrance and you will start feel the rear tires are spinning. In other words, you car will start go sideways.

    Step 4: Release the steering wheel and go into counter steer mode. Gently start stepping on the gas if you feel the car is losing power. You can then do a drift.

    Always remember to release the gas and step on the brake in case anything out of your control. See how to parallel park a car if it is a coup de grace for you. So, can you make an automatic car tires spin now? The answer is definitely yes.

    How to Do a Burnout

    burnout
    Step 1: The entire point about burnout is to make the tires spin or slip. Thus, turn off the traction control of your vehicle.

    Step 2: Put the car to first gear by shifting the gear selector to “D1”, “1”, “L” or “D”. See learning to drive an automatic car for more details.

    Step 3: Engage the e-brake by holding the safety button with your thumb.

    Step 4: Press the gas until the RPM is high enough to get the wheels spinning and slightly release the e-brake. Your car tire will start spinning and your car will crawl forward a little.

    So, can you do a burnout with automatic car? Yes! See how to do a burnout for step by step guide to do a burnout with manual and automatic transmission cars regardless of FWD or RWD.

    How to Drift an Automatic Car

    Toyota Corolla AE86 drift cars
    This step-by-step tutorial will give you a clue on how to drift an automatic car. It basically allows you to perform a donut drifting.

    Step 1: The entire point about drifting is to make rear part of the car slip or go sideway. Therefore, turn off the traction control.

    Step 2: Shift the transmission to first gear. It is usually D, D1, 1 or L. See learning to drive a car for more details.

    Step 3: Turn the steering wheel all the way to one direction and step the gas hard to transfer most of the horsepower to the rear wheel. The rear tires will begin to lose traction and your car will start spinning donut. That’s known as donut drifting.

    What if you failed to spin your car tires?

    • Burnout is all about burning rubber BUT NOT burning clutch. Make sure you don’t burn out your clutch if you are doing this for manual transmission cars. Normally, if your left foot step on the brake too hard will cause the clutch burns. See learning to drive a manual car for better understanding.
    • If you fail to spin your car tires, you can literally rip your car tire apart.
    • Additionally, as the car brake heats up, they could begin to burn. If the brake gets too hard they can literally catch on fire and cause significant damage to your car.

    spin car tires

    Tips to Spin Automatic Car Tires

    Whether you are trying to make an automatic car tires spin or do a burnout, make sure you don’t do it for too long. 5 to 20 seconds is always an ideal timing depending on your car condition. Please remember that your car will be sitting still while you are running the engine very hard to perform a burnout. There won’t be any extra wind to cool down the engine like a normal driving because you are not traveling in high speed. When you are spinning your car tires or do a burnout, all the heat will be sitting under the hood therefore it is not recommended to keep doing it. Watch the temperature gauge closely and take a rest in between your burnout practice. Open YouTube and you can see there are many videos showing people try to do a burnout for too long and then the engine explode. Nobody wants that happen and make sure you make your car tires spin in a cool way. Last but not least, check out the tips, driving techniques and safety while driving in the rain.

  • Texting while driving

    texting while driving
    Texting while driving is a very bad habit that most teenagers get used to do it. In Carsut’s car driving lessons, we often discourage anyone to send text messages while driving because it leads to a high risk of having car accidents. Distracted driving is dangerous especially when your concentration is not on the driving but something else – composing a text messages, trying to play a song from your car stereo, listen to loud music, trying to style your hair, or simply talking to other passengers. In that case you are driving irresponsibly. Thus, it should be strictly prohibited and not allowed to text and drive although the law in certain countries isn’t saying you can’t compose or send text messages while driving.

    Most people go into the “chatting” mood when they are texting each other. If the conversation is about Hawaiian Pizza, you may start imagine about pizza and relatively forget that you are actually driving. What if the conversation is about sexy girls? Will you still be able to drive a car properly? Moreover, with the advance technology we are having today, messages can be reached in seconds. Be it LINE, WhatsApp, email, Facebook chat, IM, or Yahoo Messagers, all these apps in your smartphone will certainly influence your driving when they beep or informing you a message has reached. Let’s look at some statistics and facts that related to texting and driving.

    Texting and Driving Statistics

    • About 50% of teenager drivers admit that they used to send text messages while driving.
    • Roughly 14% of drivers admit that they are surfing the internet while driving. What a dangerous act!
    • Approximately half a million car accidents are caused by texting while driving.
    • There are pedestrians were killed by young driver due to texting while driving each year.
    • The risk of car crash for drivers who text and drive is approximately 20 times higher than non-distracted driving.

    Texting and Driving Facts

    • Most drivers especially teenagers drive out of their lane while they are texting or playing with their phones.
    • When a teenager is over into the phone, he or she is not able to see if any vehicles come close by.
    • At the speed of 120mph, if you were distracted by a message and it takes 5 seconds to read it, your car will travel 0.17 miles without a driver.
    • Majority people understand that they shouldn’t be texting while driving but they are addicted to it and still do it.

    Distracted Driving Story

    Here we have got a story told by an American R&B singer Alicia Keys when she shares some of her firsts with PEOPLE contributor Kelly Carter. “The first time I heard my music on the radio… I was driving down the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) in my first car and I almost out of control.” said Alicia Keys “Oh my God! I’m almost crashing into the orange construction things on the road. I was screaming… by myself, by the way.”

    Safety always comes first. Whether texting while driving has been outlawed in your state or your country, you should not do it under any kind of circumstances. You are just look like an idiot by doing so. For more safety driving tips, see also driving in the rain and how to parallel park a car.

  • Driving in the Rain

    Driving in the rain
    Driving in the rain can be challenging, exciting, and difficult especially during heavy rain day. This is because the road surface is wet and your car tires will lose traction and do not grip the wet road as good as dry road. During raining day, drivers feel harder to see incoming vehicles, vehicles at the back, road signs, and may not notice if someone is giving signals. Thousands of car accidents happened every year during raining day. Thus, if you are often driving in the rain, these tips are just so useful to you that might save your life.

    Tips and techniques

    • Many holes have been covered with water during raining day and you will never know if it is a huge hole or just water. If you are not sure whether there is just water in front of you or a huge hole, try to avoid it. Be smart, avoid it better than going through it and crash your own car.
    • Hydroplane could be happen if your speed is too fast, tread dept, water dept, or some other reasons. In case your car starts to hydroplane, remember, DON’T PANIC. Do not accelerate or brake the car suddenly. The biggest mistake people did is applying the brake suddenly due to panic. Hydroplaning is a lost of traction in front tires, sudden brake will lock the front tires and this could cause a spin out for any front-wheel-drive (FWD) or rear-wheel-drive (RWD) cars. It could be dangerous if you accelerate the car suddenly if there are other vehicles traveling in front of you or you are heading the edge of the road. The correct way to deal with hydroplane is to ease off the gas, look for open space and try to steer to the direction.
    • Never use cruise control during raining day. This is because cruise control will automatically provide more gas to the fuel system when the car slows down. In case of emergency happen like hydroplane, the system may try to provide more gas.
    • It is inevitable if someone else hit your car but you can avoid yourself hitting others during wet day. Try to stay in the middle lane or second lane during wet day because water tends to pool in the lower side (both outside lanes). Also, do not keep your car too close to other vehicles. Remember the 3 seconds rule need to change to 5 seconds during raining day.
    • Defog your windows if you are driving in a rainstorm. It helps you to see the road clearly.
    • Turn on high speed wiper if the rain is very heavy. Otherwise, use the minimum speed if the rain is little. High wiper speed is disturbing if the rain is very little.
    • Brake earlier with less force when you see something isn’t right happen in front of you. Emergency brake is always not encouraged during wet day.
    • Avoid following large vehicles or vehicles with wheels larger than 20-inch. Water will spray to block your vision if you are behind them. Either drive slower to avoid them or overtake them.

    Safety

    • Slow down boy! Driving in high speed will increase the risk of having an accidents because the road becomes slick with water. It is easier to stop the car if your speed is below 50 mph compared to above 100 mph. So, please slow down.
    • Switch on your headlights or double signals if the rain decreases your visibility to others.
    • Get a complete emergency kit for your car if it doesn’t have one. Do not buy those cheap emergency kits that don’t have enough equipment.
    • Other than knowing what to do in the rain, it is a must to check your car tires thread. In our car buying guide – inspect a used car before buying it, we mentioned before that a good way to check the tire tread is to use a penny to go through the tread. If you are able to see Lincoln’s head, it is time to get a replacement. Other than tire tread, tire rotation, tire pressure, balancing and alignment should be checked on time too.
    • Be more alert. Watch out for signals, high beam, or brake lights from other vehicles.
    • Rushing in the rain is definitely not a good thing. Give your self more time to travel by leaving the house of office earlier.

    Unforeseen circumstances

    • Old wiper may suddenly stop working while you are driving in the rain. First, do not panic. The best way is to turn on the double signals, pull over and stop your car at the emergency lane. We do not recommend you to continue drive the car especially heavy rain. The best way is to check if your wiper is functioning properly from time to time and replace your wiper blade when it is in bad condition.
    • Always notice your car dashboard symbol and see if some warning lights have turned on. Here you can find some of the common dashboard symbol and explanation at learning to drive a car.
    • If your air conditioning (AC) or defrosters is not working or your car doesn’t have an AC, the windscreen will mist up when the inside temperature is higher than outside temperature. Try to wind down the window a little bit to allow the colder air flow in from outside. If it is not working, stop the car beside and use a rag or tissue to clean it up.

    Besides several points mentioned above, there are many other things where you need to be more cautious. Why not hang around in a shopping mall, restaurant, 7-11, coffee shop, grocery stores or reschedule your appointment if you are not in hurry for your journey? Well, we know that’s in the perfect world otherwise no one will need the art of driving in the rain.

  • How To Parallel Park (Video)

    This is a two-minute short video to show you how to parallel park a car in few easy steps. It was taken in HD mode and the resolution can be enlarged to 1024 x 576 . Follow these steps and you can learn parallel parking easily. Click here to read more about how to parallel park a car with detail explanations as well as special images.